Publishers Clearing House $5,000 a Week For Life – Good Thing or Bad Thing?

I recently saw some commercials for Publishers Clearing House advertising a sweepstakes to win $5,000 a week for life. I had heard of the company but didn't know too much about it so I decided to look into it to see what it is all about.

PCH makes money from advertising as well as from selling magazines and merchandise but they are most well known for their sweepstakes giveaways. Their current promotion is the $5,000 a week for life in which the winner will be announced on February 24^th 2017. It seems to be a legitimate contest and there is no purchase necessary to enter. There's not much of a catch other than you may end up on mailing lists and get more junk mail.

Whenever there is a big money giveaway like this, it is easy to start daydreaming about what it would be like to win. $5,000 each week would be pretty nice on first thought. At that rate, you could be a millionaire within about 4-5 years with your income continuing to grow every year. The fact that they spread it out for the lifetime could make it easier to manage verses being given millions of dollars all at once. It seems life would be pretty great if you won, but with more money comes more problems.

As many lottery winners will tell you, winning is not all fun and games. There are a lot of negatives and stress that come along with winning a large amount of money. One thing that is always mentioned is how everyone wants a piece of the pie. Relatives, friends, and acquaintances all of a sudden may show up looking for some action. You might try to help out as many people as you can, but you have to draw the line somewhere. It could cause relationship issues with people who feel like you are not helping them out enough.

Often people overspend when they get into this kind of situation and actually end up going broke. There are many stories like this of lottery winners and pro athletes who had millions and are now in debt because of poor financial decisions. People forget about things like taxes and before they know it, they have spent more than they can afford and get themselves into trouble.

I started thinking more about this specific PCH sweepstakes and how it offers $5,000 for your life, and then continues the $5,000 payouts to someone of your choice for their life. Because it is tied to life, that could really cause some serious issues. It means that as long as you are alive, the company is losing money, and the longer you live, the more the 2^nd person has to wait before they can get any money. It is millions of dollars we are talking about so I don't know about you, but I would be worried about personal safety if my life was tied to a sweepstakes like this.

Of course, the chances of actually winning are incredibly slim. It's fun to think about how nice it would be to win, but you also have to keep in mind everything that comes with winning a lot of money like this. In case you are feeling lucky and want to give it a try, PCH is accepting entries now for the drawing which will happen February 24^th. Good luck!