It's a dream many of us have shared. Buying a simple $1 or $2 ticket and striking it rich! With the January 13th, 2016 Powerball lottery drawing estimated to be worth more than $1.3 billion, millions of Americans are lining up to buy their chance at a fortune. While we at Lemonade Day don't view the lottery as a particularly entrepreneurial activity (FUN FACT: You are FAR more likely to make $1 billion in the stock market than you playing the lottery.), we do approve of sound financial advice.

With this said, here's what you should do after getting luckier than any human has a right to be.

How to Successfully Manage Your Sudden Lottery Winnings

Before we get started, if you do happen to win the lottery after winning this, please consider donating to Lemonade Day. It's really only fair, I mean, right?

Stay Quiet

The day after you realize you've won the lottery, be smart and go to work. Continue on with your day as you would almost any other. Sign the ticket and make preliminary phone calls to claim your prize but don't celebrate just yet. Before you tell anyone, you're going to have a lot of work to do to secure your mony.

Get a Lawyer

This is incredibly obvious advice but a lot of people skip it. Also, don't use a lawyer you already have or one that your personally know. Don't do it! You are going to need a person versed in either lottery winnings (yes, there are lawyers that specialize in this field) or high net worth individuals. You do NOT want to hire a relative or a friend, it's just financial advice that creates the possibility of destroying a relationship while leaving your assets vulnerable.

Another important reason to get a lawyer is that laws are going to vary wildly from state to state. Some states require public notice of a lottery win, meaning your friends and neighbors will know about your good fortune. Other states allow winners to remain completely anonymous. Others allow you to get around public notification by allowing winners to set up an LLC to shield the individual. It all depends on the state you call home and the only one qualified to handle this is a lawyer. Oh, and I'm going to just tell you this now... that lawyer is going to be EXPENSIVE. Do not pay a contingency fee! Pay a flat rate for every hour they or their firm works for you.

Get Your Financial Team Together

Your financial team should at least consist of the aforementioned lawyer, an accountant, and a financial planner. Each individual needs to come from different firms. You want these individuals to be invested in your best interests and not the interest of a single firm. With the amount of money involved with a Powerball jackpot, you would have the ability to choose from the best and most reputable law firms, investment banks, and accountants.

Follow Your Team's Advice

Now that you have an expensive and qualified team to help you manage your massive fortune, you have to listen to their advice. This should seem obvious but you'd be surprised how many people fail to listen to their own qualified advisers. If your investment guys tell you that taking a short position on McDonald's is a bad idea, they are probably right. If they say the business model on your cousin's proposed emu farm isn't comprehensive and likely to fail, they know something you don't. It's easy to think of $1 billion as a license to do things other people can't, and that's true. However, it is still a finite amount of money that can be spent if you're not responsible enough to listen to the people you pay to know these things.

Take Care of Debts and Taxes

Most Americans have debts and the winner of the massive Powerball jackpot will likely have a mortgage, car loan, credit card debt, and possibly a lot more. Once you have your team in place, it's time to start taking care of responsibilities. While debt is often the first thing people want to get rid of with a massive windfall, taxes should be the more immediate concern. Between state, local, and federal taxes, a lottery winner should expect to pay more in taxes than most people will ever earn in a lifetime. Whatever you do after winning the lottery, PAY YOUR TAXES! Do not try to get clever or listen to financial adviser talk you into a "tax shelter". If you suddenly loose your winnings, you will still be on the hook for the original tax bill. Be smart and give the government its due. It will be a lot less painful then potentially spending time in jail.

Be Careful

Last, but not least, please be careful. Now that you have money, you have also become a target. Ever wonder why rich people hang out together? It's because they can't (or don't want to) deal with routine requests for financial assistance. Among wealthy families, this issue is somewhat reduced through the use of trust funds and aggregated assets. However, new money won't have these in place, leading to a lot of requests from family and friends. The smart solution is the same that other wealthy people use. Set up trust funds for the people you care about and limit your assistance to those funds.

Will this be difficult? Oh, you better believe it. But the family of a lottery winner is not very likely to know how to manage a $1 billion to create generational wealth and opportunity. It's important to follow the investment plans and advice established by your financial team. Do not let family and friends guilt you into foolish moves. Think of it like this, $1 million in the hands of a qualified financial adviser can yield $100,000 to $200,000 a year. Do you really think any of your family or friends are capable of yielding a consistent 10 to 20 percent on an investment. If they could, they already would be rich.