Visions of lifelong riches are surely dancing in the heads of those rushing to buy lottery tickets for tonight's $500-million Powerball jackpot.

Past winners of mega-lottery drawings and financial planners have some more sound advice: stick to a budget, invest wisely, learn to say no and be prepared to lose friends while riding an emotional roller-coaster.

Tales of big lottery winners who wind up in financial ruin or other desperate straits are increasingly common. A two-time New Jersey lottery winner squandered her $5.4 million
fortune. A West Virginia man who won $315 million a decade ago on Christmas later said the windfall was to blame for his granddaughter's fatal drug overdose and his divorce.

(The Associated Press)