Hi everyone, Amanda from Set for Life HQ here!

Can I let you in on a little secret? After a long day of delighting our winners on the 15th of every month, I like to close my office door, sit back and kick my feet up and imagine what life would be like for me if I won Set for Life.

I’d still come to work, of course. I love my Set for Life family, but a guaranteed $20,000 a month for 20 years is a serious game changer in anyone’s life.

That’s part of what I love so much about working here at Set for Life HQ. I’m always getting new ideas about what can be done with $20K on Replay because I’m always on the phone to our winners.

Today I called one of our first Set for Life winners to let her know another $20,000 had just been deposited into her account, and we chatted about what life had been like since her win in 2015.

The woman was the second person in Australia to win the First Prize of $20,000 a month for 20 years in Set for Life draw 10, drawn on 16 August 2015.

I remember the call vividly as the working mother didn’t believe it was really Set for Life HQ calling her and thought it was a prank.

Well years later, she’s glad the call was the real deal. Working part-time, travelling the world and making long-term investments are just some of the things this City of Whittlesea resident has ticked off her bucket list since her win.

Having already received more than three-quarters of a million dollars in monthly instalments, she revealed to me how winning $20K on Replay has changed her life forever.

“Winning Set for Life has been a blessing. It’s given my family the freedom to truly live life without being financially stressed,” she said.

“We just have so much flexibility to do what we want to do now – we don’t have to think about whether or not we can afford it, because now we can.

“But it’s not even just about the money. It’s changed everything for us.

“My husband and I use to stress about money all the time! It was all we ever argued about. But now we have won Set for Life, we don’t have anything to fight about – we are really happy.”

The loving mother explained to me that by keeping the win under wraps the ongoing windfall had allowed her to do the things she had always dreamt of doing.

“I have only told my family about the win, that way I can enjoy it properly with those who mean the most to me,” she said.

“We’ve done so much since we won in 2015 – it’s completely changed our lives. We’ve travelled throughout Australia, Europe, and America. We’ve done a few road trips and helped our family in various ways too.

“We have done heaps of renovations on the house. Before we didn’t have a nice backyard, it was horrible really, but now I have one that I love spending time in.

“We even bought a new car. It’s nothing fancy, but it is something we needed.

“I went part-time at work too. I could have quit my job if I wanted to, but I love it, so part-time works perfectly for me.

“We are big believers in giving back to the community and I love to help people, so we have donated to various charities that really mean something to us.

“We have also set up some investments and we put money away each month for the future so that this win will not only help us well past the 20 years, but our kids too!”

It made me so happy to hear that the north of Melbourne mum also loved how her Set for Life prize payments were paid in instalments as it allowed her to plan for the future.

“I love how unique Set for Life is and that you don’t get your prize in a lump sum,” she said.

“Because we receive $20,000 a month for 20 years, we are able to really plan how we are going to spend it.

“It’s kept us level-headed. We haven’t been stupid with it, but it’s still given us the freedom to do what we really want.”

Just like us in the office, our winner admitted she still got excited for the 15th of every month – the day when $20,000 hits First Prize winners’ bank accounts.

“Every month on the 15th my husband and I log into our bank account just to see it in there. We still get so excited,” she said.

“We even circle the 15th of each month in our calendar and every year on the anniversary of our win, we go out with the family for dinner to celebrate how lucky and Set for Life we really are!”

As you can imagine, after hanging up the phone I had a big smile on my face. Since the Set for Life started, we’ve made more than 40 Australians Set for Life.

It’s late here and Doug just made our last winner’s call for the day so I better lock up, but I hope we crown another Set for Life winner tonight!