Skye Woman planning a mortgage free lifestyle after winning Set for Life
Four days after the draw, a young woman from Skye is still reeling from the discovery she has won the coveted First Prize, of $20,000 a month for the next 20 years.
The Victorian winning entry won the First Prize in Set for Life draw 925 on Friday 16 February 2018 but wasn’t aware she had won until this morning.
It’s been a winning year for Set for Life players, with seven First Prizes won across Australia during the past seven weeks.
Friday’s Victorian winner is the 35th First Prize winner nationally since the game began less than three years ago.
So far this financial year there have been 15 Set for Life 1st Prize winners who will collectively enjoy $72 million during the next two decades.
Despite the ticket being registered, Tatts officials had had not been able to contact the winner and had to wait patiently for her to come forward to claim the prize.
When speaking with a Tatts official this morning to confirm the woman confessed she had no idea she had won the prize four days ago and was still trying to grasp the reality of the win.
“Is this real? Oh my god! It feels just like a dream!” The woman exclaimed.
“I woke up and saw an email from thelott.com and couldn’t believe it was real. I never check my tickets so I logged in and saw that I had won the top prize.”
When asked how the extra $20,000 a month in her bank account for the next twenty years would impact her life the young woman let out a huge sigh of relief.
“My husband and I just bought a house last year and we’ve got a big mortgage to pay. We’ll just try to pay off the house,” she sighed.
“It will be a bit of extra money on the side while we are working and we won’t have to worry about if we have enough money to pay the mortgage.
“We had been planning to go on a holiday at the end of the year, but we’ve been struggling to save and kept wondering if we will have enough money to go or not.
“We just had a talk about how we were going to save for this because we have a house loan to pay.
“We want to go to the Philippines and Bali, and we’ve never been and just want to see what it is like and now we can.”
When asked how the woman planned to celebrate the win she confessed she was going to surprise her husband with the news.
“I’m going to wait until I get the official letter, and a bottle of champagne and surprise him! I can’t wait to see his face,” she laughed.
“I feel like it isn’t real yet!” The happy winner also explained what drew her to playing Set for Life.
“I had never really played the lottery before but I started last year,” she explained.
“You know when you are working and you come home and you think ‘I’m just so sick of this life where I do the same thing every day’.
“We had just bought the house and we were talking about how it would be great to win, so one night I just downloaded the app and bought a ticket from there. It was so easy!”
The young woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, purchased her winning 5-Set entry online at thelott.com – Australia’s official lotteries.
Across the country, the Victorian winner held the only entry that won First Prize in Set for Life draw 925 on Friday 16 February 2018, which offers a guaranteed First Prize of $20,000 a month for 20 years for up to four winners in each draw.
The winning numbers in Set for Life draw 925 were 35, 25, 34, 13, 33, 4, 26 and 17, with the bonus numbers 28 and 23.
During the 2017 calendar year, there were 12 Set for Life 1st Prize winners across Australia who will receive $57.6 million during the next 20 years.