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What would you do if you won big in the lottery? How about splurging on an assortment of multimillion-dollar homes and vintage cars?
That’s what Powerball winner Edwin Castro did, according to the New York Post (1).
Since winning the historic $2.04B jackpot back in 2023 and choosing a lump sum payout of $997 million, Castro purchased a luxury Los Angeles property for $47 million, a $25.5 million home in the Hollywood Hills and a $4 million home in Altadena, California — not to mention a $250,000 vintage Porsche 911 and a 1958 Volkswagen bus worth around $60K.
But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for the lottery winner. Castro’s $4 million home was destroyed in the 2025 Palisades Fire, prompting him to spend another $10 million to purchase fire-scorched lots in Altadena with a plan to rebuild those properties, the New York Post reported (2).
Are these wise investments for such a large cash windfall?
Paul Karger, cofounder of wealth advisory firm TwinFocus, told Fortune that luxury homes often become “a major ongoing financial burden that [can take] several years to sell (3).”
Simply maintaining a home can cost 1% to 4% of its value annually, which means Castro could potentially spend millions of dollars each year just to hold on to his properties.
So, even if you have the funds to buy luxury properties, you need to understand the overall expenses of owning and maintaining a home. It’s essential to budget for these maintenance expenses and property taxes. Understanding your finances and proper budgeting can help you mitigate any financial burden that may arise from impulsive purchases.
Advisor.com can help you find a vetted financial advisor who can help you manage your finances and make smart investment choices. All you have to do is answer a few basic questions and Advisor.com will match you with a certified expert within minutes.
Tying up your fortune in large properties isn’t necessarily the best way to build wealth. Check out other ways to invest in real estate here.
Buying million-dollar homes may not necessarily be wise for lottery winners, but clearly nobody told Castro about alternative real estate investments. Commercial real estate has a long history of adding stability to investors’ portfolios, outperforming the S&P 500 over a 25-year period (4).
Multifamily rentals are a great option for accredited investors to consider, as debt markets are robust in 2026 (5).
If diversifying into multifamily rentals appeals to you, you could consider investing with Lightstone DIRECT, a new investing platform from the Lightstone Group, one of the largest private real estate companies in the country with over 25,000 multifamily units in its portfolio.
Since they eliminate intermediaries — brokers and crowdfunding middlemen — accredited investors with a minimum investment of $100,000 can gain direct access to institutional-quality multifamily opportunities. This streamlined model can help reduce fees while enhancing transparency and control.
And with Lightstone DIRECT, you invest in single-asset multifamily deals alongside Lightstone — a true partner — as Lightstone puts at least 20% of its own capital into every offering. All of Lightstone’s investment opportunities undergo a rigorous, multi-stage review before being approved by Lightstone’s Principals, including Founder David Lichtenstein.
How it works is simple: Just sign up with your email, and you can schedule a call with a capital formation expert to assess your investment opportunities. From here, all you have to do is verify your details to begin investing.
Founded in 1986, Lightstone has a proven track record of delivering strong risk-adjusted returns across market cycles with a 27.6% historical net IRR and 2.54x historical net equity multiple on realized investments since 2004. All told, Lightstone has $12 billion in assets under management — including in industrial and commercial real estate.
As such, even if multifamily rentals don’t appeal to you, Lightstone could still serve you well as an investment vehicle for other real estate verticals.
For those without accreditation status who are seeking an opportunity to get into the real estate market, you can do so with Arrived.
Backed by world-class investors like Jeff Bezos, Arrived allows you to invest in fractional shares of vacation and rental properties without the responsibilities of property management or homeownership.
While spending money after hitting the jackpot seems inevitable, alternative assets are another worthy consideration when you have a large sum to invest.
Precious metals — particularly gold and silver — have been go-to assets for protection against inflation thanks to their scarcity and inability to be mass-produced, unlike fiat currency.
These factors are especially important for retirement planning and preserving wealth over the long term.
Following a record-breaking 2025 in which the price of gold rose about 65%, the price of the precious metal continues to soar — increasing more than 20% in January 2026, according to a Forbes report (6). In fact, gold has increased in value a whopping 58-fold over the last 100 years (7).
One option for building up your retirement fund with an inflation-hedging asset? A gold IRA.
Opening a gold IRA with the help of Goldco allows you to invest in gold and other precious metals in physical forms while also providing the significant tax advantages of an IRA.
While volatility in traditional markets tends to pique interest in nontraditional investments like gold and other precious metals, there are other asset classes worth considering.
One such asset has recorded positive returns over 20 years, highlighting solid long-term investment potential. And with a moderate relationship with traditional markets, this alternative investment could provide a hedge against inflation, especially amid global economic uncertainty (8).
You might be surprised to find out this asset is fine art.
In fact, this asset class has long been favored by the ultra-wealthy as a resilient and lucrative addition to their portfolios. And with about $100 billion in annual transaction volume and a total estimated global value of over $2.5 trillion, art represents a massive asset class, according to Deloitte (8).
Though some art pieces can sell for millions of dollars at auction, you don’t need to win the Powerball to invest.
With Masterworks, you can access fractional investing in blue-chip paintings by iconic artists like Banksy, Basquiat and Picasso.
What’s more, Masterworks does all the heavy lifting, from scouring the market for the best deals to the storage and sales of the artwork itself — making elite art investing both accessible and hassle-free.
Masterworks has sold 25 artworks so far, yielding net annualized returns like 14.6%, 17.6% and 17.8%.*
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