Buying an occasional lottery ticket for fun isn’t a terrible idea. At least if being virtually guaranteed to lose is your idea of a good time. After all, it’s pretty much like making a non-tax-deductible donation to the government, and if you only buy one or two every few weeks then you aren’t spending too much anyway.

But what happens if you’re lucky enough to win? The Seattle Times had an interesting article yesterday with tips on what to do if you pick the right numbers. (The Times’ tips also largely apply to those fortunate enough to receive a windfall inheritance.) Surprisingly, many of the tips are good advice even for people who aren’t absurdly lucky:

Keep an emergency fund:

“One of the first things we recommend has nothing to do with investing at all,” said Dan Keady, director of financial planning for TIAA-CREF, which helps teachers, professors and doctors manage their money. “It is creating an emergency fund of six to 12 months.”

Once you have an investment strategy, you don’t want to disrupt it by constantly pulling funds to cover out-of-the-ordinary expenses. An emergency fund, usually with cash in money markets and other conservative, easily accessed accounts, helps investors navigate the unexpected.

Invest your money into a balanced portfolio, even if that means adding risk:

Investing is an individual exercise. Everybody has different goals, time horizons and tolerance for risk. About the only thing that is constant is the need for diversification, putting money into several kinds of investments to hedge against losses in any one.

Coming in to money will change your lifestyle, tax bracket, and investment strategies overnight. And if you allow the exuberance of winning the lottery (or pain of losing a loved one) to cloud your judgment, you could lose it all. And as this Bankrate.com article points out, losing it all after winning big is not uncommon:

Missourian Janite Lee won $18 million in 1993. Lee was generous to a variety of causes, giving to politics, education and the community. But according to published reports, eight years after winning, Lee had filed for bankruptcy with only $700 left in two bank accounts and no cash on hand.

So if you’re dumb enough to play the lottery but lucky enough to win, first “time a timeout” and don’t make any rash decisions, and then hire the right professionals to make sure you don’t wind up penniless.