PHILADELPHIA - So you woke up this morning and discovered you are millions richer thanks to that Powerball ticket - or 10 - that you purchased.

What now?

Here's a primer from the experts: Splurge by spending up to 20 percent of the first check, don't expect a promotion because your boss knows you will be quitting, and don't promise anything to anybody for at least a month while you assemble a team of advisers.

"Be disciplined and keep your mouth shut," said John Featherman, who runs a privacy consulting firm in Philadelphia. "Take some time, talk to professionals, meet with your family members, and smell the roses."

Everybody - from relatives to foundations - will consider you a philanthropist, he said.

It is fine to make an acceptance speech to show your appreciation for the millions, but do not release personal information; then, get a new and unlisted phone number and a post office box, he said.

"Once you win the lottery, you're a celebrity," he said. "There can be a darker side with that."

Expert tips take much of the romanticism out of striking gold. But, as other winners have found, privacy is paramount for a lottery winner.

"I received a letter the other day and a man in Tennessee wanted $8,000 to help pay his mortgage," said John Higgins Jr., whose 71-year-old father won an $83.5 million Powerball jackpot recently.

Higgins, whose father's telephone number in Evansville, Ind., is unlisted, said strangers had knocked on his door and phoned him asking for cash since the Oct. 26 drawing.

That's the downside of a windfall, Featherman said: The realization that money truly does not buy happiness. But with proper planning, he said, it can make for a secure financial future.

Featherman advises that before a lottery winner claims the money or makes a speech, he should contact an estate planning lawyer, a tax accountant, preferably a CPA, and a financial planner.

Jerry Gross, a financial planner with Gross Financial Services in Feasterville, Pa., said he would start by asking the winner a lot of questions.

"First of all, I would want to know if they have any charitable urges. Do they want to retire, say goodbye to the boss, and live on the interest?" he said.

Featherman said most of those purchasing tickets probably had no idea just how much their lives would change if they won.

"You can't live the same way," he said. "You can't go back to Kansas, Dorothy."