Reality-show winners survive financial perils
By Ellen Goodstein • Bankrate.com

America loves its reality TV shows. The lucky contestants who have walked away with the winnings are loving their good fortune, but playing no games with their fortunes.

"Survivor," "The Amazing Race," "Big Brother" and "Joe Millionaire" -- just a few of these hot reality shows -- have made a few folks very rich. For some, the unexpected windfall has meant fulfilling lifelong dreams; for others it meant securing their futures. But whether it was a few thousand dollars or a million, winning has been a life-altering experience for them all.

Take childhood friends Chris Luca and Alex Boylan. These two Boston-raised boys circumnavigated the globe in a race against 11 other teams to win the $1 million prize on the CBS hit, "The Amazing Race 2."

"We were two poor kids from Boston who never had any money," Luca told Bankrate.

"Then one day a check for $500,000 shows up at my door. It was incredible." He decided to take a crash course in money management.

"I did think about taking the money to Las Vegas and putting it all on black 13," said Luca.

Instead, he learned how to work the system. "Money really does make more money," said the 25-year-old, who has invested for retirement.

"It's changed everything in my life. It kind of shot me ahead by 20 years. I'm doing at 25 what I didn't think I'd be doing until 45," said Luca, who started a real estate investment company with "AR 2" cohort Boylan in Jacksonville, Fla.

Luca did go a little wild. He bought himself a new Isuzu Rodeo with a DVD player, top-of-the-line stereo system and tinted windows.

"I drove out to California and lived two doors down from the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard for about six months. I went to Vegas every weekend and I was out having fun every night. After about six months I got serious and moved back to Florida."

Now Luca drives his Isuzu to collect rent on his investment properties.

Travel and new-found celeb status
Boylan, a partner with Luca in CC Investments -- C for Chris' middle name of Call and C for Alex's middle name of Cuthbert -- used some of his winnings for long-term investments. His biggest splurge is travel.

"I take fantastic trips," Boylan told Bankrate. "I went to England and Scotland looking for my roots, I spent New Year's in the Bahamas and I'm going to Panama for three weeks."

He's also on the road three or four weeks a month as host of the new PBS series "At the Chef's Table," giving a behind-the-scenes look at the fast-paced life of a chef at a five-star restaurant.

Like many reality-show contestants, Boylan is aiming for a career in entertainment. Showbiz runs in his family. His brother is a Hollywood screenwriter and his younger sister is an actress. His older sister started the nonprofit group, Touch Twice, which provides free medical assistance to the homeless in Los Angeles. Boylan has shared some of his unexpected good fortune there as well.

Get ready for all-the-time, all-reality network
Luca and Boylan are among the reality-show winners who were rounded up by third-place "Amazing Race 2" finisher, Blake Mycoskie, to be seed investors in a new cable venture: a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week reality show network known as Reality Central.