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One example of this happening: Perlman's proof of the Poincare conjecture was posted on the arXiv first (http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0211159). In fact, I don't think it was ever formally published.

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Yes, and for those who may not know, Perelman is to date the only mathematician to have rejected the Fields Medal. (Aside: I was at the Madrid congress when this was announced in 2006. Pretty shocking, if not completely unexpected.) So, I think we are dealing with a pretty clear outlier here.

I can understand refusing the money on principle, but it's always nice to have money for a rainy day. Healthcare ain't cheap

Maybe he lives in a developed country so has access to state healthcare.

2006 article

"A maths genius who won fame last week for apparently spurning a million-dollar prize is living with his mother in a humble flat in St Petersburg, co-existing on her £30-a-month pension, because he has been unemployed since December."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1526782/Worlds-top-maths-gen...

They even changed the rules for the Fields Medal so that he would be eligible. Technically the arXiv document was a preprint, and the Fields Medal was for published research.

Sensibly, that rule was changed.

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