powerball

[Patman]

I was in Florida for ten days and while I was there I bought a Powerball and a Mega Millions ticket. I didn't even get one number, but it was fun to imagine the possibilities of what I could do with that massive lottery win. Up here in Canada we don't get lotteries with jackpots that high, our highest jackpot ever was only around $64 million.

 

[alarmguy]

Dont know why anyone would buy a lottery ticket where the odds are 300,000,000 to 1 (three hundred million to one)

Those odds mean you are 465,000 (four hundred sixty five thousand) times more likely to die in a car accident and that is only one way of dying, throw in life other perils and around the age of 50 you have 1 in 46,000 chance of dying today. (1 in 46,000 vs 1 in 300,000,000 of winning)

and god forbid you are in the hospital, where the odds of dying from a mistake in the hospital is only 1 in 300.

 

[93cruiser]

Originally Posted By: donnyj08
Originally Posted By: 93cruiser
so who else threw some money at the dismal odds of winning the powerball? of course i did, I do most weeks to be honest. why not, its only a few bucks


If you spend $15 per month for 50yrs on lottery thats $9000. Take $15 a month and put it in a mutual fund or index fund for 50yrs and you would have grown $9000 to about $150,000 dollars from a $15 a month investment. This is the reason I dont play the lotto. Ive known people who spend $100 a month in lotto. Take that $100 per month into the above senario and after 50yrs you will have over $1,000,000. Get rich quick rarely works!

Put that extra $15-20 a month in your 401k or IRA and thank me when you retire!


Playing the lottery is fine if you are not impacting your life by spending money you need to live.

Wife and I max out both our 401k's, buy dividend stocks in personal brokerage account, and save in other ways.

If you take care of the important stuff first you can throw away some dollars too. All work and no play makes for a dull life.

Oh, I lost, ha. Spent 21 dollars. I will get over it and lose some more next time I am sure.

 

[Mr Nice]

There's a few millionaires on BITOG, most of them did not inherit their money and had to do it the hard way.

I do agree spending a few dollars to buy a lotto ticket here and there won't kill you.
As they say.... play responsibly.

 

[javacontour]

300 million is my threshold to buy a ticket for either the Powerball or Megamillions.

Both have odds that are about 300 million to one against you, so I won't buy a ticket until it's over 300 million.

I tell people I don't rely on the lottery for retirement. But it is my EARLY retirement plan.


Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Your odds are tiny, admitted, but infinitely more than the ones who didn't buy a ticket.


Well why sugar coat it. It's one in 292,201,338.00. Your overall odds of winning any powerball prize is about 1 in 25.

 

[supton]

I didn't--didn't realize it had gotten that high. Might still not have bought. Shannow is right, your odds of winning go up by an infinite amount by buying one ticket, although buying a second increases your odds by a pretty small amount. Thus when I do buy, I only buy one--I get the most bang for my buck off the first ticket.

It's always tempting, and it's fun to dream, but ultimately it just doesn't happen for the vast majority of players. Haven't bought a ticket in years.

 

[donnyj08]

Originally Posted By: 93cruiser
Originally Posted By: donnyj08
Originally Posted By: 93cruiser
so who else threw some money at the dismal odds of winning the powerball? of course i did, I do most weeks to be honest. why not, its only a few bucks


If you spend $15 per month for 50yrs on lottery thats $9000. Take $15 a month and put it in a mutual fund or index fund for 50yrs and you would have grown $9000 to about $150,000 dollars from a $15 a month investment. This is the reason I dont play the lotto. Ive known people who spend $100 a month in lotto. Take that $100 per month into the above senario and after 50yrs you will have over $1,000,000. Get rich quick rarely works!

Put that extra $15-20 a month in your 401k or IRA and thank me when you retire!


Playing the lottery is fine if you are not impacting your life by spending money you need to live.

Wife and I max out both our 401k's, buy dividend stocks in personal brokerage account, and save in other ways.

If you take care of the important stuff first you can throw away some dollars too. All work and no play makes for a dull life.

Oh, I lost, ha. Spent 21 dollars. I will get over it and lose some more next time I am sure.


I agree a percentage of money should be enjoyed! Enjoy!

 

[53' Stude]

Well, someone whacked it I see.

Maybe next year. I don’t do lottery as I’m saving my $$$$

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: alarmguy
Dont know why anyone would buy a lottery ticket where the odds are 300,000,000 to 1 (three hundred million to one)



The odds are zero if you don't play.

We have better odds on our lotteries up here but the jackpots are also smaller. I worked with a girl whose grandparents won $12 million a couple of years ago and another friend's parents won $1 million dollars about 5 years ago. In the 80s when my wife was in high school she dated a boy who won $200,000 (and back then that was as good as one million is today, as he bought a brand new house for his parents) and another good friend of hers won $10,000. Also her uncle won $10,000 back in the 90s. One of my mom's best friends won $250,000 in the 90s too. A couple of years ago I won $6490 from a contest I entered online and last year my wife won $6000 on a radio contest.

Still believe it's hard to win money?

My wife and I are retiring in 4 years and our finances are pretty solid but we sure would like to speed up that retirement date. A couple of bucks here and there won't hurt us, especially since we don't drink alcohol too often (unless it's free, then look out!) and we don't smoke.

 

[Mr Nice]

Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
If I won that kind of money I would remain anonymous, and get a law firm to distribute much of it to my relatives and friends but even keeping it anonymous from them as to who actually hit. They would each receive a letter explaining that someone who wishes to remain anonymous has hit the lottery, and wishes to see to it that you receive the enclosed check without disclosing who they are.


Some states do not allow you to remain anonymous. Your name and city residence must be made public.


Then you move out of town ASAP !!!

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
If I won that kind of money I would remain anonymous, and get a law firm to distribute much of it to my relatives and friends but even keeping it anonymous from them as to who actually hit. They would each receive a letter explaining that someone who wishes to remain anonymous has hit the lottery, and wishes to see to it that you receive the enclosed check without disclosing who they are.


Some states do not allow you to remain anonymous. Your name and city residence must be made public.

That's true, and much the same here. You even have to have your photo published. However, that doesn't change the fact that because of supposed relatives and friends popping out of the woodwork, I'd be gone so fast I'd leave a rooster tail of dust, or snow, as the case may be.

 

[02SE]

Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
There's a few millionaires on BITOG, most of them did not inherit their money and had to do it the hard way.


They actually went to work, even when it was a little nippy out.

 

[Andrew1972]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
If I won that kind of money I would remain anonymous, and get a law firm to distribute much of it to my relatives and friends but even keeping it anonymous from them as to who actually hit. They would each receive a letter explaining that someone who wishes to remain anonymous has hit the lottery, and wishes to see to it that you receive the enclosed check without disclosing who they are.


Some states do not allow you to remain anonymous. Your name and city residence must be made public.

That's true, and much the same here. You even have to have your photo published. However, that doesn't change the fact that because of supposed relatives and friends popping out of the woodwork, I'd be gone so fast I'd leave a rooster tail of dust, or snow, as the case may be.


The winner is in NH where name must be announced. The way around that is you created a trust and then that gets announced and no pics.