I Won The Lottery

Chances are, at one point or another, you have thought about what it would be like to win the lottery, what it would be like to have infinite money just by buying a ticket for a dollar. I have spent entire days thinking of nothing other than the idea of being a multimillionaire by the end of the day. It especially happens on the days when I have actually purchased a lottery ticket, like this past Tuesday. The Mega Millions jackpot was in the 180million dollar territory, and so therefore, my mom forced me to buy a ticket. She even paid for it. Well anyway, as you can see by me still blogging to pass the time, and also despite the title, I did not win. In fact, no one won. So the jackpot climbed once again, and they drew new numbers on Friday, which no one won. So again, the jackpot climbed, and now it sits at $290,000,000.00. I just wore out my zero key typing that out.

Let's think about that for a minute, shall we? I have a very handy iPhone app that I think is actually from the Mega Millions people, called iMega. On this app, it tells you what the current jackpot is, what the previous draws were, and things like that. $290,000,000.00! I include the cents because that's funny and it adds drama because there are more zeros than are necessary, while remaining factual.

When you win a big jackpot, they take a chuck out of it for taxes, yet no one ever really knows how much that chuck is. On this app, it gives an approximation of the amount you would actually take home if you won, both for the lump sum payment, and also for the annuity. If I were to win teh jackpot on this Tuesday (you bet your ass I'm buying a ticket or two) at $290,000,000, the lump sum payment would be $136,950,016. That's after taxes. Just boom, one hundred thirty six million dollars in your checking account. Well, not exactly, but you know what I mean. That also means you would be paying $156,049,984 in TAXES and whatnot. Crazy talk. That's over half your winnings. But I say, at that point, who cares? You have 136,000,000, regardless of what happens to the other 156.

The annuity is what excites me. At this jackpot level, you would get a $8,365,384 check, every year for 26 years. I'd be 53 when the payments stop coming. There is no possible way I could spend that much money by then, is there? Let's dive into these numbers a bit.

...Gets out calculator...All these numbers will be for the annuity deal.

All total, I would be paid $217,499,464 by the time I turn 53.

I would have $697,114 to spend per month.

That's $22,919 every day

That's $955 an HOUR

$15.91 a minute

If this 8.3 million dollars was more viewed as an hourly wage, like what you make for working 40 hours a week...You would be getting paid $4,357 an hour. $6,535.50 an hour on holidays. But you'd have to assume time and a half wouldn't be paid for holidays, because that would increase you're salary, wouldn't it? And at this point, is that really necessary anyway?

I think eventually I would get bored trying to figure out what to spend my daily $22,000 on. I could buy a mid-sized sedan every day for 26 years, I suppose. 9,490 Nissan Altimas.

My wife tells me she watched a documentary one time where they followed people in the aftermath of winning the jackpot and how it destroyed their lives. She claims she wouldn't want to win a jackpot because she wouldn't want her life ruined by an exorbitant amount of money. I told her I'd take my chances. I'd rather be rich and see what happens than be afraid to be rich. That just doesn't make much sense to me.

So wish me luck tomorrow, and I wish you the same. Because chances are, if I win, I'll give you some. And if you win, I would expect the same treatment.