The current jackpot amount for the Mega Millions lottery is $640-million.
$640 million. The biggest in world history. Is there anyone out there in America who doesn't have at least one lottery ticket for tonight's drawing?
I have eight tickets, but I didn't pay for them. Actually, I'm ahead by $4. How is this possible? Well, it's kind of a weird story.
I was in the HEB grocery store yesterday, and I had planned to buy three tickets. The first set of numbers I was going to use were the numbers I saw listed on "Good Morning America" the other day. Apparently, this set of numbers hasn't been chosen in the last 25 drawings. The next set of numbers were numbers that I picked, based on kids ages, etc. The final set of numbers were numbers I let Sara pick.
At HEB, you don't pay a cashier to buy lottery tickets. Everything is done on a machine, similar to a soda or candy machine. So I stick my paper into the machine, and I then expect to put $3 in afterwards. But no, my lottery ticket prints out with my three sets of numbers. I also notice that I have $7 left in credit on the machine. It seemed that some absent-minded individual had left $10 in credit on the lottery machine after they used it. I didn't see anyone before I approached the machine, so I had no idea how long ago this person put their money in. Did they do it on purpose? Who knows. Anyway, I had seven dollars left.
"Okay, " I tell myself "I guess I'll get 5 more."
I press the $5 button on the machine, and out pops 5 "Quick Picks." I also pick up a $2 "scratch off" ticket. The scratch off ticket wins me an instant $4. Wow, I'm lucky today!
So, I intended to buy 3 tickets, but ended up getting 8 for free, as well as $4 in cash. Win or lose, I'm still ahead. :)
I'm not one of those people who play the lottery religiously. A few years back I wrote about how my father-in-law was always going around saying "When I win the lottery...(blah blah blah)"
That's not me. I don't say that. I have a friend who is looking for a second job just to keep up with her mortgage payments, yet she always finds money to play the lottery. When people say that the lottery is a "tax on the stupid," they ain't kidding. But, when the lottery is this insane, you just have to play, right?
You don't really buy tickets expecting to actually win. It's more about having fun talking about what you would do if you did win. I decided to pick the annual payment option, rather than the lump sum cash option. Having that much cash all at once would be too crazy for me to deal with. At least with 26 annual payments, I wouldn't end up losing it all in a year or two.
So what would I buy? I'm not some idiot that would go out and spend two million on a gold bathtub or some crap like that. No, most likely I would just buy a nice, modest house (with swimming pool!) and a second car. Then I'd put a big chunk of it into the kids savings, so they could go to any college they want when they grow up. Then I'd go to all the countries I've ever wanted to visit. After that, who knows. I would expect every relative and friend I've ever known to come out of the woodwork, asking for money. Some I'd be generous with...others, not so much. I know Christy would want me to give a ton away to charity. She'd also want to move her entire family out here too, I'm sure. Well, you know what they say...sometimes lottery dreams can turn into lottery nightmares.
Well, I didn't win. Hope you had better luck than I did. Those odds of 1 in 176,000,000 are tough to beat!
ReplyDeleteI didn't win either, although I did get two numbers from the set of numbers I picked myself: 4 (Kyle's age), and 38 (my wife's age).
ReplyDeleteWith Sara's picks, she got one right. The five "quick picks" were complete losers.
annual payments can't be transferred to your family after you die. that's why most take the lump sum.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't play. Much as I'd enjoy having a bunch of money, I don't know that I want my life ruled by money. Sounds odd, I know. But I reached a point in life in recent years where I have begun to resent to hold that money has on people.
ReplyDeleteBut if we did play and were to win, I'd take the lump sum if the payments can't be passed along to heirs.
I didn't realize that you can't pass it on to heirs. Although I assume I'd still be alive in 26 years, you never know. If I play again (and I probably will, since I'm a sucker for those enormous jackpots), I will definitely choose the lump sum.
ReplyDeleteMoney does seem to bring out the worst in people. Already I hear that one of the Mega Millions winners is likely to be sued by their co-workers at McDonalds.
I've been told, pretty vehemently by some, that I should sue my brother over my late mother's will, but I just don't want to get into the sort of ugliness that that would bring out. I'm sure my brother and his wife expected me to do something like that, so I'm happy to disappoint them.
The Wife recently went through our two months' worth of receipts. We won nothing.
ReplyDeleteIf your "Good Morning America" numbers had won, with how many millions of people would you have had to share the winnings?
If you won $640 million, your brother would probably sue you.