Powerball now only $40m

[FelixDeCat]

As if $40m pretax is worth $2 .... :\

 

[rcpratt]

Few too many zeroes there, bud.

 

[FoBoT]

i don't want to become part of the 1% , so i decline to play

 

[ImpulsE69]

Guess that move to $2 worked. Suckers.

 

[Cuda1447]

Why play only when its 250mil? If I won it at 20mil, or 250mil, or 5 bil, the result is all the same.

http://imgur.com/GfryI

 

[Jeeebus]

If I win, I'm throwing a party for everyone I like on this forum. Hmm, should be an awesome four-person laser tag extravaganza.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Why play only when its 250mil? If I won it at 20mil, or 250mil, or 5 bil, the result is all the same.

Its really not the same. 5 million you can probably set yourself up and your wife and kids for life.

5 billion you can set up everyone you know for life. Plus spend your days giving away the rest to best benefit humanity.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Few too many zeroes there, bud.

Zimbabwe dollars.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

$250,000,000,000 for $2?

Time to pay the stupidity tax.

if you spend 2000 over the course of your life for a chance to win...its really a drop in the bucket compared to the numerous other ways people pay stupid taxes.

 

[Fausto]

if you spend 2000 over the course of your life for a chance to win...its really a drop in the bucket compared to the numerous other ways people pay stupid taxes.

Seriously. If this is a "stupid tax", Starbucks coffee products are the "intellect of a short-bus amoeba" tax.

 

[TuxDave]

I used to play when it hit $250 million, but now that the tickets cost $2 I'm only playing when it's half a billion!

 

[corwin]

I pay my stupid tax every couple of weeks...one of these times it's got to pay off...right?

 

[IceBergSLiM]

I pay my stupid tax every couple of weeks...one of these times it's got to pay off...right?

who knows....I know they are saying over all better odds of winning....anyone know how that is possible?

 

[corwin]

who knows....I know they are saying over all better odds of winning....anyone know how that is possible?

I believe there are less powerball numbers...you know the last ball drawn...like 5 less or something which makes for less variations

EDIT: There are now 35 powerballs, down from 39

 

[seepy83]

We pay the stupid tax in a pool at work when it goes over $150 million. Our pool went from $2 per person to $4 per person this year when the ticket price went up. I wanted them to just keep it at $2 per person because "doubling our chances to win" by buying 2 tickets per head is really statistically insignificant, but everyone wanted to keep it that way. But I have to keep playing...I can't be the only one left here working if they hit the jackpot!

 

[rcpratt]

Odds are 1:175M now. Maybe I'll play if it hits $350M.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

I believe there are less powerball numbers...you know the last ball drawn...like 5 less or something which makes for less variations

EDIT: There are now 35 powerballs, down from 39

I see.

 

[destrekor]

Its really not the same. 5 million you can probably set yourself up and your wife and kids for life.

5 billion you can set up everyone you know for life. Plus spend your days giving away the rest to best benefit humanity.

Both numbers can easily be fucked up too.

5 million, if you are in your 20s, properly invested and saved to be used slowly throughout your life - best established as an automatic self-payment (grab lump sum, make better investment decisions than the lottery's annual-payment option, and create some kind of trickle payout like a retirement/pension payout)... and yes, you could quit, retire, and live comfortably for life.
If very intelligent with financials (or you hire a financial/investment genius), it could make it easy to provide everything for children too. Depending on how grand your ideas are, of course.

That kind of money, that early in life, cannot afford mansions and extravagant purchases. It is not the amount that affords multiple supercars (or multiple six-figure vehicles in general) or multiple homes of similar stature.
A modest, upper-middle lifestyle is possible with such a payout. But in practice, you'd have to be more reserved that that. Such a payout is not even in the range of lifetime savings that smart 6-figure earners can achieve (the ones who have been that way for the majority of their adult life and are currently around the retirement age at this very moment), so you can't start living like one of those earners, at least, you can't jump to their stature and continue to live like them. Gradual versus instant for investment/purchasing purposes produce vastly different results in the books in ways many people don't think about if they don't properly educate themselves.

And on the other end, someone suddenly receiving Billions can easily land in the gutter if they make bad financial decisions. Just because you receive such money does not mean you can suddenly live like the Richard Bransons (financially intelligent and eccentric) or Warren Buffets (beyond mindblowingly rich, also financially intelligent).

To make any kind of sudden windfalls work, you have to be smart with your money. When you are still early in your life, you have to be financially savvy to make any kind of lottery winnings provide an immediate retirement. Most people get too dumbfounded when it appears they can buy everything they want right now. Very few stop and plan how much a lifetime actually costs in the first place; it won't be an automatic part of an income-based budget [without a planned banking/investment strategy] and thus you have to start with at least a rough estimate of how much you must set aside to provide for all financial costs of the future. After that, you are left with the true "windfall" that still must cover a lifetime of emergencies, personal purchases and expenses ("treating yourself well"), and covering any kind of large investments.

 

[Nemesis 1]

I would give each family member 1 million the rest to salvation Army

 

[Dirigible]

WTF???? I knew FelixDeKat was up to something! A name change won't throw me off the scent. I'm still watching you!


Now I gotta change my sig...

 

[Fausto]

WTF???? I knew FelixDeKat was up to something! A name change won't throw me off the scent. I'm still watching you!


Now I gotta change my sig...

New name, same moronic posts.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

I would give each family member 1 million the rest to salvation Army

you bible pusher.

 

[Printer Bandit]

i would buy $1 million on lotto tickets.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

i would buy $1 million on lotto tickets.

why not 175 million? that way you can get every possible combination...and if you don't win you can sue them for fraud.... (or however many lotto combinations there are? I thought it was 175mil).


Then, whenever the amount is over the 175 mil mark....buy them all up again and win AGAIN

 

[Elbryn]

why not 175 million? that way you can get every possible combination...and if you don't win you can sue them for fraud.... (or however many lotto combinations there are? I thought it was 175mil).


Then, whenever the amount is over the 175 mil mark....buy them all up again and win AGAIN

then you find out some other lucky person hit the number and you only won half the value. and net lost 25 million