The guy spent $5 on lottery tickets every Wednesday and Saturday? Not the best way to treat money. Obviously he won the lottery and got very lucky but the odds are so slim I can't believe that people play with the expectation of ever winning a dollar. And in the meantime, it makes them poorer and poorer. As I like to think of it, the lottery is a tax on people who can't do math.
"Justice" is portrayed by a female. Coincidence? I think not. Glad to see this story have a happy "ending."
That is also including the penalty for choosing to receive the money in one lump sum instead of over 20 years. What a rip! I am really glad this guy won!
Ahahahhahahahahahahahaha! I love stupid people! They are so fun! I have to remember that! {If you play the lottery, you aren't stupid, just weird} I am talking about "other" stupid people.
Whadya want to bet the ex-wife comes crawling back at some point? Be interesting to see if he would accept her.........
Never give up. That's the morale of this story. Irony & up-down of life, you see in this story, too. However, this is not the end of the story, as it could be just the beginning. Does anyone remember TV show "Lottery" (or Lotto or something like that)?
I call it the poor man's tax. You see all these less than monied people at the stop and gos before a big lottery spending 60 and 80 bucks on it. They don't seem to understand that buying 60 does not increase your chances enough to make it worth it. Most of them don't have 60 to blow. I used to epsouse this thoery on a regular basis until my dad came to me one week after losing his job saying,"guess what I just one, some of that poor man's tax." I ate my words that day.
I just noticed the date on the original post...it would be interesting to find out how both the guy and ex-wife are doing. Sometimes people who win lotteries blow it just as fast as they get it. Hopefully, he is rebuilding his life. He sounded sensible. I'm happy for him.
There is no justice in divorce--everybody loses. I'll bet his wife will come back and say 'I suffered for his lottery spending during the marriage--I should benefit from his winnings afterwards...' To make it worse, the lawyers now know he has $ resources they can feed on. I wish this guy the best of luck. And, yeah--I'm bitter.
Dude, don't get me started. Even though they call it "equitable distribution", it is the most unfair way of dividing assets, properties, etc. I could probably start a thread that would last days on that topic alone. The question I have is, if he won the lottery before the divorce was finalized, would she have gotten half, even though he was the one that bought the ticket and paid for it? Probably...it doesn't pay to be a man in divorce. And yeah..I'm a bit bitter too..
Well, knowing what I do about finance, a guaranteed return of 4% a year isn't bad at all. By taking the cash option you take the present value of the future payments (which total $1M). You then have an option of how to use or invest your money, unlike when receiving structured annuities. Would you rather have $289,000 cash today, or $30,000 a year for 20 years? [/QUOTE]It depends on priorities. If I had a raging gambling addiction I just might take the $30k per year 10% annual return is never guaranteed. Not to say I don't see what you are saying, rather, it's just not as simple as saying, "hey, give me 10% a year please."
The annunity (30 years) option gives more money in the long run unless you invest the lump sum at over 6%. I didn't calculate the interest with taxes. Just assume they're invested in muni bonds.
Nobody should buy lotto tickets if they can't pay their bills, but why shouldn't a person who has a truly diversified investment portfolio buy a lotto ticket every once in a while? It's highly risky, but could have a high payoff. But then again, I suck at math.
I don't play the lotto much. Last time I did it was for 1 ticket back in October at the Hoosier Lottery for the Powerball when it got up to around $250mm. I don't play anymore unless Mega Millions or Powerball gets near $300mm, which is very rare. I just laugh at the FL lotto here when it gets to something like FIFTY million and people start dumping money. $50 million? Powerball and Megamillions eats that **** for breakfast.