Playing the Powerball is a Bet on the Impossible, But It's Still Kind of Possible

Let's face it. Winning the lottery is the pipe dream of pipe dreams. But I still play because as the old saying goes, you can't win if you don't play. Besides, at least when it comes to the Powerball and the MegaMillions games, a ticket only costs $2, and it only takes one to win.

Granted, you need the right one, and when it comes to the Powerball, which is going for a whopping $1.23 billion for Saturday's drawing, depending on which payout option you choose, the odds of holding the right ticket are 1 in 292,201,338.

In other words, it's nearly impossible to win. But of course, someone will.

Sure, you can try to buy multiple tickets, but it only fractionally increases your odds and is so insignificant it probably isn't worth doing. But you just never know. When jackpots are this high, I might be okay with shelling out $10 or $20 for a few extra shots at it.

Why not? Besides. It's fun to dream, right? And I suppose I have wasted $20 on worse things? Hell, there was that time I bought a drone only to take it outside, hit one button, and watch it whizz straight up into the air and into the atmosphere never to be seen again.

Besides just being gosh darn lucky to win the thing, here are some fun other things that are far more likely to happen to you other than winning the big one which may help to put the odds into a bit of perspective.

You have a 1 in 2 million chance, for example, of finding a blue lobster in the ocean. 1 in roughly 2.5 million have a chance to be attacked by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park. There's a 1 in 9 million chance you will be struck by lightning twice.

Odds are even better you might find a four leafed clover which is 1 in 10,000. You even have a better chance at winning an Olympic medal which is 1 in 660,000. 1 in 6.5 million have a better chance of dying from a bee sting than hitting the big jackpot. 1 in 10 million stand a chance of being struck by a piece of an airplane falling from the sky for Heaven's sake.

Even 1 in 3,800 have a shot at living to be 100 years old. 1 in 11 million are likely to be attacked by a shark. You could walk into a casino and have a 1 in 649,000 chance of sitting down at the poker table and having the very first hand dealt to you be a royal flush.

Odds are that not even one of these things will ever happen to you. But again, they are more likely to happen to you than winning the lottery.

I think the key with it is just to have fun. Let the dream fly, but not to get carried away and shelling out big bucks that won't really impact your chances of winning at all. I think we have all sat down and done some of the math just to see how much we might actually take home.

For example, most people choose the cash option, and that immediately takes a sizeable chunk of cash off the table right away since the published prize is not the actual total prize pool, but instead is the prospective value of the annuity that the prize pool would be invested in if you decided to choose to receive payments over 29 years.

The cash option in the next drawing on Apil 6th is estimated to be $595.1 million. Depending on the state where you live you could probably expect to take home about $357.06 million after taxes. It's a lot less than $1.23 billion, but nothing not to write home about and forever change your life.

Consider there is also a 1 in 584.4 million chance you may have to share you prize with someone else. And when jackpots are this high, it is more probable you will have to share it since more people tend to buy tickets.

Either way, $178.53 million after taxes is still a sizeable chunk of dough.

Ultimately, if I had one strong piece of advice for you on what to do, I'd say not to bother getting your own ticket. After all, I already have the winning ticket. I am pretty sure of that. I wonder what the odds are of finding a four leafed clover in a paved parking lot?

Like the way I write or the things I write about? Follow me on Facebook or on X to keep up with the latest writings wherever I may write them. Looking for a place to find the $2 you need to buy a lottery ticket, have a look at the Discover card, the card that pays you back 1% to 5% on your purchases.

Michigan Has A Powerball Winner

If there's one question I think most people ponder at least a few times in their lives, it is the question of what would one do if they were lucky enough to win the lottery? I know this is a question I have pondered more than a few times. One idea I have thought about is a way to pay it forward in a way that helps out hard working people. Working charity is the term I like to use for this.

One woman in Michigan has the lucky luxury to ponder this question in real time after realizing that she was the single winner of the most recent Powerball jackpot worth $310.5 million. She chose the cash option and after taxes took home $140 million. Not at all bad for a simple $2 investment.

She was having a bad day at work, which made the win especially more fun to hear about.

We all have those moments at work, or other times in our lives when we are simply fed up. We've had enough. Most of the time when that happens I simply pay myself to sort of buy myself out of my situation. Granted, it's not really what's happening. But in my mind, adding money, for example, to my investment portfolio after a bad day at work feels like I just might be accomplishing something.

Sometimes I'll even buy an extra lottery ticket.

I say extra because if there is one thing about me, it is that while I don't intend to ever actually win the lottery, I do intend to at least have a shot at winning, and that's not going to happen if I don't have a ticket in my hand.

Of course I wish the big win would have come my way. But somebody has to win, and even if it is not me, I like having at least the opportunity.

Congratulations to the latest Powerball jackpot winner.

The Fun of Paying It Forward

So here we are again with a massive Powerball jackpot just sitting there waiting for someone to claim the winning prize of $450 million on February 11, 2015.

If somebody wins.

Of course I play the lottery. If you have happened to have followed me long enough you are well aware that I am willing to fork over my $2 for a chance at multi-millions. If I took the money I spent on lottery tickets year over year and compared that to what I might spend in casinos year after year, the small amount of money I pay for a chance at multiple millions in a Powerball lottery jackpot pales in comparison.

So I am willing to pay, and willing to play. 'Nuff said.

By my math, which is rough I will admit, of the $450 million Powerball lottery jackpot, I will get to keep roughly $270 million after taxes. I am always firm in saying that I would choose to take the annuity option if I won. So after taxes that gives me somewhere around $9 million a year for the next 30 years.

I would likely first give the household budget a $1 million a year "salary," and would give my wife a $250,000 a year "salary." In addition I would give away $1 million to family members. At least in the first year. The rest of the money, $6.75 million would be invested in various ways.

But the most fun would be contributing to what I call working charity. In other words, tipping waitresses at restaurants we would eat out at the full bill. Handing a $20 bill to the guy or gal bagging my groceries. Handing the delivery guy of my pizza or other delivery food a tip worth the entire bill.

The thing is that all of this money goes into the real economy. It benefits society, it benefits jobs, it benefits the economy, and it is my way of paying it forward. Thanking people for their hard work and putting money in  their pockets that they may not have otherwise had.

This would be gobs of fun.

I look at it this way. When you are raking in $9 million a year, money really is not an object. Moreover, when you are investing $6.75 million a year, the dividends alone can provide for more than you are used to taking in.

I want to be able to spread the wealth. If I get lucky enough to win the lottery, I want that money to funnel into as many pockets as possible.

And I would have loads of fun doing it.

You Can Win The Powerball Jackpot

Sometimes the fun of life is simply taking a moment to dream about what is possible. Like winning the Powerball jackpot which tonight could make some lucky individual $317 million richer. Granted, the odds are terrible. I will readily admit that, and anyone with half a bit of sense is quite aware of this fact as well. In fact I once sat down and compared the odds of either winning the Powerball jackpot or being struck by lightning. It turns out I am more likely to be struck 43 times in my lifetime by a bolt of lightning than win the Powerball jackpot once.

But the truth is, you can win the Powerball jackpot only if you have a ticket in your hand when the drawing occurs.

But it's such a waste of money, you say. I get that. And the Powerball, unlike most other lottery games, is twice the cost at $2 per play. Still, when I think of all of the money I waste (and I really don't waste that much money. I am quite frugal actually), a mere $2 for a chance at $317 million, or even a mediocre return is still a great opportunity to have, and I think it's $2 wasted that is worth the chance.

Somebody must win. It's the name of the game.

And people do in fact win. It was reported by the makers of the popular docuseries which chronicles the lives of those who have won the lottery that roughly 1,600 new millionaires are created every single year simply by winning the lottery. That's about 4 new millionaires each and every day of the year.

You probably won't win. The odds are simply stacked too much against the player. But again, somebody must win, and that person absolutely cannot be you unless you have a ticket in your hand when the drawing occurs.

I will certainly be buying a ticket for tonight's drawing. All I have to lose is the jackpot, right? Or, of course my $2. But just to have a chance? Just to have a long shot? Yep. I'll take my chances. If I were to win the Powerball jackpot, I would choose the annuity. The cash option is only worth about half the total prize amount, and then when you take out for taxes, it's about half of that. If I take the annuity I still get paid somewhere around (after taxes) $6,340,000 a year for 30 years.

I think that be just enough to cover the groceries to be sure.

Also by Springboard about the lottery: Winning the Lottery: The Dream of the Big Win