Economic Disparity & The 1.5 Billion Dollar Lottery

a reply to: St Udio

Shenanigans!

originally posted by: queenofswords
Here is billionaire, Mark Cuban's advice should you win that Powerball billion+.

thescoopblog.dallasnews.com...

Hire a tax attorney first.

Don’t take the lump sum. You don’t want to blow it all in one spot.

If you weren’t happy yesterday you won’t be happy tomorrow. It’s money. It’s not happiness.

If you were happy yesterday, you are going to be a lot happier tomorrow. It’s money. Life gets easier when you don’t have to worry about the bills.

Tell all your friends and relatives no. They will ask. Tell them no. If you are close to them, you already know who needs help and what they need. Feel free to help SOME, but talk to your accountant before you do anything and remember this, no one needs 1m dollars for anything. No one needs 100k for anything. Anyone who asks is not your friend.

You don’t become a smart investor when you win the lottery. Don’t make investments. You can put it in the bank and live comfortably. Forever. You will sleep a lot better knowing you won’t lose money.

But don’t take this as a suggestion from Cuban that you should spend a lot of money on lottery tickets. The odds (one in 292.2 million) will continue to be remote no matter how many tickets you buy.

“It’s OK to spend 2 dollars for entertainment value,” he said via email. “If you have 10 dollars go to a Mavs game.”

I can't believe he advised not to take the lump sum. That is just dumb. How can he not know the concepts of the time value of money. A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. This is why the lump sum payout is smaller than the lotto jackpot. If you are afraid you'd spend it all, get a trust or some other management structure setup so you have a hard time accessing the funds above a certain amount.

The other reason I'd want the lump sum is I don't trust that they'd be able to pay me out 20 years from now. You'd be a fool to put that much trust in the government. See Illinois giving out IOUs on lotto winnings.

Everyone's math is wrong here....don't forget it is not just Americans who buy the ticket, but there are Canadian investors as well as international people buying these tickets too...or does media not cover this FACT!?

originally posted by: queenofswords
Check your math.

I laughed so hard

This OP is a prime example of one of the reasons why so many people in the US are dead broke, besides the job situation , people cant do basic functions that they need to keep a job.

Hilarity ensues over people arguing about economics when they cant even reduce a number like this.

originally posted by: Edumakated
I can't believe he advised not to take the lump sum. That is just dumb. How can he not know the concepts of the time value of money. A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. This is why the lump sum payout is smaller than the lotto jackpot. If you are afraid you'd spend it all, get a trust or some other management structure setup so you have a hard time accessing the funds above a certain amount.

The other reason I'd want the lump sum is I don't trust that they'd be able to pay me out 20 years from now. You'd be a fool to put that much trust in the government. See Illinois giving out IOUs on lotto winnings.

If you're bad with money, taking the 20 year payout is much better. His article was clearly aimed at someone with average to below average investment and money management skills, which covers the majority of the population and almost all of the population of lottery ticket buyers.

A friend of mine once said if he ever won a lot of money he'd just pay off all the debts of the people he liked and what they earned after that would be their spending money. I thought that sounded like a good idea.

There was an article on MSN today. If you took lump sum payout and got a proper team surrounding you of lawyer, CPA and financial advisor, you could basically get that money working for you just in a maintenance mode where you should be able to have it generate about $18million/year.

I can't even begin to imagine how I'd spend that.

So I figure after taking care of family and close friends, we could lock it into maintenance and some more aggressive pursuits and still have enough per year that I could easily give and give and give to people who need it and causes and what not without really ever breaking a sweat in my wallet.

So why divide it out and give every not even enough to pay for more than a gallon and half of gas?

a reply to: Edumakated

No, the annuity saves people who can't figure out how to handle money which is most people. That's why so few who could do otherwise are poor.

Most people who win do all the wrong things right away ... like quit their job, post it to social media, start buying the most expensive luxury items money can buy as if they have a bottomless purse, etc.

I'll be shocked if 10+ people don't have to share the jackpot. Still I wouldn't be mad