The older we get, the more we realize that maintaining the lifestyle we want to have is much more difficult than we thought.
The economy is crumbling, the jobs we want are unavailable or slowly dying out, and the competition is so hard that we don’t even want to try. We can’t all be doctors or lawyers who make big bucks.
But what if you won the lottery?
Just think. You could buy the house and car you want, pay off your student loans and work the job you actually want.
Unfortunately, the probability of winning the grand prize for any Powerball is 1 in 175,223,510.
Even if you become that lucky one-in-a-million winner, you will only walk away with a fraction of the prize money due to taxes.
Forty-three states, Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands participate in the game, which brings in more revenue but also further decreases the odds of winning.
Recently, California joined the game, causing the last Powerball jackpot to skyrocket.
As the pot grew, more people began to play, again decreasing the odds. There were rumors that if no one had won the $600 million, the jackpot would have been close to a record-breaking $1 billion. A man in Florida prevented this from happening when he won the lottery May 18.
Imagine waking up Sunday morning, casually checking your lottery ticket and seeing one match. Then another. And another, until you realize you won the grand prize. Who would you tell, if anyone? Would you hire a financial advisor? Do you tell your lawyer, if you even had one at the time?
Winning such an incredible amount of money would make it difficult to keep your head straight.
Even after taxes, the winner in Florida has $300 million more than he had a few weeks ago. He can either set up his winnings to be a financial help for generations to come, or he can travel the world, buy a bunch of stuff and possibly die broke.
There unfortunately are so many things that can go wrong having so much money. Like the mysterious case of the Chicago man who won a million dollars and was later poisoned with cyanide.
Another lottery winner, Jack Whittaker, won $315 million back in 2002 but he regrets he ever did. Accoring to Business Insider, thieves stole $745,000 from Whittaker’s car. He was also sued by Caesar’s Atlantic City for allegedly bouncing $1.5 million in checks.
Many people believe that lottery money is cursed and causes many problems. Some people just don’t know how to spend it.
In a society that is so fixated on money, we all dream of one day having enough to do whatever we want. But it’s not how much we make that really counts. It’s how we manage what we make. And you don’t need to win the lottery to do that.
