What are these people thinking?

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Hydro Junkie

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 2, 2006
Messages
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Can someone explain to me why someone would give away around A QUARTER BILLION DOLLARS????????????????????

The reason I ask is over the past couple of months, a 20 year old kid won the Megamillions drawing for a total of $451 Million.

The winner of the last Powerball is a 47 year old man in New Jersey that won $455 Million.

Last summer, a Massachusetts lady won a $758.7 Million Powerball drawing.

What all three of these people have in common is they took the cash pay out. That means they literally gave away roughly $225.5 Million, $227.5 Million and $379.35 Million, respectively. This means that they took home:

$281.9 Million

$324.6 Million

$336 Million

Had they taken the money over the long term, they would have taken home a minimum of:

$338,250,000 or $11,275,000 per year (a gain of $56 million)

$341,250,000 or $11,375,000 per year (a gain of almost $15 million)

$569,025,000 or $18,967,500 per year (a gain of over $220 million)

All the above numbers are based on $25,000 per million won, after taxes, as put out by the Washington State Lottery Office several years ago. Obviously, tax laws have changed but, at the same time, why give away that much money when you don't have to?
 
Mark,

After taxes how many million due you need to live comfortable?

These people are just lucky enough to be winners. Obviously

they did not care about the extra money. After a few million you

really don't have much to worry about except your health and safety

in today's world.

Have A Safe And Happy Weekend,

Mark Sholund
 
what if u dont live that long ,then u only get a fraction. do they give any payouts to next of kin after u die? i dont think they do
 
Maybe they wanted all they could get up front and dont trust government to hold the money and not change the rules of the game later? JN2c

Thanks John
Yes and the new world order upon us ,,And a non cash society becoming a reality.Those millions we be of no value taken away.and destroyed.
 
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Mark,

If you do the math, they actually come out a basically wash at the end of the annuity term, assuming the cash option recipients don't just blow it, which some obviously do. (Have a plan, and stick to it.)

If you take the cash option, blow a couple million, to get it out of your system (couple nice houses, couple nice cars, that boat you've always dreamed about, etc...), then invest the rest in a reputable investment firm, at the end of the annuity term of the payment option, you'd have $xxx.

If you take the payment option, you get the total jackpot, but divided evenly by the number of years of the annuity term. Each year you get a nice check, but nothing like with the cash option. There is far less to invest after you've had your fun each year. At the end of the annuity term, you'd have $xxx.

I've don't the math, using a random number as a jackpot, with typical interest rates and some "let's say" numbers for annual spending for each option, and it's almost a dead heat. The one big difference is the lifestyle afforded by the cash option is much higher, instantaneously, while the payment option takes a fair number of years to reach the same wealth levels.

Another reason is that, in many cases, despite only have a single winning ticket, the "winner" is actually a lottery pool, which is often a couple dozen people, Nobody wants to be the administrator of those annuity payments for the next 20-25 years, so the cash option is a far simpler solution.

In any case, I'm sure nobody is really going to cry too long about winning the lottery, given the difference in potential lifestyles between winning and not.

I play the numbers whenever the jackpot gets too tempting not to, knowing full well I'm almost certainly throwing my money into a bottomless well, never to be seen again. I have ALWAYS taken the case option. Nowadays, I don't think they even ask you when you buy your tickets, but rather, it's an option upon claiming your winnings.

Thanks. Brad.

Titan Racing Components

BlackJack Hydros

Model Machine And Precision LLC
 
Very simple: you win $300 or $400 million, take cash value (yields $150 to $200 million). No sweat. Say a prayer of thanks to god above. Then live happily ever after in my same neighborhood, only in a new house...................
 
How much money do you need? If I took a lump sum of a mere $100 million I could give 90% of it to charity and retire tomorrow, comfortably.

The key in life is realizing the value of time, and using it wisely.
 
Can someone explain to me why someone would give away around A QUARTER BILLION DOLLARS????????????????????

The reason I ask is over the past couple of months, a 20 year old kid won the Megamillions drawing for a total of $451 Million.

The winner of the last Powerball is a 47 year old man in New Jersey that won $455 Million.

Last summer, a Massachusetts lady won a $758.7 Million Powerball drawing.

What all three of these people have in common is they took the cash pay out. That means they literally gave away roughly $225.5 Million, $227.5 Million and $379.35 Million, respectively. This means that they took home:

$281.9 Million

$324.6 Million

$336 Million

Had they taken the money over the long term, they would have taken home a minimum of:

$338,250,000 or $11,275,000 per year (a gain of $56 million)

$341,250,000 or $11,375,000 per year (a gain of almost $15 million)

$569,025,000 or $18,967,500 per year (a gain of over $220 million)

All the above numbers are based on $25,000 per million won, after taxes, as put out by the Washington State Lottery Office several years ago. Obviously, tax laws have changed but, at the same time, why give away that much money when you don't have to?
Google "Time Value of Money" and you'll see they aren't giving away anything. They don't just arbitrarily give them a certain dollar for the cash payout. The $451m paid out annually over 20 years is discounted to it's present value in todays' dollars. Of course, they need to invest the cash today to have the same total payout, and do run the risk of blowing it all. However, the cash received today is equal to the $451m at the end of the payouts.
 
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Yup, there is no advantage to having played the lotto multiple times, for the lotto getting larger due to not being won or any pattern of numbers. The only way to increase your odds is to buy multiple tickets of different number combinations.

Still, the odds of winning are astronomically slim
 
Yup, there is no advantage to having played the lotto multiple times, for the lotto getting larger due to not being won or any pattern of numbers. The only way to increase your odds is to buy multiple tickets of different number combinations.

Still, the odds of winning are astronomically slim
yep. that was one of the neat things we covered when I took Probability and Statistics. It's a relatively simple equation to arrive at the odds of winning (y'know, when they say 1 in 43 million.)

that class is probably a big part of the reason I was never interested in gambling.
 
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