I think I've bought maybe $10 of lotto tickets in 5 years time. I drive by a big billboard that gives the day's millions, and so the thought of what I would do with all that pops up in my head, but it never really goes beyond that.
Lotteries
- Thread starter Shalimar
- Start date
I think I've bought maybe $10 of lotto tickets in 5 years time. I drive by a big billboard that gives the day's millions, and so the thought of what I would do with all that pops up in my head, but it never really goes beyond that.
I'd spend like 500k on a nice house but obviously not too extravagant at that price, a nice car, bank/invest the rest and quit my job
Nope. Lotteries are charity-supporting here, and deemed to be non-taxable. Same thing with Casinos. If I go to Vegas and win a million, I get a tax refund here on the taxes I would have to pay there.
Why make payments if you have the money to pay it outright? No sense paying $1000's plus in interest if you can afford not to.
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 195,249,054. You get about 50% of the jackpot if you win, and then give up let's say 35% of that in taxes (usually more, I'm being generous). So you get 17.5% of the jackpot after taxes and Powerball take their cuts.
Simple math tells us that the jackpot has to reach $1,115,708,880 in order for it to be profitable to play. This is excluding the non-jackpot amounts, but my server just finished rebooting, so I don't have time to figure all that out.
EDIT:
That's assuming you don't split the jackpot with someone else, too.
EDIT2:
Are lottery losses tax deductible? That would effectively eliminate the tax amount and the jackpot would only have to be about $400 million to work out. But at that point you have to have enough lottery losses to deduct.
Simple math tells us that the jackpot has to reach $1,115,708,880 in order for it to be profitable to play. This is excluding the non-jackpot amounts, but my server just finished rebooting, so I don't have time to figure all that out.
EDIT:
That's assuming you don't split the jackpot with someone else, too.
EDIT2:
Are lottery losses tax deductible? That would effectively eliminate the tax amount and the jackpot would only have to be about $400 million to work out. But at that point you have to have enough lottery losses to deduct.
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a blog post on the freakonomics blog made an interesting point with regard to value derived from playing the lottery. people make themselves happy just thinking about the things they would do or buy with the money they may win. that happiness has value.
if you're going to play, play for the dream, not the winnings.
here's the blog post: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/lotto-is-a-place-where-nothing-ever-happens/
and here's a link directly to the times article about the enjoyment derived from simply playing and dreaming: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/weekinreview/11carey.html?_r=1&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
if you're going to play, play for the dream, not the winnings.
here's the blog post: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/lotto-is-a-place-where-nothing-ever-happens/
and here's a link directly to the times article about the enjoyment derived from simply playing and dreaming: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/weekinreview/11carey.html?_r=1&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
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That is only if you take it all at once, if you take it in yearly payments, then you get the full amount minus taxes.
Paying off your house is usually the worst investment possible, with the exception of Bernie Madoff.