Tag: BALL

WHAT TO DO WITH $758.7 MILLION?

Last week the Power Ball reached $758.7 million and as usual when the lottery gets big, we do an office pool at the radio station. I never buy lottery tickets on my own, it’s like throwing your money away. But when the lottery gets big and someone in the office says, “hey who’s going in on the lottery?” I jump right in! Or sometime it is me that says that to everyone in the office.

Why? I don’t really know why. I guess when there is a chance of 1 in 175 million of winning the Power Ball, I think I have a chance of winning big!  Well mathematically I do have a chance of winning, like the saying goes, if you don’t play you can’t win or something like that.

Anyways, a woman won the $758.7 million lottery! After paying $336 million in taxes she took a lump sum of $480 million dollars into her savings account!! Let me repeat that, $480 million dollars!!

She quit her job. She hired security. The media ascended on her like a bear on honey and people that wanted money from her surrounded her house the next day. Her life changed overnight. But is it worth it? That is the question I ask every time someone wins a lot of money like that.

Yes my bank account would look nice with $480 million in it. Is it worth all the major and I mean major stress and worry that it would bring into your life?  I remember watching her news conference and she said she was scared. I would be scared to.

In today’s world, I would worry about all the crazies, knowing who I am, knowing where I live, worried about the safety of my wife, my kids and grandkids and where they live. I would be consumed with someone trying to kidnap them for ransom. I think that would be my biggest worry.

You would think you would have to move and disappear, and start over. I don’t want to move out of my house and leave the community I live in. $480 million would bring a whole new set of problems into your life. So that’s the dark side of winning the lottery.

What would I do with $480 million dollars? I don’t know if I would quit my job and I mean that. I would first make sure my family, children, grandchildren, and extended family like cousins, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, let’s just say if your related to me I will take care of you. I would also give some to my closest friends. 

I would invest some of it in my community of Madison and other communities that I am involved in. Area schools would benefit from me winning $480 million, local charities too! I would keep all the money “local.”

Well that was fun thinking about how I would spend and invest $480 million.  So is winning the lottery worth it? I don’t think so, I think it would destroy your life. I would love to sit down and visit with all the big lottery winners and ask them that question.