The Powerball jackpot has risen to $1.5 billion dollars. It's never been that high.
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are about zero. If you buy a ticket, the odds increase only slightly, to 1 in 292,201,338. If you buy two tickets, your chance of winning increases to 2 in 292,201,338. Yeah, that’s twice the chance, but still pretty close to zero. And you’re out $4. Look at it this way: this particular lottery has already gone through 18 drawings, and no one has hit all the numbers any of those times.
The astronomical odds can be confusing. To get an idea of how the lottery works, you can try the Powerball Simulator. In a flash, it played six months of Powerball for me, wherein I paid $112 for tickets and won $12. Yay. You can keep playing if you like. The simulator doesn't cost anything.
But what if you win? The first thing you should do is hire financial advisors. And you should take the annuity instead of the cash payout. Mainly because a Powerball winner is not the greatest financial wizard around. We know that because they bought lottery tickets.
Even if you understand the odds, you might want to buy a ticket because the jackpot is so high that the “expected payoff” formula is worth the $2. That is, before you figure out how much tax will be taken out, and the possibility of splitting the jackpot with multiple winners.
Or you might want to buy a ticket just because the thrill is worth $2. That may be true, but the people who are buying tickets are buying more than one. And many of them can’t afford that kind of thrill.
I still think it’s better to not buy a ticket in this week’s Powerball lottery, precisely because the jackpot is so high. That kind of money is guaranteed to ruin your life. No matter who wins, if anyone does, I can tell myself I still have that $2.
(Image credit: Flickr user Clint Gardner)
If you get a chance for a promotion at work be sure and turn it down, because the extra responsibility will only make your life harder and more stressful; and the extra money will only cause you more problems.
If you see a chance to enter into a loving relationship with someone, be sure to run as fast as you can in the other direction; after all, it is bound to end poorly and cause you horrible emotional pain eventually and the odds are you'll only end up depressed and financially in a worse situation than you were in before the relationship began.
In fact, the best advice I have is to stay in bed all day, every day, for the rest of your life. That way you can avoid all risks, never take any chances, and never get your hopes up that you can ever improve your life. But you will be sure to avoid suffereing any disappointment, large or small. That's basically the outlook advocated here.
Or, you can take your $2 and purchase a lottery ticket and buy yourself a little cheap entertainment, while indulging in a bit of harmless fantasy about what you would do with 1.5 billion. You know, even if you don't win the big prize you could win one of the smaller ones by matching some of the numbers. I once won $5000 in that exact way. But even if you just win another lottery ticket, that's something, isn't it?
Goethe said, "Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid." And how bold do you have to be to risk 2 bucks?
to our beloved Miss C : I have that same problem at times ,but then I'm often reminded of a quote from BBC America's Top gear : "do you need a car like this , probably not
do you want a car like this , you bet your bippy or something to that effect"
to that Alan nobody may ever need that kind of money ... but I still hope it goes to a single ticket winner =^P
http://www.wired.com/2016/01/the-fascinating-math-behind-why-you-wont-win-powerball?mbid=nl_11216