powerball

[chiques chicks]

I'm like you, latestarter, love the dream and math. At my age, that amount of money is just silly.

I don't need a huge fancy house, a fancy car, lots of vacations. People spend money to visit the area I live, why go away? A newer pickup, probably. Maybe a bigger property. I have a friend who would love to open a no kill shelter/sanctuary/ rehab.

It's nice to think about opening some sort of business, but with all the legal issues, tax issues, etc I'm tempted to say why bother. Rather live quiety alone. Biggest issue is people thinking they deserve something just because they know you. I have no issue helping people that are in a jam, but don't tell me you deserve it.

 

[babsbag]

DH and I figured we would put all of the nieces and nephews through college and give them some pocket change if they graduate, but no handouts for the young. They have to learn to work. I have a few friends I would help out, replace an ancient mobile home for one and pay for another to go back to school and pay her bills while she does it, but again, very few handouts that don't "teach a person how to fish". I would have to find some charities to support that really believe in the same values that I do. What a fun challenge it would be.

@Latestarter, if no one won the last few weeks why do you think that there will be multiple winners? I know I see that happen often but just curious why you think that.

 

[Southern by choice]

LOL- this is the talk everywhere.

Dh knew a man from work that won the lottery... not once BUT TWICE! He like almost all lottery winners pretty much ended up bankrupt, life destroyed within 5-10 years.

I would never play but... here is my dream list.

First- I wouldn't spend one dime on any animal rescue or anything even remotely related.

I would however give to St. Judes, various Hospital houses (like the McDonald house) Multiple programs that help veterans, certain programs that help battered and abused women and their children, assistance for families that have had devastating medical crisis with their child or spouse.

But my big dream would be something I had hoped to do 20 years ago.
This is the "short" condensed version.
A home for unwed pregnant women who want to keep their baby but have no family support. My dream was a 5 -6 year program where the moms work together, care for each other's children, while finishing their education, go on to either college, vocational school or whatever will help them become fully self sufficient. It would also be self funding- A luxury kennel would be in full operation for employment. Many skills are learned through such an environment.People skills,management, hard work, compassion, care, purpose, computer, record keeping, basic book-keeping and accounting... many "life" skills.

For me and my family- More land, a house with my dream kitchen, a big barn, a kubota tractor, and take care of my aging family members.

 

[Baymule]

1.5 billion. I would buy a jet and finance my own presidential campaign.

 

[greybeard]

I didn't win

I did--because I didn't play and kept my $2 in my pocket.

 

[babsbag]

I play so seldom that I had to read the rules...I actually won $4.00 and it cost me $10 to do it. Oh well.

 

[babsbag]

1.5 billion. I would buy a jet and finance my own presidential campaign.

Move over Donald Trump.

 

[Latestarter]

@Latestarter, if no one won the last few weeks why do you think that there will be multiple winners? I know I see that happen often but just curious why you think that.

It basically works out to be an "odds" issue. The odds of winning (the grand prize) are 257 million to 1. The more people that play, the better the chance that there will be more than one winner. Since the prize money paid out is ~ 50% of sales, if the pot increases by $250 million it means that there were $500 million worth of tickets sold.

If you look at the number of folks that had matched 5 numbers but missed the power ball number, it has increased proportionately each drawing as the pot has gotten bigger. The pot for last draw was 900 mil. they are estimating 1.3 bil this time but I expect it will be closer to 1.5 Bil. That would mean the ~500-600 million increase is 1/2 the total sales so about 1 billion + in total sales or 4 times the odds... or odds wise, it works out to approximately 4 winners. Obviously in reality there might be none (we've already seen that) or there may be 20... I just hope I'm the only one

 

[babsbag]

@Latestarter Makes sense. But come on, I think you should share...hounding you already and you haven't even won. But I'm going to be the only winner. I want to be like Charlie and the golden ticket.

 

[Latestarter]

I'm a very generous kinda guy. But I dislike "beggars". I have no issues at all helping friends and even acquaintances.