The lottery!
 

Well I can tell you one thing I almost won the Ohio Lottery last week. I bought like 2 tickets and the jack pot was like 70 million in my state! So I was like WOW that is awesome. So I was at work and they announced the results and I had four numbers that were right on my second ticket and there are seven winning numbers. But you have to have all seven right or you lose. I was so close. Mann If I had 70 million I would be hooked for life. Oh well I guess the odds of winning the lottery is like 1 out of a million.

Statistic (Yes, Dan, statistic!): The odds of winning the lottery are worse than getting struck by lightning.

Another statistic: You're more likely to win the lottery than to have two sets of twins in a row.

Well, not me as I don't gamble habitually. Especially not on a 'game' where the probability of my not winning is probably something like 0.99999999999999999999999999999999.

Question: Who made these odds or statistics? Anyway, if i had won this pointless lottery I would put it in the bank

is the same as 0.9

A young lady, i heard, recently won the lottery and she choose to talk only half of it in a lump some, all at once, she should have put it in the bank, this was foolish. I think she took that half which was around 58 million dollars, instead of twice this amount.

If you don't take it in a lump sum the lottery pays it out over time, 20, sometimes 40 years. The lottery depends on the time-value of money to come up with the whole amount won. If you take the lower, lump sum payment, you get to decide how it gets invested and what you'll have at the end of that 20 or 40 years.

Anyone who takes the money over time instead of a lower lump sum amount is trusting that the growth value the lottery is counting on is more than what you could do with some half decent financial advice.

So, she wasn't foolish at all.

No, it is was foolish because the growth of that money would have been atleast double and having this kind of money could-(would) make a name for your family and help your future relaties and family.......she was too young.......you still get payments, and taking it right away woulld give you alot of money in a short time, but you would not have nearly enough to achieve the american dream......which is what, obviously ,she was thinking, and said basically.
she is going to spend it all right, away on cars, all of this brings up taxes, and i doubt how young she is, she would realize what all of ths adds up to. taking it long term help you be conscious of your spendings, and you would prosper in the end, the possiblilty taking it long term is a lot of money, getting the short end is foolish......(in most cases)

Why don't you calculate what 10 percent growth of 58 million dollars over 20 or 40 years is. It's way more than double.

If she takes it over time it doesn't grow -- it's just roughly double the lump sum cut up into 20 or 40 chunks. If she takes it all now she gets to invest it and make it grow.

Apparently she is not going to do that, and let it gain value, she is going to spend a lot, in a shot amount of time, She is the one who stated she was going to spend alot of it on a expensive car first, that does not soud like a good interest plan, or strategy to me, she is too young, maybe if she had an advisor?

Give me a break. Even if she blows in one shot 8 million dollars on cars, jewelry, several houses, vacations, 10 Xboxes, 5 PS2s and a Dreamcast, which is completely unthinkable, anyway, she'd still have $50 million dollars. If she puts that in a crappy savings account, never mind a real investment vehicle, she'd have $500,000 more after one year.

But is blowing the money lets say even just a quarter of it the way to go......wouldnt you think about your future and future family? Build up a name foryourself, isnt this partially what your society is all about? I am not questioning the system neccessarily but more of the girl who won it.........

A quarter would be $ 14.5 million. Gee, she'd only have 43.5 million bucks left. If she buys a crummy 4 percent bank certificate of deposit with that and sits around by the pool all year she will earn 1.74 million dollars. In the first year. If she reinvests that in the CD she'll earn 1.81 million in the second year. $1.88 M the third year. $1.96 in the 4th . . . .

I guess you're right, she'd be definitely shooting her future down the tubes with that kind of chicken feed.

Im sorry but if you have checked the interest hasnt been so goo d lately, as in very little profit........

So we should all stuff our money in a mattress no matter how much we have? She's got the most reason in the world to invest no matter how bad the interest rate is because she has the Mother Lode of principal.

Yes, I've checked. A savings account pays around 1 percent, plus or minus. One percent of $58M is $580,000, and that's simple interest, not compound interest, which she would get. If she doesn't want it I'll take it off her hands. You can get 4 percent on a CD easy.

And, interest rates are starting to go up.

not on cd's the rate is terrible

With the amount of money she has she can get a 4 percent CD.

Besides, you're completely missing the point. Even at half that rate she can make a lot more money than she can working.

4% you are, its not 4% it is much lower, this is why many people have took there money out of cd's becasue the interest is not worth it even on 30 million,(left over from what she spent) long term is much wiser.....

No it isn't,
0.99999999999999999999999999999999 = 0.99999999999999999999999999999999


0.99999999999999999999999999999999
Is closer to 1 than 0.9.

I also heard for that recent lottery win, you had a higher chance of being killed in a car accident on the way to the place you were purchasing the ticket.

$51,000,000 is more money than I'd ever need, so trying to get more money would be at the bottom of my list.

Again, you're missing the point. There's not a financial adviser worth his or her salt that would tell you to take the money in installments.

If you are going to insist that one can't get 4 percent on a CD, MBNA, which is the bank that issues more credit cards than any other in the US, offers a 4.2% on a 30-month CD and 5.3% on a 60-month.

Here; see for yourself: MBNA CD Rates

Good point, which will inevitably be lost on morphius.

On the other hand, think of all the good works you could do with so much extra moolah. ;)

But i know the first thing the young lady,who is not even a adult yet, is going to do is put it in the bank,after all the first thing she said she was going to do was buy the most expensive car she can find, sounds like a great plan for her..........

It's not Statistics that I mind, it's when people think that Statistics made up of Opinions can somehow be used to prove anything...

Dude, whats your deal, installments are not exactly good. If I can even remember correctly the price of a dollar in the US is going down, in other words $20,000 will still be $20,000 but it won't go as far. Like pennies used to be able to get you a gumball from a gumball machine, now a penny, gets you, er, good luck. In other words if you invested now not only would you get more money quickly wihtout bothering techincly "losing" any, or at least how I see it. Byt he way, whats wrong with the most expensive car you can get?

It shows that she will probably not invest the money, she is young and a better plan for a inexperienced person is to take the long term, limiting her spending............First By investing the money will be worth more in the future so it is unwise to spend it now, and she will be losing about 60%by taking it in a lump some, and you seem to be missing the point because the bank will only usually insure 100,000 dollars in a cd, imaging putting 5 million, or even higher 50 million this is not only hard, but unmanageable, and you can put the money in long term if you absolutley have to. Just waiting to tell you.............I respect your answer though....

Well I'm going to put all my bonds into a three thousand dollar CD this year and put in money so I can get a car.

Why hasnt doug come?

He's Offline, Morhpi... Some of us don't spend our whole lives here...

Neither do I, but if that is an attack then you attacked the wrong being.............

Morph, you seem under the impression that this is a chat room. It isn't. It's a forum. And people aren't here 24 hours a day.

Besides, Doug might not answer anyway, because he'll probably have better things to do than argue with someone who acts like a brick wall (nothing gets through).