[Today’s run: 3.5 miles]
So!
While we were driving through Georgia over the weekend we stopped for gas and I used two one dollar bills to buy a “quick pick” ticket to the upcoming PowerBall drawing.
I’m not usually a lottery player, mostly because it would require quite a drive from home up to Tennessee to get to where I can buy a ticket. (This is probably a good thing.)
I was out running this morning and I hadn’t checked the Wednesday night lottery results. I figured I should contemplate how I was going to handle it if I won. I figured the first half would go in taxes. Then I could take the rest, keep about half of that for our house and give chunks to all of our relatives. I was imagining a layered system with direct relatives (children, parents, siblings) getting chunk size A, next level (aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews) getting chunk size B, and the next level (cousins) getting chunk size C. Then I was thinking about my neighbors and friends and other people who aren’t relatives… Maybe it would be better to set up some sort of trust and a committee to dole it all out.
I was wondering if it is ethical to drop a million bucks on some of my cousins who I haven’t seen or heard from in decades. It could ruin their lives… not like I’ve done anything to help them anyway, but you know. I was contemplating all of this, how much should go where. Then I started to think, what if I only won $100,000 or some lesser amount? Was I going to divide that up also? Or $10,000? Should I send my relatives checks for $100 if it came down to that? I’m sure they could use the extra money. But so could I! With $200 million, it seemed like I could be more generous. As long as I ended up with a million a year the rest could go. I think I could survive on that.
In the end I had no problem at all. We didn’t match even one number. Zip. All of my relatives are spared from a life of dissipation and ruin.
Later in the day my son and I discovered that he had a bit of a windfall in an old E*Trade account, some stock we thought was worthless turned into about a hundred bucks. Beats a poke in the eye, as grandpa would say.
So it turned out to be a good day all around.
2 replies on “Maybe next time”
I’ve never understood the appeal – especially after taking some a couple classes in statistics in college. Buying one or two a year is one thing, but I get the sense that some guy tickets regularly. And then one reads in the paper how wonderful it is that Ray and Linda aren’t going to lose their home to foreclosure after all as they won big with the lottery and how nice for them blah blah blah. Those incidents make me wonder about priorities that they are gambling in the first place. Seems to be the height of irresponsibility.
During the Bush administration I didn’t buy stock except with funds in my retirement accounts – which are long term. In the summer of 2008 I figured things were about to bust – and big time – so I started buying some with every pay check. Not with my savings. So most my money was in cash, which isn’t smart – that money isn’t working for you – I was skittish about the economy and my own safety net. Of course we know that the market tanked – worse drop since Hoover. I felt badly for folks who were innocent bystanders and lost so much. But I did okay. I didn’t lose a nickel on my savings and I kept buying stock on the way up and doubled my money when I sold to buy a home a few years later. It could have gone the other way so I was gambling that FED and fiscal policies would work – which thy did. Lottery tickets?
Thanks for not making me sweat out what to do with an unexpected windfall! 🙂