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When I was younger, around early 90s when it was at $100 million and everyone was going nuts over it, I had 4 numbers out of 6, this was only a $100 payoff back then!
I cannot imagine what it feels like to win this amount of money!!
I can imagine it quite well. :-)
I too remember when people went ape shiite over 100 million. There would be long lines of people waiting to buy their tickets and the news stations would do interviews with them.
Both tickets cost $2 each now. So for $4 (price of a cup of coffee) you are in for 783mm but I suspect they will go up a few million before the drawing.
Powerball - $278.3 million cash value
MegaMillions - $215 million cash value
The enjoyment I get from dreaming and planning and hoping is much more valuable to me than a cup of coffee.
With my winnings, I might build an ultra modern city for 42,000 people. It would feature electric traction rail, designed for efficiency, with disaster resistance, durability, and so on. And with the proceeds from selling the completed city, fund building more cities.
With my winnings, I might build an ultra modern city for 42,000 people. It would feature electric traction rail, designed for efficiency, with disaster resistance, durability, and so on. And with the proceeds from selling the completed city, fund building more cities.
A) I don't pay $4 for a cup of coffee. IHOP is only $2.49 and I only did that once while on a road trip because McDonald's was closed on Christmas and IHOP was open and I didn't want gas station coffee.
B) When I do pay a dollar or two for coffee, I get guaranteed enjoyment of said coffee, not a pipe dream of winning massive amounts of money that has a ridiculously tiny chance of winning.
That's not to say you can't win. Obviously you can. But I don't like it when the price of one thing is compared to an inflated price of a cup of coffee. Apples and oranges.
Because the state rips you off so badly up front (roughly 50% return on wager), then they rip you off again on the taxes (essentially double taxation), your decision to play should be based on whether you don't mind losing $2, not how much the jackpot is. If you win the jackpot, it's always a life-changing amount. The minimum is $40 million (about $14 million after tax).
1. Paying out a mere 50 cents for every dollar wagered
2. Capital gains tax on your winnings.
By comparison, the average casino game pays out over 90 cents of every dollar wagered.
Yes, 50% of the money you spend on tickets goes to your state's coffers to pay for stuff that taxpayers would normally fund.
Then you have to pay federal and state taxes on any amount you win. I don't believe they let you off with a capital gains tax, I believe it is taxed as income, isn't it? So a whole bunch of money comes out of your win to pay even more taxes than the ones you paid when you bought the ticket.
Yes, 50% of the money you spend on tickets goes to your state's coffers to pay for stuff that taxpayers would normally fund.
Then you have to pay federal and state taxes on any amount you win. I don't believe they let you off with a capital gains tax, I believe it is taxed as income, isn't it? So a whole bunch of money comes out of your win to pay even more taxes than the ones you paid when you bought the ticket.
Rough estimate is your take home, after taxes, will be around 1/3 of the posted jackpot.
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