Dont know if its changed since 2012, but this article says that you need just over 173Mil tickets to guarantee a win:http://www.cnbc.com/id/49981575
Buying the lottery shows a little bit of "Chesuren emunah" because if it's 'bashert' to lose a dollar you'll lose it anyway.
They did raise the numbers (up until you can choose) in the last couple months. I think they underestimated it. This will now be a steady recurrence.
If it hit 2 billion would it be worth it to buy all 292 million posiible numbers to guarantee a win ?
900M
Wow. And if no one wins it's going to top a billion. Crazy stuff. Wish we could watch a daily show on the winners life after he wins....Crazy how it could change your life.
Think I'm gonna pull the trigger..
Don't think your life changes too much differently whether you win $300M or $1B.
Wow. And if no one wins it's going to top a billion. Crazy stuff.
It might be especially since the other 291.999 millions are tax deductible
One payment. At least according to the annuity actuaries in my department that know these things.
One.
Why?
Most lotteries pay a really pathetic rate for the annuity. It usually hovers around 4.5% annual return or less, depending. It doesn't take much to do better than this, and if you have the money already in cash, rather than leaving it in the hands of the state, you can pull from the capital whenever you like. If you take the annuity you won't have access to that cash. That could be good. It could be bad. It's probably bad unless you have a very addictive personality.Why not let the state just handle it for you and give you your allowance?Many state lotteries pay you your "allowence" (the annuity option) by buying U.S. treasury instruments and running the interest payments through their bureaucracy before sending it to you along with a hunk of the principal every month. You will not be beating inflation by much, if at all. There is no reason you couldn't do this yourself, if a low single-digit return is acceptable to you.
The thing I linked to yesterday explained it well.Eta: reddit here. Warning: a bit of profanity.
Keep in mind the IRS is no longer accepting checks = or greater then $100 Million Dollars. https://www.google.com/searchurl/r.html#app=mnn.Android&pingbase=https://www.google.com/&url=http://bigstory.ap.org/article/169640d82cd9462c9e006bc0b51b5b72/no-checks-please-irs-no-longer-takes-checks-over-100m
