Actually the annuity makes sense even if the jackpot is split in half, splitting $500 mil up into 29 annual payments is >$17 mil per year pre-tax, tax is ~25% so that'd be ~$13mil per year, every year, for the next 29 years.

Slightly lowers the chance of you totally fucking yourself over if you have even a basic level of impulse control.

my coworkers started a pool to buy a bunch of tickets together and agree to share the winnings... I feel like I gotta buy into the pool just as insurance... because if they actually win, and I didn't join... I'd be the only guy left at work haha. And forever known as "that one guy who didn't buy in". :lol:

I heard my name ....

No it doesn't make sense. Inflation will beat you over time. You're better off having that money in your hands and investing it in your future. I have around 5 different businesses I would start with that kind of money that could sustain profits for a long while. Investing in property, technology, healthcare, and commodities will all likely beat out inflation. Meanwhile taking your money over the course of 29 years (it's 30 payments over 29) will net you nothing. You're also essentially giving loan to the lottery board to hold onto your winnings. Plus, should the lottery system for any reason collapse that money is gone.

BTW your math is off. If you take your money over 30 payments you get the full $1.4 billion and then pay the taxes annually. The tax on lottery winnings is 39.6% (highest tax bracket right now - 25% up front and 14% on tax day) but you would be subject to tax raises in the future as well. The plus side, though, is that if you're a resident in a state that has state income tax you could potentially move to another state that doesn't and skirt the state tax. I'm not sure if this would work or not but since taxes are paid on income, not on potential future income, I believe you would be okay doing that.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/08/pf/t...kpot-tax-bill/

Here's a great description of things. I'm not going to bother updating my reply with some of the things said in there but if you read it you'll get a good summary.

If I won, everyone in America would get their own butler, and those butlers will have butlers. Let's call them AIDS.

Always take the lump sum. Money begets money.

At a hyperconservative 2% annual rate of return on 800 million dollars, you'll end up with over 1.4 billion in 29 years.

I wouldn't take the payments over the next 29 years. What if you don't live that long lol

Every other lotto goes to your estate, but Powrrball didnt say that on the CA Lotto website so who knows lol

I'll rephrase, you can live extremely comfortably on the annuity once it hits the hundreds of millions, and you're right, I'm not up on the tax details either, we'll leave it at that.

I find it hilarious to think that pocketing ~$20 mil every year will "net you nothing" ($1bil/30 years after 40% taxes).

I have no desire to manage hundreds of millions of dollars or multiple businesses, I'd rather pass a windfall of that level to other organizations dedicated to improving the world and take the small percentage of the kind of money we're talking about needed to take care of myself and keep me and my future heirs well taken care of with a sizable head start in life.

:cheers:

2% on a $10 mil investment would let you withdraw $200k per year in perpetuity, that hyperconservative figure is a fund gaining $16 mil per year, I'm sorry that level of money is just unnecessary imo.

Eh, call me small minded, roof over my head, food in my belly, fun cars to drive, time and money to travel. I don't need $100 mil to do that (and I'll continue doing it with far less).

I can't MAKE ERICA EAT AGAIN without amassing a massive war chest. JAWN 2024.

Missing a few letters there, thought you were making some girl named Erica super fat over the next 8 years.

It's what Makes Erica Eat.

I think that's what she meant...

Jawn's a dude, the avatar is boxxy