I can't stop daydreaming about winning the lottery.

[Bertha Venation]

:banghead:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I do that, too.

And I'm especially stupid because I hardly ever buy tickets.

[BlueIris]

2. A word to the wise--it's not all it's cracked up to be.

At all.

In 2004, I kinda made a little hobby out of studying the outcomes of lottery wins. Not pretty. Most people not only wind up without their winnings, they wind up saying they wish they'd never won.

Among other issues that crop up for lottery winners--getting fired. Happens to people who have other financial windfalls, too, but if you win the lottery, even if it's only a few thousand or hundred thousand dollars, your job will usually be given to someone perceived to need it more.

The IRS likes to take lottery winners out for a walk, something that also happens to folks whose "sudden money" comes to them through contests, game shows, etc. And regardless of the source, the IRS is auditing anyone with seizable assets these days.

And that's not even getting into the super freaky (read: sleazy) stuff that sucks in lottery winners like nothing else: fraudulent investment schemes, gold digging creeps, and especially opportunistic family members. That last one is how most winners get totally screwed. Every once in a while, someone actually gets murdered over a lottery win, like this poor guy:

http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=124292&catid=8

Lottery wins are not easy money and typically don't last as long as you might think.

ETA: Oh, and most local newspapers print lottery winners' names and the cities/counties they live in. Just in case anyone wants to look up the winners to harass or berate them.

[Bertha Venation]

4. Interesting.

It's easy to say "that'll never happen to me," but . . .

[Curmudgeoness]

6. That'll never happen to me.

Really, I know it won't. I also dream of winning the lottery---the big one, not just a $1000 ticket.

I have a feeling that there are a few lottery winners who do just fine. I will be one of those ones. I have already solved some of the problems in my head. I win a biggie, I call my family and the one friend I care about together and we all say that we were in on it and it is split between us----this solves the family issues. We all have the same amount of money and no need of lending money. We take the option to have our identity withheld. That solves the vulture problem.

So....as you can see, you are not the only one who thinks way too much about this. And I have probably bought 10 lottery tickets in my life. How sick is that.

[Courtesy Flush]

7. You really think that would suffice?

You'd have to divide it by all the long-forgotten relatives who would come out of the woodwork. The numbers are inestimable.

I'm not sure I'd handle it any better, but I think giving shares to relatives would get out of hand. Where does it stop? First cousins? Second cousins? Great aunts?

Solution? Win REALLY big.

I know enough about the lottery to be pretty certain I'll never win. But I know enough about myself to know that if one of my relatives wins, I won't ask for a penny.

[Curmudgeoness]

8. Ah, that problem of long-forgotten relatives is a non-issue for me.

I don't give a shit about them.

[RebelOne]

10. Well, I am not worried about losing my job because I am retired.

So, I will just take the money and run to another country.

[Bake]

3. Give it up. I got dibs on the next Powerball.

It's MINE MINE MINE, baybeeeeeee!

And when it is, I'm funding DU for a long long time!!

:woohoo:

Bake

[Bertha Venation]

5. Wanna play War over it?

I love playing War. :)

[Bake]

12. Is that like Paper Rock Scissors?

:rofl:

Bake

[hifiguy]

9. Harmless enough

Wouldn't bother with the penny-ante stuff in terms of buying tix, but when they get into the nine-figure range I indulge occasionally. Someone has to win.

I'd spend a year here arranging my affairs and planning things for the long term, then be off to New Zealand or Vancouver B.C. for good taking my remaining money with me. Surely someone willing to invest millions somewhere can manage to wangle citizenship in a reasonable length of time. At which point the IRS could kiss my posterior, not that I've ever made enough any other time in my life to be worth auditing.

No immediate family and most of my living relatives are vastly better off than I have ever been. And I know a couple of very hotshot tax lawyers and a brilliant investment guy who made himself a multi-millionaire in commodities.

[dawg]

11. I would set up a foundation.

The first $5 million or so would be invested in a well-diversified portfolio geared towards dividend-paying stocks. The $100K or so it would generate in dividends (taxable at a max of 15%) would constitute lifetime income for dawg.

Any amounts above the $5 million would go to setup a private foundation, which would then hire an administrator at an average salary (probably a friend or relative) to oversee the gifting of all income generated by the foundation.

Anyone who comes asking for money .... talk to the administrator.

[Godhumor]

13. I would reinvest my winnings in scratch and win tickets

No downside that I can see!

[applegrove]

14. There is a guy who won the lottery in a small town outside the city in which I live 27 years ago.

I talked to a woman who lived in his town and she said: "you'd ask him for a bit of cash if you saw him on the street and he'd tell you to go to hell" or something to that effect! LOL!

[emilyg]

15. I won $40 tonight on Ga. Cash 3. WOW!

Come join us on lotterypost.com

[Luciferous]

16. My husband swears he's going to win the lottery some day. I don't know

how, since he never buys lottery tickets. He says that he'll just know some day that it's time to buy one... :shrug:

If I won the lottery, I would probably do some traveling and then buy one of those gorgeous homes in the historic district of Savannah. I would also buy my husband a machine shop and employ as many people as possible.

[Blue_Tires]

17. I remember a statistician quoted in the news once

He said winning the lottery is the equivalent of going to Las Vegas, sitting down at the poker table, and the first five hands you are dealt are straight flushes...THEN walking out of the casino, and the first five people you meet on the street have the same birthday...

Doesn't mean I don't ever play the lottery, but I do like to keep that in mind...