This has nothing to do with real estate but, what the heck, the following is, nonetheless, an interesting observation about luck, or not.
Winning the lottery – a godsend answer to our material hardships.
Winning the lottery is probably the #1 wish of our times (used to be inheriting Uncle Jack’s fortune).
Personally I think it’s fixed because it’s always somebody else who wins it.
Tonight, at the the supermarket, I bought grocery and went to the Lotto ticket counter to get my Lotto tickets. The Jackpot is $3M. There was someone ahead of me. Waiting my turn, I stare at the winning board above the counter and I thought “it’s ONLY $3M”. So I decide to not buy a ticket and I drive home.
I arrive home; I unpack my grocery and begin to be preoccupied by my senseless decision of not buying those Lotto tickets. “Hey, I’ll take the $3M” I thought. Then I begin to wander about that "ONLY $3M". “I am right” I thought. “$3M, the state and IRS will take out about 50% right off the top and I’ll net about $1.6M.”
Let’s think about this carefully and see if you agree with me. “If I ever win, I’ll pay off all my debts, I’ll buy the house I really want, I’ll help my family, I’ll buy a Corvette and a boat, and etc.” In Fla, the Jackpot is drawn twice a week. After a Jackpot is won, the next bonanza always starts at $3M ever since the Florida Lotto began in 1988. In 1988, however, if you won $3M you could actually do all of the above and have money left over for a little cushion investment. If you win $3M today and you are a young person, you have to save that money and invest it wisely only to help you breathe on the living expenses you already have or will encounter.
We all know how hard it is to get all those six numbers together on the same line. The odds of winning are 1 to 22.5M. Two weeks ago, one person won a $26M Jackpot. WOW! After the taxes, the winner keeps about $14M. With that wallet, the winner will be able to realize most of his/her ambitious dreams. (By-the-way, in Canada, a winner keeps the whole amount. The Canadian Government does not take any taxes off winnings, no matter how big the winning is. Now, that is civilized!)
Here is a concussing twisted thought: Misfortune within good fortune: How would you feel if you were to be the winner of the next pot of $3M, three days after the $26M? Here you are, having waiting all your life for those six numbers to line up in the same box for only a measly $3M ($1.6 after taxes). Talk about bad timing – you are three days late!
I wouldn’t spit on having $1.6 now but I concluded that after a jackpot of $26M, a $3M jackpot is like winning the consolation prize of some cheesy game show on TV.
From now on, I will buy tickets only on jackpots of $9M or more. If those six numbers come my way, it will be on a commendable pot o’gold.
John