Jackpot at $250 Million for Powerball

Yahoo! News ^ | July 9, 2003 | LISA RATHKE

[tet68]

Federal Tax that has to get paid first. I beleive it is 33% - down to $66 Million

Now state anywhere from 5 to 12% more,

If I won, could I pay them in Pennies? What about stamps?

Ooooooh would I make them work for it.

[toddst]

Great story. Thanks for sharing it.

One of the early winners in Kentucky was a bulldozer driver for a coal company in E. Kentucky. He went right on working, said his winning wasn't going to change HIS life! Some folks are really big on not letting anything disturb what they do. I guess he enjoyed running that 'dozer.

[tet68]

Hope springs eternal.
Are we all going to die?
Yes, but maybe it won't be for a while yet.

[discostu]

Hopes get dashed eternally. I've known too many people that blew 5 bucks a week on the lottery with the eternal hope and it never came true and in the end they didn't save any money because they were too busy counting on winning the lottery one of these days and one of these days simply never came.

I've got no problem with spending money entertainment and if the lottery is an entertainment expense and people feel they're getting a good ROI in their entertainment great. It's when people start pre-spending their "winnings" I feel the need to be a cold splash of water in the face.

[Catspaw]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Catspaw]

One of the early winners in Kentucky was a bulldozer driver for a coal company in E. Kentucky. He went right on working, said his winning wasn't going to change HIS life! Some folks are really big on not letting anything disturb what they do. I guess he enjoyed running that 'dozer.

Winning the lottery didn't change Fuzzy's life substantially. It just made it more enjoyable.

[discostu]

Awww did I bust up your sacred cow? Imagine how not upset I am. You posted to me and now your upset at my answer, that's really sad and even more shallow.

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

"Wrong. The odds of winning are 120 million (or is it 180 million?)to 1."

I've been struck by lightning twice (over the past 12 years) so I figure it's high time that something rare happens to me that's good. :) Winning this jackpot can't be worse than being a crispy critter.

[Catspaw]

Please go shake a crone-like finger at someone else. You bore me.

I bet you whine when there's a parade, too--just too much infernal noise and those horses make such a mess.

[Keith in Iowa]

Drat. I lost.

Powerball
19 - 21 - 26 - 31 - 51 - PB 40
Power Play Number is 3 for July 9, 2003

1 Winner in Missouri and
1 Winner in Pennsylvania

Next Powerball Jackpot Estimate Saturday, July 12th, 2003
$10,000,000 (5,600,000 cash option)

[Consort]

Some lucky fool will win the $250M... With my luck, I'll only win about $8 or $10M at most.

[discostu]

Please remember that YOU STARTED IT. It's really quite pathetic to be mad at math like you are. It's just math, it's not your enemy, I'm simply pointing out that there is mathematical certainty that you will never win the lottery and that if your life plans revolve around winning the lottery they are doomed to failure. Play the lottery for fun, but don't build your life around it.

I like parades, as long as I don't have to clean up the horse mess it's a non-issue. Now are you ready to act like a grownup and stop trying to turn this into a pissing contest?

[Catspaw]

Ya know, at first I thought you were like our neighborhood crank, the guy who goes into screeds about just about everything & spends inordinate amounts of time on the phone with the alderman, reporting people in the neighborhood for various infractions--but you just seem more like this date I once had with this Mr. Natural kind of guy. We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. When the CCQ showed up & just before I got to the first bite, he went into this tedious lecture about the antibiotics in milk and cheese. I set the CCQ aside. When our entrees came, he pointed out that the lettuce on my soft shell taco could've been grown to close to the road and therefore contained carbon monoxide and a variety of other toxins. At that point, I got a blinding headache and left, asking the waitress to package up my entree and CCQ, went home and ate my meal in leisure.

You're so like him.

[discostu]

That ain't me. That's how you desperately need to see me, but that ain't me.

[Catspaw]

LOL!!!!

Have some CCQ--you'll just love it, despite the antibiotics in milk.

[OWK]

Boy did you end up looking silly in this thread.

[Catspaw]

I won $7 on a $1 ticket.

I'll put you in that Mr. Natural date I had.

[grumple]

Read "The WInner" by David Baldacci....

It will give you a whole new perspective on how this "lottery" thing works. In short, unless you are a trailor park floosy, with a kid or two, and no foreseeable future....you'll never win...

[jriemer]

The cash option is $141M...figure 40% in taxes, and you clear around $86M in cash.....in the bank, earning a piddly 1% a year, and you can live off the $840K and not even touch the principle.

Why put it in the bank and get just a fraction above 0%? Invest the proceeds in Treasuries and the interest is Federal and State Income Tax Free for the life of the bond in most situations...

[jriemer]

Actually the tax rate on Lotteries is +40% as it's considered gambling income not regular income. That tax goes in on a different schedule than if you were earning it. I think for the really big winners, the tax rate approaches 50%.

In these cases, taking the annunity actually "saves" you money in taxes and you get to keep more. The trick is staying alive 20years and not having your winnings loose value to inflation.