HalfCast 13: Mega Millions
With the most recent Mega Millions lottery jackpot well over half a billion dollars, Chris, Jack, Andrew, and Natalie talk about what they would do with that much money – grownup toys, cars, houses, donations, vacations and so much more.
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So who was the lucky one to win the super prize?
I have never played lottery ever in my life, till now, and hence no chance of winning a jackpot or a single penny. Actually I find the whole idea a bit immoral (if I can use that word). Its like taking money from a number of guys and giving some of it to a few – the only people benefiting out of it are those organizing it. Like the casinos, they will never lose.
But the thought of suddenly getting 100’s of millions as a windfall gain is really tempting. I had made some rough calculation of how much money I need, in a funny discussion with friends and the amount I came up with was about half a million USD (100k to pay-off the mortgage of our home, 300k for the monthly household expenditure for next 30 years, 100k for children’s education & 100k for medical emergencies)If I have that much amount it would be sufficient for my rest of life. A part of the money to do the same for the people we love (family, friends) and rest will go for developing infrastructure for affordable education for children.
There were 3 winners; one in Maryland, Kansas, and Illinois, but none of them have come forward yet. The jackpot was split so that each winner gets $218.6 million, which is still an amount of money that seems ridiculous to me (in a good way).
The lottery claims that 35% goes to the partner state for government services, which is education here in New Jersey, but how that money is divided up is unknown to me. You can check out their site for all the info.
As you heard on the ‘cast, winning that amount of money is beyond tempting. My office went in on pool, buying over $60 worth of tickets, while joking with each other about how we would need a haircut when we go for the press conference after our big win.
As the lottery slogan says: “All you need is a dollar and a dream.”