Half a BILLION dollar Mega Millions

[timmac]

I am with you! I've never played before and asked a similar question on another thread. You can buy them from almost any convenience store, gas station, grocery store.

As for quick pick being the best option or not, I have no idea!

In terms of whether or not your ticket is a winner, there simply is no "best" way to go. Your ticket has numbers listed on it. The drawing involes a selection of numbers. If your numbers match the numbers that are drawn, then you win, otherwise you don't win. (Possibly some smaller prizes if you match some but not all of the numbers.)

No selection of numbers is any more or less likely to be drawn than any others. Quick pick, or picking the numbers yourself, the odds are no different.

The only sentient line of thinking regarding strategy I have ever heard is that if you pick the numbers yourself, favor picking higher numbers, 32 and up. Because so many people pick birthdays/anniversaries as "lucky" numbers, the numbers 1-12 are the most commonly selected, and 13-31 next most common. By picking less commonly selected numbers, on average there will be less people you split the prize with should you end up winning.

 

[POOHsie]

Embarrassed to ask this...
but i've never played the lotto before. Someone said you can buy quick picks? Is that the way to go? Also, where do you buy these at?

Yes, I want to drink the kool-aid lol

Yesterday I didn't know anything about playing Mega Millions. I went online to my state's lottery site, to info about MegaMillions (a Draw Game). You pick 5 numbers in one group, from 1-56, then you pick 1 number in a second group, from 1-46. There's a place to mark if you want quick pick. On the Cali Lottery page I linked below, there's a blue box you click, and it gives a very quick summary how to play and how to quick pick.

I called Walmart and was told they don't sell lottery. I called my local Kroger store (in Ohio) and they did sell the tickets, so that was convenient. You might want to call your grocer. Anyway, mini-marts and gas stations have them.

http://www.calottery.com/play/draw-games/mega-millions

 

[Planogirl]

I think that it's a good idea to just do nothing for a bit as a PP said. It would be so easy to start spending like a maniac.

I would however quit my job. I have no use for that place and I'd be so outta there!

I would also pay off everything and then travel somewhere to contemplate my next move. I might go to Tuscany or the Ozarks or somewhere else relatively quiet just to be alone with my thoughts for a while. Of course DH could go too but he tends to lose himself best in his job.

You can usually buy lottery tickets at any convenience store. That would probably be the easiest place to get them.

 

[Leshaface]

Yesterday I didn't know anything about playing Mega Millions. I went online to my state's lottery site, to info about MegaMillions (a Draw Game). You pick 5 numbers in one group, from 1-56, then you pick 1 number in a second group, from 1-46. There's a place to mark if you want quick pick. On the Cali Lottery page I linked below, there's a blue box you click, and it gives a very quick summary how to play and how to quick pick.

I called Walmart and was told they don't sell lottery. I called my local Kroger store (in Ohio) and they did sell the tickets, so that was convenient. You might want to call your grocer. Anyway, mini-marts and gas stations have them.

http://www.calottery.com/play/draw-games/mega-millions

Great! Thanks so much for the breakdown and the link

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I always do quick pick, it's just easier. Your odds are practically zilch no matter what. I used to have some #'s that meant something in my life that I played, but it's too time consuming to keep track of (I'm a pretty infrequent ticket buyer).

I also read a horrible story about some man on the East Coast (NJ or NY I wanna say) who played the same #'s for 20+ years, never won a thing, finally gave up & quit buying tickets. But, he kept watching the #'s and sure enough eventually his numbers hit big, but of course he didn't have a ticket. He went into a deep depression & eventually committed suicide. Sounds like urban legend, but I remember the article pretty well & it was legit. Who needs that?!

 

[jujube]

I agree with kicking back only it would be hard to do at home. Can you imagine all the phone calls and people dropping by the house?
1. Set up a family trust.
2. I'd kick back on a beach somewhere.
3. Buy a house with lots of property in case my kids would want to live there. Build them houses no matter where they live. Buy a house in Disney's Golden Oaks-no more having to wonder which resort.
4. Pay off my brother's mortgages. Set up trust funds for their kids. Give them some $$$$. My BILs and SILs are set but we'd do something nice for them.
5. Give our house to my housekeeper.
6. Charities
7.Kick back some more with a family trip to Europe for a few months.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I agree with kicking back only it would be hard to do at home. Can you imagine all the phone calls and people dropping by the house?
1. Set up a family trust.
2. I'd kick back on a beach somewhere.
3. Buy a house with lots of property in case my kids would want to live there.

We're fortunate enough to have a little land now (7.4 acres) and are surrounded by farmland, so it'd be easy to expand out to a couple hundred acres if we had $$$ to stick under our neighbor's noses But yeah, it'd be tough to remain anonymous.

On the flip side, our across the road neighbor's daughter hit a couple million in MO lottery and seems to be having a pretty normal life. I don't know if it's just the fact people realize that's not "uber" rich & are leaving them alone, or what. But, as far as I know they haven't had any issues. $540 million could create an entirely different scenario though!!

 

[PatriciaH]

First, I would sock some away that does not get touched but generates income from something safe like bonds/CD's. $10-$20 million or so. I would have my friends that are lawyers and bankers handle setting up trusts, bank stuff, etc.

Family and friends would be taken care of. New cars if needed, houses and debt paid off, condos or homes bought, back accounts set up. Shopping sprees for clothing.

DH and I would get a nice house someplace warm (probably Celebration or Golden Oak) with a screened in porch and pool. We do not need 8,000 sf -3,000 sf would be pushing it. Something nice that we could have fun parties and friends could crash at. I would love a place in CA and maybe Hawaii or the Caribbean. We would travel the world and take friends/family that wanted to come along. We would visit all the Disney parks of course. I would do many of the ABD trips and the cruises. I would also love to do a world cruise. Our cats would be very spoiled with a private pet sitter since we would travel a lot.

Most of the money would be given away to charities: Grameen, Heiffer, Food For The Poor, Farm Sanctuary, service dogs, MSPCA, Angel charities for business ideas, educating woman in poor countries, etc. I would tell friends and family-this is what you are getting-do not blow it because the rest of it is being given to people that need it! I would share the wealth

Good luck everyone!

 

[wvjules]

With 640 MILLION dollars Disney would be at the bottom of the list of places I'd go. There are way too many awesome places in this world to make my first trip as a mllionaire be to Disney.

 

[hopemax]

Vacations everywhere, yeah. Live where I want, yeah. Family and charitable donations, yeah. But what I would love to do....

Hire Joss Whedon to make a sequel to Serenity / put Firefly back into production as an internet show. But I think FOX would get in the way.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Hire Joss Whedon to make a sequel to Serenity / put Firefly back into production as an internet show. But I think FOX would get in the way.

Your name isn't Dr. Sheldon Cooper by chance, is it?


On a similar note, my wife had this show she loved years ago called Models Inc (I think). It ended one season on a cliffhanger and never came back. It's bugged her ever since that she never found out what happened. I suppose I could find out who wrote it & pay them to tell us what was going to happen if the show came back

I'd also get a huge kick out of leaving HUGE tips in casual restaurants & randomly buying groceries for people ahead or behind me in line or meals for other patrons in the restaurants.

 

[CoP Luv]

On a similar note, my wife had this show she loved years ago called Models Inc (I think). It ended one season on a cliffhanger and never came back. It's bugged her ever since that she never found out what happened. I suppose I could find out who wrote it & pay them to tell us what was going to happen if the show came back

I remember that! I always wanted to know as well if the crazy lady shot the little boy or the model. I loved that show!

 

[TheRatPack]

We never play the lottery....haven't played it since it first came to Georgia. Today we went in to play.....and felt so stupid trying to figure out the card and which lottery was the big drawing (good grief, how many lotteries can one state have LOL).

Anyhow....we'd of course do the normal stuff like pay off our home, buy a new car (we have two paid off vehicles now but something newer would be more reliable).

We'd probably splurge and buy a vacation home near Disney, my husband would DEFINITELY quit work, he works so hard and it would be nice to enjoy traveling and other relaxing things before regular retirement age.

We'd set our siblings up with a one time gift, our parents and grandparents as well. Giving to different charities, adopting a few more kids.....etc etc etc. LOL Then I think we'd put the rest in a fund and live off interest.

Of course this is all after hiring an attorney and financial investment person who specializes in lottery winners.

And for those hung up on statistics, I worked with a person once that won TWICE!!!! They played quite a bit every single week though....so who knows how much they lost to get those two wins.

 

[LadyBeBop]

I bought five tickets by myself, and I also threw five dollars in a lottery pool with my co-workers. There's 20 of us in it, so we bought $100 in tickets.

If i won $600 million by myself (about $400 million cash option), I'd pay off all my bills, give a bunch to charities, invest the rest and live off the interest. Even after taxes, and assuming a minimal 1% interest rate, that would still be over a million a year. I could live on that.

Now, if my co-workers and I split $600 millions, I think each of us would get $20 million (assuming the cash option) before taxes or about $13 million after taxes. Again, I'd pay the bills and mortgage, give to charity and invest the rest, living off interest. Assuming I invest $10 million at 1%/year, that would be about $100,000/year. Which is roughly our yearly income. We'd probably retire, but we wouldn't live too high off the hog. We may look into buying DVC; or more likely more Wyndham points at Bonnet Creek. We'd pay for our eldest daughter's schooling (she's going back to college), and probably pay for our youngest daughter's as well if she decides to return to school. We'll pay our granddaughter's tuition at private school.

Only 3 1/2 hours until we find out we didn't win. But it's nice to keep the dream alive until then.

 

[AverageDiser]

Take the cash option of 400 mil..200 mil would go into a trust for dd's medical expenses. I would buy a house for us and for my mom, give bro & family the option to upgrade their house or get a new one. Invest 2 mil in a car fund for the same set of relatives so they'd never have to worry about a car payment again. Give each set 2 mil to invest/live from, whatever.

Have ten handicapped accessible houses built in a neighborhood, go to social services and find other families with children w/ chronic illnesses & not a lot of money. (Thinking 10 mil should cover it.) Rent the houses to them for $100 a year. Put 5 mil into another car fund for those families.

Donate 1 mil to Give Kids the World, 1 mil to Make A Wish, and 1 mil to the Children's Hospital we use.

Put the remaining 100 mil or so into good investments, live off the interest. Travel with friends/family all over the world. I'd prob buy a house in Maine to spend summer/falls in, and a house in FL for winter/spring. DD and I have talked a lot about an around the world cruise, maybe hit the various Disneys along the route.

Nice to dream

 

[mrodgers]

If i won $600 million by myself (about $400 million cash option), I'd pay off all my bills, give a bunch to charities, invest the rest and live off the interest. Even after taxes, and assuming a minimal 1% interest rate, that would still be over a million a year. I could live on that.

Heck, if I put it just in my checking account that pays a measly 0.1%, it would make me enough to live on. I'm living on my current salary, I think I could manage on almost 5 times that.

 

[TinaMcTeer]

Well DH played and while we didn't win the jackpot, we did win $150. I guess we are up $145 since he played $5 to begin with! Going into our Vacation fund for our DL trip this summer!!!!

 

[disneydreamin23]

I won 450. 23 came in there for me tonight. Yay lucky number! And yep, it'll go to Disney. Maybe a night savanna side at AK. This is the difference between my grandparents and me. My grandmother won $500 at a casino this month, and that went in the bank. When I win something, it gets spent

*Edit: This is the first time I've played. I should probably give it a rest for a while.

 

[jujube]

Loser here but it sure has been fun dreaming!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Woohoo, congrats to the winners above - and to the loser, I'm right there with ya