If I had a billion dollars I would...

I would fiddle around on the roof and sing...

''If I were a rich man
Ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum
All day long, I'd biddy biddy bum
If I were a wealthy man
I wouldn't have to work hard
Ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum
If I were a biddy biddy rich yidle-diddle-didle-didle man''
 
One long staircase just going up and one even longer coming down! And one more going nowhere just for show!
 
Find me someplace to buy where I could live without needing money. :crazy:

But my real question is…
ArrowFlyer86 said:
I would invest whatever money is necessary to clean-house in Chicago's political scene and do whatever I could to get the city on a better track.
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From which country would you buy the nuclear weapons?
 
The problem with the state tax issue is, you have to move BEFORE you cash in the ticket. And, you need make sure you are not liable for taxes in your previous state once you do move.

The cash option is about 50% (today PowerBall is 50.8% and Mega Million is 52.7%).

Federal tax rate is 37% max (actually bit less as the first $539,900 is taxed at lesser rate), so you get 18.9% of the jackpot. So a $1 billion jackpot, you actually get a check for $327 million.

Annuities for my age are paying about 8% now, so that would be an income of about $26 million per year for the rest of my life. And the good news is, if you do an annuity, part of the money paid to you is your money, and since it was already taxed, it is not taxed again. So you are only paying taxes on a fraction of that $26 mil.
 
Pinecone said:
The cash option is about 50% (today PowerBall is 50.8% and Mega Million is 52.7%).

Federal tax rate is 37% max (actually bit less as the first $539,900 is taxed at lesser rate), so you get 18.9% of the jackpot. So a $1 billion jackpot, you actually get a check for $327 million.
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A long time ago I had a problem with compulsive gambling in my family. It was almost entirely lottery related.

I think advertising a lotto payoff as $1 billion is almost criminally misleading. Any entity other than the government would be forced to reveal the actual present - not future - cash value of any promised payout.
 
Bill said:
With a monthly allowance of 2.1M I think you’d get by, even in Hawaii.
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For you plumbers, you might have to tighten your belt a little, but you'd get by. :)
 
FastEddieB said:
A long time ago I had a problem with compulsive gambling in my family. It was almost entirely lottery related.

I think advertising a lotto payoff as $1 billion is almost criminally misleading. Any entity other than the government would be forced to reveal the actual present - not future - cash value of any promised payout.
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Do you come across official ads where they don't show both the jackpot and cash value? All the ads I see show both.
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Lindberg said:
Do you come across official ads where they don't show both the jackpot and cash value? All the ads I see show both.
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I just went to the Tennessee Lottery page, and if there's any such disclaimer it's well hidden.

edited to add: I sure don’t see it on the billboards!
 
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DaleB said:
If we were to move to TX, it would likely be to an air park. I just looked up the property taxes on a $2MM house in Pecan Plantation and compared it to the same value house where we live now. TX would be nearly $20K per year lower. We also pay property tax annually on our cars - and NE taxes all income, including retirement and Social Security.
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That's because the NE and both coasts are so wonderful! You really don't want to move here to Texas, we're pretty much all full up now these past two years ...
 
danhagan said:
That's because the NE and both coasts are so wonderful! You really don't want to move here to Texas, we're pretty much all full up now these past two years ...
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Nor do you want to move to FL. The gators will eat your dog and the skeeters will kill your children.
 
I’d immediately buy a small blue water capable yacht and hire a crew to get away from everybody until the news blows over, and the pby Catalina I’d buy gets converted to a flying RV. I’d also immediately begin work on buying a large field and have a cement “grain elevator” built in the middle of nowhere and begin buying every long term deliverable futures silver contract on the market exchanges with full intention of taking delivery and not selling.
 
FastEddieB said:
I just went to the Tennessee Lottery page, and if there's any such disclaimer it's well hidden.

edited to add: I sure don’t see it on the billboards!
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Billboards in MD do state that the number show is the annuity value.
 
Pinecone said:
Billboards in MD do state that the number show is the annuity value.
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That’s great.

1) I just did a Google search for Lottery billboards and virtually none of them show that.

52737456304_5005a2c376_c.jpg


Maybe MD is an outlier.

2) The cash payout should be the prominent number shown. It never is.
 
FastEddieB said:
That’s great.

1) I just did a Google search for Lottery billboards and virtually none of them show that.

52737456304_5005a2c376_c.jpg


Maybe MD is an outlier.

2) The cash payout should be the prominent number shown. It never is.
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Eddie, why would you expect a gambler to be honest and forthright?
 
I thought it was to save the striped sharks...
 
FastEddieB said:
That’s great.

1) I just did a Google search for Lottery billboards and virtually none of them show that.

52737456304_5005a2c376_c.jpg


Maybe MD is an outlier.

2) The cash payout should be the prominent number shown. It never is.
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I did too, and if you zoom in, many of them do say that's the annuity value. I guess some states do and some don't. But that's the prize, regardless. No different from Publisher's Clearinghouse. And you can't buy lottery tickets from a billboard or online anyway.
 
FastEddieB said:
It just seems like the power of the state shooting fish in a barrel.
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Yeah. Would you expect otherwise? :D

I’ve been working on my tax return today. That’s akin to to being tied to a post and shot by a firing squad. If some mathematically-impaired fish voluntarily jump into a barrel and get shot, don’t expect me to feel much sympathy.
 
Personally I like the idea of a lottery to generate revenue for the government. It’s completely voluntary and is in essence a tax on stupidity. What’s not to like?
 
The fact that if a non idiot won/got access to a billion dollars and they were calculating they could cause huge ripple effects in the global economy. Look at the physical reserves of silver and if I remember correctly the “hunt brothers?” Attempt at Corning the market in the 1980’s. Everybody assumes a fool will win it because only a fool would buy a ticket based on the odds, and they would blow it on dumb stuff, but someday a non fool who understands the odds but doesn’t care, may win it and there are areas of the markets where a billion dollars cash could have huge effects.
 
I buy lottery tickets. But only a few. Buying one infinitely increases your chance of winning. After that one, there is little gain in buying more.
 
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