Winner opts for 20 years of payments over lump sum
By Kate Northrop
SHIRLEY, N.Y. — A simple visit to the grocery store turned into a $3 million annuitized payday after a New York man decided to buy a lottery ticket.
A New York man won a $3 million top prize on a scratch-off ticket he purchased at the supermarket, a prize that he decided he would take full advantage of.
Kurt Kelleher of Shirley was at King Kullen on William Floyd Parkway in Shirley when he thought to try out the New York Lottery's $10 "Bonus Bucks" scratch-off game.
The unexpected match on his ticket meant that he became the game's first top prize winner of $3 million, and it also meant taking a trip in person to Lottery offices to claim his lucky prize.
Kelleher opted to take the $3 million prize as a full annuity rather than choose the one-time lump sum, granting him 20 annual payments of $150,000, or $97,653 each after taxes.
With Kelleher claiming the first top prize, that leaves two more prizes of $3 million left in the $10 "Bonus Bucks" scratch-off game, which launched in July. There are also eight out of ten second-tier prizes of $5,000 and 11 out of 15 third-tier prizes of $2,000 remaining.
The overall odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 3.86.
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What would the lump sum payout have been after all taxes?
Ever notice the top prize usually come from the same area? Either Long Island New York or Upstate New York. We rarely get top prizes in the boroughs, compared to the aforementioned areas. They don't mix up the distribution properly.
Fudging for inflation his last pre-tax payment will be worth about $45,000 in today's money.
(Using 3.41 for the 20 year fudge and further fudging for 19 years. Actual results will obviously be different)
Congrats Kurt, enjoy and shop away.
There are two recent press releases from the New York Lottery that also feature players who won $3 million top prizes. They walked away with $1,322,442 and $1,308,513 after the required 24% federal tax withholdings, so estimating that the total amount after all taxes would be somewhere around a million?
And, this winner confirms what I am always telling people--You can become a millionaire on any given weekend just by visiting your local Publix grocery store in Florida! Now it's true for New York, too! As the NY Lottery motto goes... "Hey, you never know."
Gotta get up offa that sofa and go upstate where the money is!
Smart man. That's what I'm taking if I ever win a large amount. Be set for atleast 20 years.....
The yearly payment will net him around $1,953,060 after the 20 years.
If I was the winner I would spend 3/4 of the annual payment and invest 1/4 that is $24,413 in a low cost ETF.
After 20 years that would be around 500K in contributions which would hopefully have grown and compounded at least at 7% per year after taxes.
That helps to counter inflation.
I would love to have such a problem 🤣🤣
That's exactly why I always buy a scratcher when leaving the grocery store.