Payments are not that bad.

Reply #5

ryanm — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 03:31:45 GMT

Taken from the Powerball FAQ page:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

WHY HAS THE CASH JACKPOT GONE DOWN?

Actually, it is the annuity jackpot that has gone UP. Most people assume that we start with the annuity, but we actually start with the cash jackpot. In the Powerball game, thirty cents of every dollar sold goes into the cash jackpot pool. The difference between the cash jackpot and the annuity jackpot depends on how much we can make... [ More ]

Reply #4

dvdiva — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 20:06:23 GMT

No Powerball's annuity is much worse. It's a back loaded annuity. This means that you have to wait for a real long time before seeing any money. It takes far less cash to set up a back loaded annuity so you actually get less money even in the long run. It does count inflation in that's the real reason you get far less.

Second if you die before the annuity the IRS forces a sale of the annuity to collect income/death tax. The only way around that is if you were smart enough to take cash and get... [ More ]

Reply #3

ryanm — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 19:57:56 GMT

Powerball's annuity payments are better than Mega Millions'. At least Powerball's are paid in increasing payments as an adjustment for inflation, like CA Super Lotto Plus' are.

Reply #2

CASH Only — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:47:17 GMT

I hope you're not giving advice to the $365m Powerball winner. What a tragedy it would be if the largest lottery winner in US history is not paid in lump sum.

BTW Mega is 26 equal installments, but CA Super Lotto Plus is 26 GRADUATED (increasing) payments.

Reply #1

PadawanLotto — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 10:07:41 GMT

Take the cash option which is the amount that would be invested in government securities for 26 years, pay your taxes now and then take one tenth off the top for the first year and invest the rest in a way that will give you a nice positive cash flow for the rest of your life.

Ever see the movie Brewster's Millions? Money makes money if you have enough of it and invested wisely.

Payments are not that bad.

Down — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 06:01:50 GMT

i don't get why you guy's say to always take the cash option, payments would not be that bad, i don't know about your playslips, but on the back of the Californa MM play slip it says Jackpot paid in 26 equal annual payments so that means if you won and you got $5 million the first year, you would get $5 million the next year and ten yours later you would get $5 million dollars. i would still take cash just because i don't want to wait till 2032 to get all my payments. But it really all depends... [ More ]