If you won a big lottery like the Powerball or the Megaball or whatever...how would you collect the money? There are 2 ways to collect it for those who don't know, the annuity payout which is you get so much money a year for 30 years and you get close to the whole jackpot amount. OR, you can take one large lump sum of cash which will only be about half of what the jackpot is worth.

I would NOT wait 30 years to collect the last of it, I would take the half of it up front. How about everyone else?

Easy. Lump sum. I want to be able to enjoy it & do the things I want done with it rather than a bunch of relatives I could never stand in life crawling out from under every rock trying to grab their "entitled" piece after I'm gone.

Take the annuity. Unless you're over 40 or 50.....taking the lump sum is ridiculous. With annuity, if you win a 100 million dollar jackpot, they will pay you every penny of that 100 million in 26 yrs. If you take a lump sum....you only get about 40 million dollars because they're taxing that shit to death. Not saying that's anything to sneeze at, but the lottery is already damn near impossible to win, why let the government keep all that money? You won it. Fuck that, I ain't kicking the bucket no time soon......I'm taking the annuity. They're going to pay me every dime of my winnings.

I would take the whole lump sum, I could be dead before 30 years is up.

Probably lump sum so I can invest it and put it to good use now.

Nystyle709 wrote:

Take the annuity. Unless you're over 40 or 50.....taking the lump sum is ridiculous. With annuity, if you win a 100 million dollar jackpot, they will pay you every penny of that 100 million in 26 yrs. If you take a lump sum....you only get about 40 million dollars because they're taxing that shit to death. Not saying that's anything to sneeze at, but the lottery is already damn near impossible to win, why let the government keep all that money? You won it. Fuck that, I ain't kicking the bucket no time soon......I'm taking the annuity. They're going to pay me every dime of my winnings.

Except there's always a possibility something will go wrong and your payoff will be cut off long before the 30 year mark and you'd only come away with maybe a few hundred thousand, or maybe a couple of million. I'd rather take the lesser half, and have it all at once so I can effectively plan out what to do with it all KNOWING I have the actual amount to use for the rest of my life.

I would take it in installments.

Nystyle709 wrote:

Take the annuity. Unless you're over 40 or 50.....taking the lump sum is ridiculous. With annuity, if you win a 100 million dollar jackpot, they will pay you every penny of that 100 million in 26 yrs. If you take a lump sum....you only get about 40 million dollars because they're taxing that shit to death. Not saying that's anything to sneeze at, but the lottery is already damn near impossible to win, why let the government keep all that money? You won it. Fuck that, I ain't kicking the bucket no time soon......I'm taking the annuity. They're going to pay me every dime of my winnings.

I would have answered lump sum, but since you put it that way, then maybe annuity. Fuck being taxed, I want every cent of what I won. But then it would depend on how much I'd be getting in the annuity. If they're rationing it off like social security and I still have to keep my job to make sure ends still meet, then I'd think twice.

It depends on how much the total jackpot was. If they can give me enough $$$$ per/year to not have to ever work again and live comfortably like JB said, then I'd take the annuity. But if it's only a couple hundred thousand a year then I'd take the lump sum.

It's like there was this story a while back, this couple won the lottery, and couldn't decide whether to get 67 million dollars up front, or collect for 30 years to get 76 million. I'd say screw that, get the 67 million up front, that's more than enough for my lifetime already.

Speaking of lotteries, I heard that the newest Powerball is gonna be $200 mil. I'm gonna go ahead and play that one and if I win I will be taking the lump sum. Won't be happy about not getting the whole thing, but I'll make due with $100 mil.

Yeah, I think we can agree that if 100 million isn't enough to live on for the rest of your days, there's a problem.

GrayWolf wrote:

Speaking of lotteries, I heard that the newest Powerball is gonna be $200 mil. I'm gonna go ahead and play that one and if I win I will be taking the lump sum. Won't be happy about not getting the whole thing, but I'll make due with $100 mil.

Doesn't it come out this Wednesday? I might play that to....