Tonight's the Night

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Tonight, in all likelihood, someone's life will forever be altered by the multi-state, United States Powerball drawing. When jackpot numbers reach $1 billion or more, the anticipation and excitement over that alone drives people to flock to buy tickets, and that makes the possibility of winning even greater. If something like 86% of the possible winning combinations are in someone's hands, the odds someone will win becomes astronomically higher, and you can bet at these current Powerball numbers, that percentage of number combinations is probably out there. Somewhere. Most likely the Powerball will be won tonight and not roll. But that 14% might cause it to continue into much higher numbers. We just don't know. The cash option is $453.1 million, and it's most likely whoever wins will take that option over the annuity. That means a likely take-home payment, after taxes, of approximately $271.86 million. If you conservatively invested that amount of money, you'd get an annual payday of around $16.3 million. More than enough to sustain yourself forever and then some. The numbers actually boggle the mind. So, what are the odds you will win this? 1 in 292.2 million. Even with 13 tickets, my odds are about 1 in 22.4 million. A real longshot if there ever was one. Either way, the drawing will be held at 10:59 Eastern, 9:59 central. Do you have a ticket? What would you do with the money if you won it?