One Ticket to Paradise
By Jim Bauer
@porwest (107427)
United States
September 4, 2025 7:49am CST
$1.7 billion. Just let that number marinate for a second. It's the kind of figure that makes your brain short-circuit and your wallet blush. But here we are—Saturday the 6th marks the next Powerball drawing, and thanks to a nationwide epidemic of non-winners, the jackpot has ballooned past last night's "modest" $1.4 billion.
Most folks who win go for the cash option. I used to be an annuity guy myself, but that was when I was younger and had a lot more years ahead of me than behind me. These days, just give me the cash and everything else will take care of itself.
That lump sum, by the way, is currently sitting at a breezy $770.3 million. After taxes you're looking at a take-home of around $462.2 million. Still enough to buy a small country, or at least a very large yacht with a helipad and a juice bar.
Now let's say you're sensible and invest it conservatively. You could pull in $27.7 million a year without even ever touching the principal. That's $532,692 a week. Every. Single. Week. Could you spend that much? I mean, you could try. Challenge accepted?
To put this into perspective, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American earns about $1.7 million over their entire lifetime. So yeah, this kind of money doesn't just change your life. It rewrites the whole script.
Got your ticket yet? Or are you planning to spend that $2 on something truly visionary—like a gas station hot dog that's been rotating since the Bush administration? Because sure, statistically you won't win, but spiritually, not playing might be a pretty dumb flex.
Because regardless of the horrible odds, someone will absolutely win and defy those odds, and it most definitely won't be you if you don't have a ticket.
6 people like this
5 responses
@Marilynda1225 (86177)
• United States
4 Sep
Wow when I see if all broken down like that I'm going to close my computer and head out to get a ticket (or two). It is mind boggling to think about having that much money.
2 people like this
@porwest (107427)
• United States
5 Sep
It really is a bit hard to wrap your head around it, hey? A lot of people will still say it's a waste and probably a guaranteed loss, and they're mostly right about that considering the odds. At the same time, I can think of worse things I have wasted $2 on and none of those things had a chance, albeit a very slim one, at turning that $2 into a billion or more (well, several hundred million after taxes and with the cash option, but you catch my drift).
1 person likes this
@Marilynda1225 (86177)
• United States
5 Sep
@porwest I don't always get a ticket but I definitely will have one for this weekends drawing. I figure at some point someone has to win
1 person likes this
@Traceyjayne (5195)
• United Kingdom
4 Sep
Personally, I think it’s way too much money for one person to win. No one needs or can spend that amount ….it will mess with peoples heads ….
1 person likes this
@Traceyjayne (5195)
• United Kingdom
5 Sep
@porwest that’s what I mean …….even people who know what to do with money do not need that amount. No one needs to buy 365 cars a year ….unless they are giving them away …..and if they are giving them away, yes, they are helping, but it proves its not them that needs or wants that amount of money.
Even you. With your head for money , do not need 462.2 million !
1 person likes this
@porwest (107427)
• United States
9 Sep
@Traceyjayne To me it doesn't matter if someone needs a lot of money. If they can get it, and can have it, they are entitled to every bit of it. I already have mostly what I need, but it doesn't mean I don't want more, and it also doesn't mean I have stopped trying to have more.
@porwest (107427)
• United States
5 Sep
It is true that many people would have a difficult time with the money and managing it. Most people, as I always say, aren't rich for good reason, and none of it has to do with money. It's always about the mindset, and thus, if you hand someone this kind of money who has no concept of what money is and what it can do or how to manage it properly, the big win will only be life changing for a short time.
On the other hand, someone like me will be able to manage it well and even substantially grow it. I admit, it would still be hard to spend all of it. It's a lot of money no matter how you look at it. If I were earning that $27.7 million in dividends and interest, if I tried to spend all of that I'd have to spend around $76,000 a day, every day. I find that would be hard until I was say, buying 365 cars a year. lol
@RasmaSandra (88845)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
4 Sep
I never keep cash on hand and right now I am not feeling too well so no ticket for me, I have never won anything from lotto. Best of luck with winning,
1 person likes this
@porwest (107427)
• United States
5 Sep
$2 is nothing. But it's a chance. Someone has to win. People waste $2 on so many things, it boggles my mind they won't bother to waste it on a losing ticket when the jackpots get this high. We're not talking about not being able to pay the rent. We're talking about $2 for a chance at $1.7 billion, and the odds are same whether you have one ticket or 400 of them.
1 in 292 million.
1 person likes this
@porwest (107427)
• United States
6 Sep
Maybe. Maybe so. But people aren't forced to buy, and someone HAS to win, and sometimes it's a poor person who wins.
Think of it this way. You are in line ahead of me and you know I am there to buy a ticket. You shrug me off, "What a pitiful fool to waste his $2 on such a thing." The next ticket printed is the winning one and I get it. A ticket that would have been yours.
That's how this thing works. You just never know when that winning, magic ticket will come out of the machine and every time you pass on one, you're leaving the chance to the guy behind you that would have been yours.
Granted, the odds suck. But there's always a winner. So, regardless of the odds, someone playing against terrible odds will wind up beating those terrible odds.
Worst case scenario you truly believe it's a poor tax. So spend the $2 anyway and when you win, IF you win, you can give it all away to as many poor people as you can find.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (200492)
• United States
5 Sep
Cousin #2 is buying 5 tickets that we will split.
1 person likes this
@porwest (107427)
• United States
7 Sep
@LindaOHio Lucky ducks, both of them. Oh well. Onto the next one, right? Although I still have to check my tickets.
1 person likes this
