$465,948,000 minus your state income tax rate.

[A HERETIC I AM]

That's the cash option after the 37% top margin Federal taxes for tonight's Mega Millions, $1 billion dollar jackpot drawing.

Think you could live on that?

LOL...Fun to think about what you could do with that, even though you're more likely to be struck by lightening while being eaten by a Shark!

And for those of you who want to say "It shouldn't be allowed" ...yes it should, it's a lottery.

And for those of you who would say "I'd give it all away except a million", if you structure it right, you could give money away forever, and keep your favorite causes flush for decades after you pass away.

[MuseRider]

1. WOW!

You could do so much for other people with that plus doing great for yourself.

[Hotler]

2. I buy up farm and ranch land in colorado so...

it could not developed for years. Too much has gone already.

[A HERETIC I AM]

11. I often look and plots of land in suburban areas and think.....

How cool would that be if it was a well kept pasture with a few friendly horses grazing?

I love the idea of keep land free from development, especially in built up areas.

I also like the idea of preserving older homes, particularly the Gothic style so prevalent in many old towns. Refurbish to their original glory and then donate to the town for a library or similar civic purpose.

Like this one, for example;
https://goo.gl/maps/6kxX5cUB7FaspbQ1A

Eufala, AL

[Hotler]

15. Of course I'd have to have a home for critters.

Some where on the land. Bless the beast and the children.

[A HERETIC I AM]

20. Indeed.

You could do a whole lot of good for so many.

[trc]

3. Winning odds are 1 in 302,575,350

My question is, how do you collect this and where is it deposited? Can't possibly be a regular bank...I don't run in that group so I have no idea how to deal with sums that large.

[A HERETIC I AM]

13. The best way to receive it is via wire transfer to a brokerage account at a major firm

Like Morgan Stanley or similar. You don't have to invest a single penny through the firm, but they can help you set up the various trusts and other accounts you are going to need if you want to be philanthropic and/or give to your family. Like setting up education funds for all the kids/grandkids, etc.

The first call should be made to an attorney who specializes in dealing with High Net Worth clients, preferably NOT IN YOUR HOME TOWN!

The rest...is....an essay!

[Yonnie3]

4. My SO says we could do a lot of good and ...

she could have a pony.

[getagrip_already]

5. what's the pony's name?

And will it have a condo at trump tower?

It's a support pony. How could they say no?

[Yonnie3]

8. I'll let you know when we win n/t

[Blue_true]

22. Heck, if she wins, "Jackpot" sounds like a good name to me. nt

[Dagstead Bumwood]

7. With all that dough, I'd hold out for two ponies.

It boggles the mind what one could do with that much cash. Think I'd rather win a much smaller, less conspicuous jackpot, say $10M or so and avoid all that limelight. Hell, give me $500K at this point and I'd be thrilled.

[Yonnie3]

10. I told her that if she got that pony ...

she had to take care of it or ...


hire several people to do so.

[misanthrope]

6. That would pay for 1,849 years of my annual medications

provided they didn't rise in price from this point.

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. You could buy a significant stake in the company that makes your medications and tell THEM....

What you will pay!

[bucolic_frolic]

9. Great, I no longer play, been at 3 numbers too many times

So here's my random play that I wouldn't play even if I could

16 37 54 55 66

+23

If those match, we'll do it again next week. By February everyone will want my picks.

[getagrip_already]

14. I was at a checkout anyway, and saw it was over $900M, so

I dropped $10.

Why the hell not......

[Beakybird]

12. I would take the tax free option. $1/year for one billion years.

[A HERETIC I AM]

16. LOL!

Still not tax free, however, unless you claim no other income! At least till the earth explodes. Whichever comes first!

[getagrip_already]

17. well, if they keep you in 20 y.o. clone bodies whenever you need one....

I'd be fine with that also. I'll take my chances on tinder.

[Renew Deal]

35. Check out a TV show on Netflix called Altered Carbon.

It's about that topic. They can move your consciousness from body to body.

[getagrip_already]

36. I'm down with that!

They can have their body back when I'm done with it.

[Renew Deal]

37. It's interesting.

The "hard drive" is moved from body to body. Most of the bodies are manufactured. All look human. I don't think they have any robotic parts.

[Renew Deal]

34. Nice post Bobby Bonilla!

[Shrike47]

18. My state would get enough to bolster the health plan, maybe!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

21. Is that the lump sum payout?

I would certainly try to live on that.

What's truly sad is that whoever does win it, like almost every single big lottery winner, will probably be dead broke in about five years. People don't get that while nearly 500 million dollars is a lot of money, it is not an infinite amount. Most winners stupidly go public about being a winner, which makes them the target of every distant relative or friend who wants some money. Most (although not all) states allow a winner to remain anonymous, which is certainly what I'd do. Not that I buy lottery tickets, but if in some bizarro alternate universe someone handed me a winning ticket.

Actually, if I got handed that much money, I'd boost my personal income somewhat, and then start figuring out how I can give most of it away. The homeless shelter I volunteer at would get a hunk of money, that's for sure. A disease foundation I have a connection to would get something. And I might look at various charities to partner with and give them money.

I would SO love to have a whole lot of money to give away!

[A HERETIC I AM]

23. Yes.

According to the Mega Millions Website, the cash option is $739.6 mil. Minus 37% for the top marginal rate, and you get the number I gave in the OP, give or take a few hundred grand.

If you live in one of the 7 states with no state income tax, you're done. Otherwise, take out the state income tax and that's your take home pay, so to speak.

And of course, if you cash it all out in $100 bills, put them in your mattress and don't do anything with it except pull one out when you need to pay a bill, you'll never pay another cent in income taxes as long as you live.

And you're right about the notoriety.

Disappear when it hits your account. Throw away your cell phone, get a new one that only your attorney, your broker and your most trusted allies know the number, and GET OUT OF DODGE! Leave the country, for at least a year.

[Blue_true]

24. The amount that the OP listed is the the "current" value, or lump sum payout.

In my view, too many people take the lump sum and “financial advisors” foolishly advise people to take the lump sum when the jackpot is that large.

I have not really thought about it much, I don’t have a ticket. But, my feeling is that if a person can, he or she should set up a Trust to accept the 30 year payout, which in this case would be around $33 million per year before taxes. The lottery organization buys an insurance annuity to cover the payout when a person wins. So, in my view, the 30 year payout to a Trust is almost guaranteed. The Trust concept covers the situation where the winner dies before collecting all the 30 payments, since there could be a mechanism for a new Trustee to take over, along with restrictions on that person’s possible decisions concerning the money.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

41. Yes. I agree that too many people take the lump sum.

Which is an important reason most of them are bankrupt in five years. They don't get real financial advisors who would advise taking the 20 or 30 year payout. Nor do they understand, as I mentioned before, that they don't understand that the money is not infinite.

Even people who get a far lower payout, maybe a few hundred thousand dollars, seem to think the money is infinite.

[Blue_true]

42. Most people don't have an actual concept of even a $100,000 after

tax payout. So their capacity to make wise decisions about a large amount of money is limited. Too many go for the lump sum payout, believing that they can “invest” the money, the vast majority can’t, they have no concept of how to do so.

I like the time based payout because it gives people a reprieve when they mis-calculate their ability to manage a large amount of money. Say that they make a mess of managing the first payout. In a year, they get a second chance to get it right, then they have many chances after the second one to improve on their money management, before the money spigot stops flowing.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

43. So true.

The time based payout gives people an opportunity to learn how to handle the very large sum of money they are now in control of.

It's also sadly obvious that there's no class in high school that even begins to approach this problem. Maybe there should be a one-week course in: So you won the lottery? Now What?

I had the good fortune to have an 8th grade math teacher who took one week out of the curriculum in the spring to teach us a bunch of basic things. How to fill out a check. What mortgage interest added up to. It was the kind of basic consumer math that should be but is almost never taught. The kind of things parents should teach their kids but may not be able to.

When my kids were fairly young, I realized that one of the most important tasks I had as a parent was to teach them how to handle money. Whether they would have very little or a lot, wasn't necessarily the issue, but how to manage money was. Too often money and budgets and debt and loans and all those things are never talked about in the home. While kids don't really need to know all the details of their parents' financial situation, there's a lot that probably should be talked about.

Example. When my oldest son went off to college, as part of the freshman week, a lot of local banks had tables encouraging the kids to set up accounts with them. We went with one of the banks, got a checking account established for our son, which included a debit card. I bet you know exactly what's coming. Yep. Back then, some 20 years ago, I had no idea that a debit card could be used to overdraw an account and generate lots of overdraft fees. Nor did my son understand that. So he overdrew and overdrew and overdrew his account, racking up hundreds of dollars in fees. Eventually we got it under control but that's one of the reasons I am so very wary of debit cards.

I think my point is that managing money, whether small or large sums, is not for the faint-hearted.

[Blue_true]

44. I like your idea about teaching kind basic personal finance in school.

I actually believe that from grades 8-12 they should be required to take such a course, and it should be a serious course, not just one where kids hangout and get a grade for doing nothing.

[jmbar2]

25. I wish they'd break it up into smaller, but more numerous wins

4,659 $100,000 prizes

or

46,590 $10,000 prizes


It would do a lot more good for a lot more people.

[Blue_true]

26. That would not create the excitement, and hence pull in big wagered money.

It is all about the Benjamins, larger individual jackpots bring in larger revenue for the lottery cooperative.

[A HERETIC I AM]

28. This sentiment is posted by someone every single time a jackpot reaches this level. EVERY. TIME.

The reason it is a bad idea is because of the attraction the large jackpot presents.

If what you suggest were to be the case, then multi-state, large odds jackpot lotteries would be replaced by common state lotteries, which tend to have odds one tenth as high as this one and get won much more often.

So in other words, what you suggest already exists.

[Thunderbeast]

27. I would go to the Honda dealer...

and get that leaking hatch gasket for my 23 year-old Odyssey. I would still install it myself!

[A HERETIC I AM]

29. That's one expensive gasket!

[Thunderbeast]

30. Just thinking about what would make me happy!

[A HERETIC I AM]

31. No one deserves a leaky hatch.

[Montauk6]

32. It should almost be a crime against humanity to NOT be able to live on that

[Blue_true]

45. Yet, some people who won a big amount actually have had serious problems

“living on it”. In Florida an elderly woman won something like a $100 million direct payout. She took the direct payout instead of setting up a Trust and taking the annuity. She had lived a pretty simple life before winning. Fast forward, a few years (about five years) after winning she was down to her last $2 million (from something like $100 million) and was in Court fighting her son over that. There have been other cases where people got massive payouts and ended up broke, one guy who was actually doing ok financially before winning said that winning the lottery was the worst thing that could have happened to him, the money went fast and his family was broken into pieces in the pursuit of the money.

I am not saying that people shouldn’t try to win, if handled right, the money in the jackpot can last for many generations. What I am saying is that people must have a concrete plan in case they do win, and stick to that plan once the pressure is on after they win and get publicized (unfortunately state lottery officials seem to relish standing with a fake, big oversized check, shaking the winner’s hand. If people win and can, take the money anonymously, in an annuity and direct it to a Trust that decides individual payouts (like to family, businesses, charities, ect. Have hard rules on the payouts that don’t get broken).

[Renew Deal]

33. I could make it work.

[A HERETIC I AM]

38. LOL! You and me both!

I know exactly what to do from the minute I discovered I had the winner.

Take at least a month to get all the ducks in a row and then send an attorney to collect it in the name of a trust or LLC.

[Renew Deal]

39. You could buy EU citizenship

https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2020/07/28/escape-america-countries-buy-citizenship-second-passport

Why? Why not.

[A HERETIC I AM]

40. South Island of New Zealand.

A property near the town of Gore;

https://goo.gl/maps/JCDmiJQ3XgcphUgD9

Just gorgeous.