Last year I won $17 playing about $5 a week in the NJ lottery

[DainBramaged]

This year $3.


Starting tonight I am simply putting the money in a jar and giving it to whomever needs it the most at Christmas time. Since I started playing in 1971, I may have won $300 total, and some weeks I used to play $20 or more including rub offs.

They get no more of my money.

[Newest Reality]

1. I am waiting

until I have been hit by lightening 4,999 times. That's when I'm goin' out and buyin' a pick-six, multi-mega ball, ultra-millionaire, super-duper-bucks ticket so I can be a real part of this Great Society, like rich people are.

[bitchkitty]

2. I enter sweepstakes online.

They're free, and the odds are about the same; well, maybe worse, maybe better, probably impossible. But free. :)

[Motown_Johnny]

3. I won $7.00 out of a $30.00 investment in the Mega Millions about a month ago

It is the only game I play and I only do it when it is above $150 Million


If there isn't a huge payout I can't see taking on such ridiculous odds. But hey, it is always fun to dream between the time you buy the ticket and you learn it isn't the big winner.

[cbdo2007]

4. Better plan - buy 1 share of NYSE:AGQ for $289 on Monday morning.

ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF)

You can't do any worse than you did last year unless all the silver in the world disolves and you have about a 75% chance of "winning" $150 or so. Trust me....the thrill is still there, watching the price all day every day. It can definitely be as addictive and exciting as lottery gambling.

[provis99]

6. that's a better idea.

[Bucky]

7. Of course there's a difference between those who have $1 in disposable cash...

and those who have $289 in disposable cash, plus the access and knowledge required to invest in the stock market. Also, is it even possible to buy just one share of stock?

[cbdo2007]

9. Well, it's supposed to be his entire year's gambling money....

all at once.

I just gave him the knowledge of what he should buy over the next year.

Everyone has the access to buy stock, even just one share, at any of the discount brokerages online.

[exboyfil]

12. How about Ultrashort on the Silver?

It has had quite a run recently. Maybe the bubble is ready to pop. I think the downside is much better than the upside at this point (unless you think we are going to the survival shelters in the near future).


As far as playing the lottery. I pool with 11 coworkers twice a week (so $2/week for me) on the Powerball. We have not won squat, but I am buying insurance - no way are they leaving without me. I used to buy $10 in sodas a week so $2/week is not too bad.

[cbdo2007]

14. I'll be the first to admit that I've missed all of the precious metal $$$

because I was just sure we were in a bubble that was going to pop any minute. Now I've got a better understanding and Silver will keep going up at least for the next 1-2 years. We've still got a good decade until the bubble "bursts" at this point.

[Upton]

5. I won $3 on Powerball just the other night..

course I spent about $15 on numerous different tickets..

[Bucky]

8. Ha-ha. You were paying the "irrational hope tax." Once you run out, the tax goes away.

[tinrobot]

10. If you played $5 per week since 1971...

That would be $10,400 invested over 40 years, $260 per year.

At 5% compounded interest, you would have 34,808.74 in the bank by now.

[BadGimp]

11. Silly you

Lotteries are for people who suck at math and logic and reason..

[DainBramaged]

16. And?

We thank you for your shot in the dark and excellence at basic math which include interest tables.

[cbdo2007]

17. hahaha, nice snarky comment from the person who's thrown away over $10,000 on the lottery.

[Hannah Bell]

29. it wouldn't be $10.4K until the 40th year; it wouldn't be $10.4k invested over 40 years.

it wouldn't be anywhere near $34K.

[tinrobot]

37. It's $260 per year.

Here's a calculator:

http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/compound_interest_calculator.htm

Start with $260 as current principal with an annual addition of $260.

At 5% interest for 40 years, $34K is the number you get. Might be a little off, but not by much.

[Marie Marie]

13. Lotteries: the Retirement Plan for the poor.

Hey, what else do they have??

[Capitalocracy]

15. A friend of mine worked at a gas station

A guy went in and bought $50 worth of lottery tickets every week. Like 10 years before that he had won a few thousand dollars, and he kept playing ever since. He gave it all back, with interest.

[Contrary1]

18. Great idea!

You might consider being a secret santa to a family in a local school. For the last 3 years, we have contacted the social worker at the school to learn about a family in need. She contacts the parents to make sure they are open to the idea.

We get the kids' ages, sizes, and interests...sometimes a bit of the history. It is all done anonymously.

We really have so much, compared to others. It's only right to share.

[DainBramaged]

19. It doesn't seem like much, but around the holidays, there are people here

who could use a couple of hundred bucks

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. It's like throwing money in the trash.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

21. they lottery is a tax

on people who are bad at math...

sP

[sad sally]

22. Played my "lucky numbers" twice a week, with the kicker, for 10 years; biggest

"win" was $20, with a few $3 "wins." Stopped this small potatoes addictive gambling 9 years ago. Believe me, you will feel so much better with this monkey off your back. Bob Dylan said it best:

Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.

[uppityperson]

23. I bought a ticket once. Figured if I was meant to win, I would. I didn't. nt

[femmocrat]

24. I play at work.... We won once.

By the time we divided the winnings among all the players, we each got about $100. It was fun for a little while, though.

I am afraid if I quit playing, that is when they will win!

[Fla_Democrat]

25. When you play, we all win

http://www.flalottery.com/


:evilgrin:






:smoke:

[nilram]

26. Right on. Having a lottery ticket takes my mind away from what I can do to improve myself right now

and puts it into a spiral of 'what ifs'. Much healthier to be paying attention and improving myself and the world instead. You've got a great idea -- I'm so glad for you and the future recipients!

[SOS]

27. Entertainment vs. cruel hoax

If you've got some spare cash and drop a couple of bucks on lottery tickets it's just a form of entertainment.

If you're poor and spend money on lottery tickets in a desperate bid for a better life, you are
being ripped off in a cruel hoax where your chance of winning big is zero.

Depends on who's betting and how much.

[dkf]

28. If you invested $5 a week for 40 years in stocks

And got 10% a year in an IRA you would now have $153,000.

If it got a taxable rate of 8% you would have $80,000.

I don't know if an extra $80,000 or $153,000 would be helpful to you but it sounds nice to me.

Could a "poor" person have squeezed out $5 a week to build their wealth? Maybe so right?

If you just stashed it in your Coin purse and got no interest you would be $10,400.

And that is the difference between savers, investors, and spenders.

[DainBramaged]

30. Why do you have to be condescending? To what purpose?

Do you have a fucking time machine for me to borrow to go back and see if your estimate is correct?


Don't bother replying, I meant this to be a fun thread not a thread for the brow beaters to muck around in.

[dkf]

33. It's not what I meant. Some insist there is no way the normal guy can accumulate wealth

And really there is.

Most people retire with maybe $50,000 and look what an extra $5 a week can do for anyone!

I went to an Amway seminar once (or got tricked into it) and they asked what I would do with an extra $5,000 or so. I told them I would invest it and they were disappointed in my answer asking me if I didn't want to go on a trip or buy a TV, etc. Their catch was supposed to be that I would get so much enjoyment from spending extra income. My attitude is that I need for my money to work for me for when I can't work myself.

There was a quiz in parade a little bit ago. It said that people who can answer the questions correctly did better with their finances than people who don't. Basically the tricky answer for some involved the power of compounding where the interest you earned also generated interest in year two. Those who understand that your earnings also earn money get why investing is the only way to accumulate wealth.

I am lucky because my manager told me when I started working that I should at least invest enough in my 401k to get my matching funds. That was the best best advice anyone has ever given me. But if he had shown me what investing double what I did could have accomplished for me I would be completely secure without social security. I have never made much but what I have put away has worked for me even in this downturn.

L

[JackRiddler]

35. If you made up an annual rate of return that suited your hypothetical example

it would seem to support your argument!

Amazing!

We can all just pull numbers and hypotheticals out of our ass. 10 percent return every year for 40 years, why not? It's been known to happen, right?

Now if you picked the WRONG investment, one that lost you most or all of your money in a crash, you would have zero.

But if you did bet wrong: tough shit, caveat emptor, you lose! You believed some whore analyst with an economics degree. You believed that an AAA rating meant Moody's thought your money was safe. You saved your $5 a week too, but you must not have been as virtuous as the guy who made the RIGHT investment decisions starting FORTY YEARS AGO.

What's the difference between gamblers and Wall Street's favorite sucker, the small investor? The gamblers know they're going to be ripped off by the house. The gamblers are practically begging for it.

[RebelOne]

31. I never play the lottery because

i can not take the disappointment when I do not win.

[Skidmore]

32. I hate those state lotteries. They are a tax and state legislatures

put them in place because they got on the R bandwagon that there is no good tax, even if you want the services.

[JackRiddler]

34. You should at least be able to write it off, since it's a tax.

[JackRiddler]

36. The lottery isn't really gambling, it's porn.

Most lottery ticket buyers know they won't win and that it's a waste of money. But they're not doing it as a rational strategy for making money, they're doing it for the immediate gratification of spending the money in their head. It's porn.

Good for you for quitting, DainBramaged.