lottery

Ask the Readers: Do You Play the Lottery?

Ashley Jacobs — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 08:30:06 +0000

Editor's Note: Congratulations to Raina, Christine, and Dawn for winning this week's contest!

Almost everyone dreams of winning the lottery. While this isn't a reliable way to make money, even frugal people may buy a ticket once in a while just to try our luck.

Do you play the lottery? How often do you play? Have you ever won anything?

Tell us whether you play the lottery and we'll enter you in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!

Win 1 of 3 $20 Amazon Gift Cards

We're doing three giveaways — here's how you can win:

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You must be 18 and U.S. resident to enter. Void where prohibited.

Good Luck!

Tell us whether you play the lottery and we'll enter you in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!

This article is from Ashley Jacobs of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Best Money Tips: 12 Surprising Lottery Facts

Amy Lu — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 08:30:19 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found articles on lottery facts that may surprise you, mind and behavioral tricks that help you save, and how to upcycle an old filing cabinet into garden storage.

4 Money Moves to Make the Moment You Win the Lotto

Alaina Tweddale — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 10:30:08 +0000

This past June, $612 million went up for grabs in the lottery. As the pot grew, so did the dreams of ordinary Americans, many of whom hoped their lucky set of numbers would be the ones that lead to overnight riches.

Still, no matter how high the payout, a staggering seven in 10 people who receive a windfall blow through it within a few years, according to recent research by the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE).

If you're one of the fortunate few who finds him or herself with a winning lottery ticket, and you want to hold on to that cash, check out our list of four must-make money moves for lucky lotto winners.

Try to Remain Anonymous

Instant riches can come with unwanted attention from long-lost friends and relatives, from scammers looking for a piece of the pie, and from incessant salesmen. Unfortunately, there are only six U.S. states — Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio, and South Carolina — that allow lottery winners to remain anonymous. Still, for winners outside of those states, there are steps a winner can take to decrease the amount of attention they receive.

Several additional states allow prize money distributions to a trust, and allow a third party trustee to collect the funds without disclosing the name of the ticket holder. Some states will also allow anonymity if winners expect a high risk of harm.

If you don't live in one of those states, however, winners typically have 180 days (check the specifics of your state to be sure) to claim their winnings. You can always try to wait it out, before submitting your winning ticket, in hopes that media attention will die down after a good period of time has passed.

Don't Make Any Sudden Moves

Those new to wealth can sometimes be surprised by just how easy it is to blow through a seemingly endless supply of cash. As a lottery winner, you may have the financial resources to make your dreams a reality, but only if you take the time to fully assess those dreams.

The danger zone for money mistakes is six to 12 months after an influx of sudden money, according to the NEFE study mentioned above. Resist the urge to immediately splurge. Set limits with friends and family. Don't immediately quit your job. Instead, take some time to start thinking about how you want your life to look for the long term.

While you wait, stash your newfound money somewhere safe — like in a checking or money market account — until you're better able to take stock of what you now own, and what you want to do with it.

Plan for the Future

A windfall can easily be spent in a single fell swoop — $40,000 on a new car, for instance or $400,000 for a new house. A financial boon may buy boats and houses, but it's the more pragmatic purchases that will make the largest long-term impact.

Take retirement, for example. The sad truth is, the majority of U.S. households aren't on track to to adequately fund their golden years, according to research released by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. A savvy lottery winner who foregoes a fancy new car in lieu of a well-managed investment account, meanwhile, could very well set him or herself up for life.

It can be hard to delay gratification, especially when there's an unexpected windfall on the table. Still, consider the numbers. A $40,000 windfall could grow to more than $150,000 if invested for 20 years at a 7% rate of return. A $400,000 boon could grow to a staggering $1.5 million (assuming the same variables). Either way, slow and steady can add up to an even greater fortune, if the money is left to compound over time.

Talk to an Expert

Still, you may not know how to manage a large influx of funds, especially if you've never done it before. (And how many of us have?)

A financial planner can help you make prudent spending choices with your new wealth, while also creating a long-term savings and investment strategy. In fact, recent research in the Journal of Personal Finance has shown that investors who work with financial planners are much more likely to be prepared for retirement when compared with those who make money decisions on their own.

Why? Turns out we're our own worst enemies when markets get choppy. Despite the conventional wisdom we've heard all our lives (buy low, sell high, of course!), we get scared by the storm and sell when the market drops. Then, we calm down and buy when it's back on the rise.

A financial planner, meanwhile, can help keep you calm when markets get rough, improving the odds you'll stay in the market when you most want to bail (even though you shouldn't).

Even if you don't win the lottery (your chances are one in 14 million, by the way), the above advice is sound for any type of financial windfall, be it an employee bonus, a lawsuit payout, an inheritance, or anything else. Stay calm, take time to think over your options, and when you're ready, consult a professional.

You just won the lottery! How will you spend it?

This article is from Alaina Tweddale of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

6 Ways of Improving Your Lottery Odds

Mikey Rox — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 11:15:12 +0000

A retirement or savings plan based on winning the lottery is not actually a plan — it's a wish. There are much smarter things to do with your hard earned cash. We all know this. Yet many of us still buy numbers and scratchers, for the thrill, for the dream. If you just can't resist, take a moment to slightly improve your odds. Just promise that if you win with any of these lottery hacks, you'll share your winnings with me. It's only fair.

1. Pick Your Own Numbers

Richard Lustig, seven-time lottery winner whose total earnings amount to more than $1 million, claims that one foolproof way to increase your chances of cashing in is to pick your own numbers versus allowing the system do a quick pick for you. In an interview with CBS News a couple years ago, he said, "The lazy way out is to buy quick-picks. The computer picks out the numbers. Don't play quick-picks. Quick-picks are the worst thing you can do, you are playing with the worst odds."

Instead, choose your numbers, research them to make sure they're a good set of numbers, and stick with them. But how do you know if they're 'good' numbers? By buying his book, Learn How to Increase Your Chance of Winning the Lottery, of course. On second thought...

2. Stick to a Regular Set of Numbers

Once you've found a set of 'good' numbers as determined by your research, stick to them — and then play consistently.

"Obviously playing regularly will boost your chances. There is no worse feeling than seeing your winning numbers on the week you forgot to buy your ticket!" suggests MSN Money.

3. Buy More Tickets, Even If You Have to Split It

Sometimes increasing the number of tickets you purchase is cost prohibitive. In those cases, especially when massive jackpots are at stake, it may make sense to go in on a large number of tickets with a group of people, like friends, family, or coworkers. Office lottery pools are quite common when lotteries reach their peak jackpots, and it's not unusual to hear about a group of coworkers winning the jackpot and thus splitting the windfall.

4. Check Your Numbers Religiously

How's this for a sobering statistic: About $2 billion in lottery prizes go unclaimed every year, according to CNN Money. This could be for several reasons, like players have lost their winning tickets, but most of the unclaimed money is a result of winners not checking their tickets or realizing they have a winning ticket. To avoid becoming a statistic, keep your tickets in a safe place and take them to your local lottery scanner regularly.

5. Use the Singleton Method to Win More Scratch-Offs

According to WikiHow, a quirk in the production of scratch-off tickets can double your chances of winning, if exploited correctly. The Singleton Method, in short, is an exercise in probability by finding sets of single numbers that only appear once on a scratch card, particularly in "match style" or" tic-tac-toe" games, in which you need three numbers in row to win. By studying this method, you can essentially eliminate those that don't fall under the winning category of the Singleton Method, and increase your chances of winning to between 60% and 90%.

6. Use Your Math Skills to Increase Your Chances at Powerball Games

WikiHow also details how to increase your odds of winning Powerball games, but you'll need to tap into your math skills (or at least a calculator) to make a go of it. Steps include finding the expected value of the game, determining the probability of each possible "win," multiplying that probability by the payout for that win, buying tickets that increase the expected value, and looking for progressive jackpots. There's also a mention of considering the tax implications of a Powerball win, which, incidentally, can be applied to all lottery wins above $10,000.

Do you have other tips on how to increase your chances of winning the lottery? Let me know in the comments below.

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This article is from Mikey Rox of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

You Can Guarantee a Win and 9 Other Bizarre Facts About the Lottery

Paul Michael — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 09:00:42 +0000

It's something many of us dream about, but few will ever experience: Winning the lottery. The idea of buying a ticket for a few bucks and turning it into hundreds of millions of dollars overnight is tempting to say the least. We all know it's not very likely to happen. Still, that doesn't stop millions of us playing it every week. And you'd be amazed by some of the stories and facts that the lottery produces. Here are the top 10 bizarre facts about lotteries, in no particular order. (See also: Playing the Lottery Is a Bad Gamble)

1. Non-Winning Tickets Can Be Used Again

Don't just trash your losing tickets. Whether scratch cards, quick picks, or personal numbers, those tickets can be used again to enter second-chance drawings. This is something done by the different lotteries to help with customer loyalty and ease those feelings of loss. However, you probably never heard about this because they rarely advertise the fact. Some states require you to mail in your ticket, others want you to register the serial number. But it's a free entry, so why not? Check your state's second-chance lottery after every draw, and you might get lucky.

2. Good Manners Cost One Powerball Player $590 million

When Mindy Crandell went to buy her ticket from the local Publix supermarket, she let an 84-year old woman step ahead of her in line. It was a nice, polite thing to do. And it cost Mindy a fortune. That old woman who went ahead of her purchased a Quick Pick ticket, the one Mindy was supposed to get. Gloria C. Mackenzie, the Florida retiree, collected over $370 million before taxes, the lump sum option. Mindy got nothing, except perhaps the chance to reevaluate her politeness.

3. You're More Likely to Be Killed By a Vending Machine Than Win a Lottery

Sad, but true. Most lotteries have insurmountable odds. The Mega Millions lottery, for instance, has odds of 176 million to 1. That means you have a greater chance of being killed by a vending machine (112 million to 1), becoming president (10 million to 1), dying from being left-handed (4.4 million to 1), or dying in the bathtub (840,000 to 1). In fact, if you decide to leave the house now to buy a lottery ticket, the odds favor you dying before you ever buy the ticket than actually winning the jackpot.

4. You Can Guarantee a Lottery Win, but It's a Logistical Nightmare

Usually, buying up almost every combination of lottery tickets is self-defeating. For a jackpot of only $20 million dollars, you'd have to spend many times more to put the odds in your favor. However, when the jackpot becomes huge, over $400 million, then the math starts to make sense. However, organizing such an endeavor would take a syndicate of massive proportions. The venture has all kinds of problems, including severe trust issues, and the settlement of the winnings would take a small firm of accountants. The other option would be for a single multi-millionaire to corner the market, but anyone with such funding behind them would have far better ways to guarantee a return.

5. Many Lottery Winners Blow Their Fortunes Quickly

The problem with coming into a lot of money very quickly is that it took no discipline to get it. It's free money, and because of that, it's not always shown the respect of earned money. Another problem is a lack of knowledge of basic financial principles by the winners. $15 million seems like an unspendable amount of money, but these days it's not. It should last a lifetime with careful investment, but start buying houses, cars, yachts, and party nights, and you could see that fortune crumble in just a few years. Michael Carroll, a garbage man in the UK, did just that. He won around $15 million at the tender age of 19, and eight years later he'd blown it all and was back on the garbage truck again. (See also: People Who Became Millionaires Overnight and What They Did With the Money)

6. Fortune Cookies Can Predict Winners

Well, of course they can. The random selection of numbers printed in fortune cookies have the same chance of winning as any other random set of numbers. And that's just what happened in 2005. A random group of 110 people played the same fortune cookie numbers and each one thought they had won the whole $19.4 million jackpot. Instead, 89 winners received $100,000, and 21 got $500,000 as they had opted for the Power Play. It's not a bad haul, but it's not the fortune they were expecting. There was even a fraud investigation looking into the strange result.

7. The "1,2,3,4,5,6" Combo Is as Likely as Any, but You Should Never Play It

Statistically, that selection of numbers is not ridiculous to play. If you replace the numbers with symbols, it's easier to see why. However, there are several reasons not to play that sequence.

First, there are thousands of people who play it, because they believe the same thing. Hey, it has to happen some time. So if it ever does come up, you'll be sharing the jackpot with a lot of people.

Second, despite the odds being the same, the sequence has never yet been chosen, suggesting that although the numbers alone have the same chances, the combination may not. I'm no mathematician, but this person has done some extensive research on it. It seems you're better off with a bunch of random numbers.

8. Some Lives Are Ruined by Winning the Lottery

Be careful what you wish for. What we think we need to be happy is not always what will actually bring us happiness. And money, well, that's the biggest red herring of them all. While it's true that a lack of money can make you unhappy for obvious reasons, drowning in it will only bring short-term pleasure. From breaking up families and friendships to death threats and prison time, the lottery has been an ironic windfall for many people over the years.

9. You Better Know Where You Bought That Ticket

When the million-dollar jackpot comes up, lottery officials don't just hand over the cash if you have the winning ticket. They do checks to make sure you were the one who bought it, and where you purchased it. A case in 2010 puzzled Iowa lottery officials when no one came forward to claim the $14.3 million prize. Then, one year later, two hours before the deadline, a New York man named Crawford Shaw presented the ticket via two attorneys. The story from Crawford is suspect, evidence is sketchy, and as of December 2013, the mystery has still not been solved. And as such, the money has never been handed over.

10. Scammers Use the Names of Lottery Winners

Perhaps the most famous case of philanthropy from lottery winnings, in recent years at least, was the story of Violet and Allen Large. The elderly Canadian couple won over $11 million in July 2010. They gave over 98% of it away, saying that they were comfortable and had each other, which was the most important part of life. That was an open invitation to scammers though. They used the names of Violet and Allen in an email scam, claiming to be giving away millions. It works like any Nigerian email scam, so if you ever get one from them, know that it's completely bogus.

What would you do with your lottery winnings? Please share in comments! [Buy a Zeppelin and travel the world in it. — Ed.]

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

7 Ways to Make Money With Friends

Mikey Rox — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:24:31 +0000

Tired of your boring job? Wish you could find a way to earn a living while spending your days with people you actually like? You can. All you have to do is look to your friends. Check out these seven ways to make cash with your buddies. (See also: Should You Talk to Friends About Money?)

1. Set Up a Group Yard Sale

While a massive yard sale with your friends won’t make you rich or even make you a decent living, it will put fast cash in your pocket while helping you unload years worth of accumulated clutter. There are several benefits to partnering for yard sale with friends. First, you’ll benefit from a larger network of people who will help promote and market the event to friends and family and around the neighborhood, so you can increase the number of visitors to the sale. Second, when the sale is over, you’ll have extra hands to help load up all the leftovers so you can cart them off to a donation drop.

2. Start a Business Together

I could have made this article a big list of all the different kinds of businesses you can start with a friend — restaurant, day care center, moving company — but that list is virtually endless. The most important message I need to send in this regard is that if you want to start a business with friends, you should have a meeting, discuss your strengths and passions, and start tossing around ideas for potential companies you can launch that will make you all happy. A good amount of capital in the bank doesn’t hurt either.

3. Make Each Other Your Go-To Resources

Your and your friends don’t actually have to work with each other to work for each other. If you have friends who are great at what they do — let’s say one of them is an investment banker — use that friend as your sole referral when your contacts ask if you know someone. I’m queried a lot by my contacts on who I’d recommend. Of course, I always recommend a friend that I know can get a job done. Do that once or twice and a good friend will start returning the favor — which means more money in the bank for both of you.

4. Join Rent a Friend

Have you heard of this social networking site wherein random strangers pay for your company? It exists. Join Rent a Friend, and you could set your own fee for how much you’ll make per hour or establish a flat rate for an outing with a potential new friend. Sure, it’ll become a tricky situation if you actually become friends with the person who bought your time, but there’s no harm in padding your pockets in the meantime.

5. Become Secret Shoppers

You have to be super savvy to make secret shopping work for you — you generally don’t get “paid” but rather are provided a fee for your outing in the form of a reimbursement — but if you can master the art of secret shopping, it’s a great way to add a little cash to your pocket while enjoying quality time over meals and activities with your pal. The key is to spend less than the fee allotted for the scheduled event so you can score the free meal, etc., while pocketing whatever is left from the fee. If both of you get in on the act, you may never have to pay for lunch again.

6. Pool Your Money and Invest

This is along the same lines of starting a business with your friends — you’ll need to put your money together to launch a company — but there are other ways to invest without having to go to an office every day. There’s investing in the stock market, of course, but also think about hands-on projects into which you can each invest your money and talents and from which you can each reap the financial benefits of the final projects, like flipping a house, for example.

7. Buy a Bunch of Lottery Tickets

Granted, this is a long shot — but it happens. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that those 100 tickets you bought by pooling your cash increases your odds more than the 50 tickets you’d buy on your own. Certainly not the most frugal or even the smartest way to spend your money to make money, I admit. But, hey, we all have to take a gamble sometime. Every lottery winner in history has — and it paid it off.

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This article is from Mikey Rox of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Ask the Readers: Do You Gamble?

Ashley Jacobs — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 10:36:08 +0000

Editor's Note: Congratulations to Kathryn, Ally, and Alice Mecoy for winning this week's contest!

Chances are you've gone to a casino and played the slots or poker. Or maybe you've purchased a lottery ticket when the jackpot has been worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Most people have gambled at least once or twice in their lives. Some people only gamble when they head to Vegas or go on vacation to a destination with a casino. Others play the lottery on a daily basis.

Do You Gamble? If yes, what is your favorite way to gamble? Playing the lottery? Heading to the casinos to play poker? If you don't gamble, what motivates you to keep your money in your pocket?

Tell us whether or not you gamble and we'll enter you in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!

Win 1 of 3 $20 Amazon Gift Cards

We're doing three giveaways — one for random comments, one for random Facebook "Likes", and another one for random tweets.

Mandatory Entry:

Post your answer in the comments below

For extra entries (1 per action):

Go to our Facebook page, "Like" us, and leave a comment on this article telling us you did, or
Tweet your answer. You have to be a follower of our @wisebread account. Include both "@wisebread" and "#WBAsk" in your tweet so we'll see it and count it. Leave a link to your tweet (click the timestamp for the individual URL) in a separate comment.

If you're inspired to write a whole blog post OR you have a photo on flickr to share, please link to it in the comments or tweet it.

Giveaway Rules:

Contest ends Monday, June 25th at 11:59 pm Pacific. Winners will be announced after June 25th on the original post. Winners will also be contacted via email.
You can enter all three drawings — once by leaving a comment, once by liking our Facebook update, and once by tweeting.
This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered, or associated with Facebook.
You must be 18 and US resident to enter. Void where prohibited.

Good Luck!

Tell us whether or not you gamble and we'll enter you in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!

This article is from Ashley Jacobs of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Playing the Lottery Is a Bad Gamble

Aaron Crowe — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:48:10 +0000

Whenever a big lottery payout is available, it seems like everyone you talk to is suddenly fantasizing about what they'll do with the money and wants to tell you about it. It's almost as boring as hearing about someone's fantasy baseball team.

"You can't win if you don't play" and "someone has to win" are two of the cliches I've heard recently from giddy gamblers at the grocery store checkout line. Non-gamblers trying to buy a six-pack of beer must be having a long wait at their neighborhood liquor stores as every passerby with a spare dollar stops in for a chance at being a millionaire many times over.

Yet get them talking about the lottery, and despite the crazy odds against winning (you're more likely to get into a deadly accident), they'll happily fantasize about how they'll quit their jobs and spend their winnings living the lush life they've always dreamed about. They'll talk your ear off if you let them. I used to work with a guy who talked about his post-winning plans nonstop, and it got boring fast. (See also: How to Win the Lottery Without Paying a Penny for the Ticket)

Day-dreaming and a little talk of fantasy can be a good thing, but combine it with spending hard-earned money each week gambling on a game that doesn't pay off that well, and you might as well be throwing your money away. Unless you find joy in handing over your money to a liquor store clerk so you can dream for a few hours about the vacations you'll take, your money will do a lot more work for you if you contribute to simple investments regularly.

The odds of winning the recent Mega Millions lottery and its jackpot of more than half a billion dollars were about 1 in 175 million. The chances of a pedestrian being hit and killed by a car are 1 in 588 in a lifetime. You're also more likely to drown in a swimming pool (1 in 6,711) or the big favorite — be struck by lightning (1 in 55,578).

But the long odds are just one of the reasons why playing the lottery is stupid. Despite the big prize of millions of dollars, the payouts are a lot less per dollar than you'd get in a casino. For entertainment value alone, gambling at a grocery store has to be a lot less exciting than Las Vegas or your local Indian casino. And like all gambling, there's the false hope that you'll walk out a winner and the letdown when you don't.

If you've played the simple game of bingo for money, you know how fast your money can disappear. I tried to use it as a lesson to my 7-year-old daughter recently when we had a few hours to spend on a leisurely breakfast before going to a family event. We were in a state that allows payout bingo games at restaurants, and while it's illegal for children to play the game, my daughter was excited about playing, and the waitress looked the other way while my daughter played a few rounds.

I told her I would spend $5 for us to play two games of bingo, but when that money was gone, we'd either take our winnings and leave or quit anyway because our gambling money was gone. Each game lasted less than five minutes, and when our cards didn't win and our two games were done, she of course asked what every kid asks when the fun ends — "Can we play one more time?"

Sometimes I give in as a parent, though I know it's not a great lesson. But this time I didn't, partly because I didn't want to throw away another $5 bill, but mainly because I wanted her to realize how fast money can leave your fingers if you let it. She gets about $5 each week in allowance for doing chores, and a week's worth of work was gone in minutes with nothing to show for it except a few old bingo cards.

I don't know what the payout amount was for the bingo games we played, since some of the money was going to a charity. State-run lotteries have the worst odds and lowest paybacks of any legal form of gambling, according to a Bloomberg story. Georgia has the most suckers, spending an average of $470.73 on the lottery in 2010, or 1% of their personal income, while getting back 63 cents in prize payouts for every dollar they spent playing.

Roulette is heavily favored toward the casino, but even at the worst odds of 37 to 1 of hitting a single number, the payout is 35 to 1. Whether you win or lose, the house always wins. It's the same with playing the state lottery, which unfortunately is a lot easier to do than taking a trip to Las Vegas.

This article is from Aaron Crowe of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

How to Win the Lottery Without Paying a Penny for the Ticket

G.E. Miller — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:00:08 +0000

What would you do if you won the Lottery?

That's a great question. One that we've ALL fantasized about at least once and probably have let our imaginations go wild in at least one conversation with friends or family. I'm not talking about scratch and win lotto tickets here. I'm talking about the big kahuna.

I'm talking about the SUPER MEGA GIGANTIC POWER BALL EXTRAVAGANZA!

You're probably in the stark minority if you haven't at least played that game once. After all, it's completely justified! You could, no, you should be that 1-in-500,000,000 because you've worked hard your whole life and nobody deserves it like you do — so what's another dollar, or two, or five?

Let's get back to that dream for a second...

The Lottery Dream Fantasy

When we have our lottery fantasies, the conversation often revolves around what we would buy. It might look something like this:

My custom dream house
A Ferrari and a pimped out Escalade
That sailboat that I've always wanted
A butler (is Mr. Belvedere looking for work?)

And if we fear we're starting to look a little self-centered in our discussion, we might throw in a few things like...

A college education for all of my grandchildren
A new house for my parents
I'd give a big chunk of it to charity

The Financial Freedom Dream

In a lot of cases, the dream simply boils down to:

I'd do nothing
I'd pay off my debts
I'd live off the interest
And I would never have to work for anyone else again

On the surface, that sounds great, right? Then why do so many retirees who could comfortably live off their pension or other retirement savings choose to keep on working? They've earned their Lottery ticket, damn it!! Be lazy and go enjoy the precious little time you have left!! (See also: The 10-Step Staircase to a Comfortable Retirement)

They keep working because they like what they do, or they like what it does for them. They might get paid, they might not — but they are still active and productive members of society. They are not sitting in their gated mansion in a dark room counting their dollars.

The Lottery Trick

The reason many of us get suckered into the Lottery fantasy and buying those tickets is because we've bought into the dream. But can all that money and the resulting "stuff" that you buy really bring you the happiness that you're hoping for? Probably not. Countless studies have show that those who are rich are not any happier then those with lesser means, so we should know by now that the "stuff" will not buy us happiness.

And we should also know by now that those who can afford not to work for others and end up doing nothing with themselves usually end up being miserable as well.

But financial freedom and the choice to actively do what we want with our lives? Sign me up for that.

Here's the thing. You don't need a lottery ticket to buy you that. You need to adapt to a lifestyle that will permit that. A lifestyle that results in your making more money than you are spending (and hopefully putting a little bit away for later in life when you aren't physically or mentally able to continue working). And the less you spend on lottery tickets and buying into that false hope, the more you can save and focus on buying your freedom.

5 things you can do today to start buying your ticket

Admittedly, these are as simple as they can be, by design. Realistic goals that we all can accomplish with a little work.

Make more than you spend.
Pay off your debts.
Spend your time doing what you enjoy doing and get paid for it if you need it.
Be kind and helpful to others.
Remember this: You only live once. So live that way.

Accomplish all five and it might just make those Lottery tickets a little less appealing.

This article is from G.E. Miller of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

If You Won The Lottery, You Would...

Carlos Portocarrero — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:21:35 +0000

We've all had the dream where the bouncing white balls in the glass orb line up perfectly or the numbers we picked magically materialize in the exact order we predicted to set us up for life. Millions of dollars are coming our way, and we don't have to worry about anything anymore.

We've won the lotto. Ahhh...the life that would await us...

But the odds of winning the MegaMillions are 1 in 135,145,920, so don't hold your breath and get back to work.

Not Likely

While the lottery is a nice fantasy, it's much more likely you'll wind up in a position (CEO, anyone?) that pays you tons of money for working hard instead of getting lucky. And that's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. What would I do if I won or was making millions of dollars a year? I've talked to friends about this and usually the answer is the same:

I'd work for a few years and then retire to an island somewhere!

I understand the sentiment—who wouldn't want to quit the rat race and go relax on a beach without a care in the world? But I always play devil's advocate and try to get them thinking about this at a deeper level. My argument is that they probably wouldn't just walk away like that.

Here's why: whatever motivation drives you to work hard enough to make it to CEO (or any other top-paying position) isn't just going to disappear after you've "made it." If anything, that drive would get even stronger. Sure, this sometimes happens with certain athletes after they get their big contract (which always draws the ire of fans—you're getting paid to play a game!), but most athletes follow the same pattern. They play because they're driven to compete and win.

You can't just turn off the machine that got you to the top like that—it's not that simple.

So What Would You Do?

I love imagining these kinds of scenarios and trying to picture what I would do. Last year, I imagined what I would do if I had all the money in the world and how my life would change. Here's the weird thing about that little exercise, though: I figured out that most of the things I would do or change were things that had nothing to do with money.

They were things I could do in my life right now.

I didn't want to buy a new car or move into a mansion. The things I wanted to do were more about personal fulfillment (although I did want to buy an apartment on the Seine and travel more). But most of it was about the job I had and some other things I could actually control.

And I asked myself, "Why don't you do them then?"

It was quite the moment for me—I was surprised that money had nothing to do with the things I would do if I had tons of money. Does that make sense?

Granted, once you have a couple million bucks in the bank, things change...but I think it's still a worthwhile exercise to picture yourself in that position to see what you would do. Go ahead and list out the things you would do right away if money wasn't an object: would you quit your job or get a different one? If you quit, what would you do with all that spare time? Would you move to a different apartment or house?

Think about it for a second and then look the list up and down. Can you do any of that stuff right now?

Let me know what you find out!

This article is from Carlos Portocarrero of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Watching ads could be your ticket to a fortune.

Paul Michael — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:16:48 +0000

Unless it’s Superbowl Sunday, most people don’t sit around watching ads (well, I do, it’s part of my job). But what if watching ads was turned into a lottery ticket? That’s the premise of AdJack, a new site that asks you to watch ads and then rewards you with a shot at $340,000 (and growing).

The idea is annoyingly simple, I wish I’d thought of it. Marketers and corporations know that it’s tough, especially in these days of DVRs, to get their ads in front of an audience. So, AdJack gets around that by tapping into the most basic of human needs…cold, hard cash.

Rather than paying you a menial sum, say 2 cents, to watch an ad, the AdJack folks are taking the money from advertisers and turning it into cash prizes. Just watch a minimum of five ads; each ad gives you a number for your lottery ticket. And you can come back again the next day and watch another five ads and earn another ticket.

The ads aren’t run-of-the-mill either. So far I’ve seen 50 or so ads and most have been entertaining. It’s not like you’re sat watching ads for OxyClean or credit card debt solutions, these ads are much more fun. Most are 30 seconds long, so in less than three minutes you’ve earned your ticket. Not a bad way to get a free shot at a big cash prize . And there are also runner up prizes of $25,000 and $1000. The big prize, the MadJack, grows if no-one wins it, just like the Powerball.

Here’s the write-up from AdJack:

The catch? No catch. AdJack.tv is the consumers’ forum for commenting on and interacting with brands via terrific video commercials.

The site debuted on January 11, 2008. Its two main purposes are:

• to feature great commercials for consumers’ enjoyment in a clutter-free, opt-in environment, and

• to offer marketers aggregate information about buyers’ preferences and demographics without spying or invading individual privacy.

Many people love to watch clever, well-produced commercials. They talk about the best commercials they see on the Internet and TV, they even wax nostalgic when they think of the best commercials from childhood. We love commercials, too, so we created AdJack to showcase some of our favorites. Then it occurred to us that there might be a way to make the public happy, inform advertisers as to what consumers like, and everyone make a little money in the process.

When consumers click on five ads to enjoy, share, or rate, registered members may choose to enter the sweepstakes—daily. To increase AdJack community fun, each Friday registered eligible members may win cash prizes in the sweepstakes.

Creative members can win cash prizes for animations and flash programs selected to announce each week’s winning numbers. Visitors may watch as many commercials as they like. Registration is optional and free.

As a further incentive to come back to the site, contestants in the sweepstakes get to pick the numbers for the draw. And as you already know what your own numbers are, that’s helpful. Of course, I’d need a mathematician to help me figure out of that’s a good or a bad thing…I reckon it’s probably not much different than a random drawing.

Either way, I’m in. Three minutes of my time to watch new commercials is fine by me, it’s all part of my daily routine anyway. And if I win a six figure jackpot in the process, well, that’ll make one very happy Wisebread blogger. Best of luck to you all.

Note: At the time this article was published, the main prize was $340,000. This could of course grow significantly or return to the $100,000 default prize.

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

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If You Won The Lottery, You Would...

Not Likely

So What Would You Do?

Watching ads could be your ticket to a fortune.