Whats good money to you?

[Bmxicle]

My life goal is to win the lotto. I've been jobless for about 4 months now attempting to grind my way through it. If I won the lotto however, I wouldn't have to worry about it!

Food for thought...

There are actual times when playing the lottery is a +EV investment. I'll use the Powerball as an example. We have it here in PA and many other states have it. The odds of winning the grand prize (matching 5 white balls + 1 red ball) is 1 in 146,107,962. When you buy a $1 ticket you must choose your method of payment up front. You can choose Annuity which pays out in equal installments over 20 years or Cash which pays you all the money up front but you only get 50% of the prize. IGNORING TAXES, inflation for the annuity option, and assuming you never win any of the smaller prizes; it is actually a +EV purchase to buy a $1 ticket with Annuity option when the jackpot is greater than $146,107,962 and +EV to buy a $1 ticket with the Cash option when the jackpot is greater than $292,215,924.

The main problem with this is variance obviously because you could make these +EV investments your entire life and still never hit.

wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong

cause when the prize pool is over 146blahblah blah people will start having the same ticket number as you thus making you split the prize with them.