Mega Millions

With the jackpot currently estimated at $212 million and the next drawing tonight - and the economy being what it is - talk at work this afternoon once again touched on the lottery, and most importantly what would you do if you won? Would you go to work tomorrow?

One of my colleagues said he would run for president. I'll leave that alone.

He asked me what I would do, and it took me a second to think of anything because I haven't thought about it in a while. I haven't even played a scratch-off in almost three years, and other than a summer of manic Powerball playing, I had only bought a ticket a handful or two of times. Receiving a large sum of money changes everything, but hundreds of millions of dollars? It doesn't even make sense. I can barely imagine. Except the thing is that I can of course imagine. It is not unthinkable for a person to have that much money. In fact, according to a quick Wikipedia search, there are about 95,000 people with more than $30 million, and more than 1,000 with over a billion.

On the flip side, roughly a billion people live on less than $1/day...

So for a $212 million jackpot, the annual payout is somewhere around $7 million each year for 26 years or $137 million all at once. In other words, if I were to win the lottery (the odds of which are 1:175,711, 536), several million dollars would almost immediately be at my disposal. My first answer to my colleague's question was, "oh, I'd do a million things..." How vague is that? I would though. Then I started listing things, and the first thing I thought of was paying off my student loans and credit cards. How practical am I? How preoccupied with my current financial state am I?, is the more accurate question.

I would buy a really nice but not over the top apartment, maybe in Manhattan but more likely in Brooklyn, somewhere near the train and convenient to the city, Park Slope probably. I would most certainly quit my job, not because I don't like it but because I know my shifts would easily be covered. I would buy the perfect venue and open the perfect bar. But I would go somewhere sunny first - Oaxaca maybe, where it is currently 82 and clear. I would go shopping but not too much (the Gap has really cute spring sweaters and I discovered yesterday in the snow that my boots are no longer entirely waterproof). I would set up college funds for my nephew and every other child I know or who may come into existence in the near future. I would take dance lessons and pilates, I would finally learn to play my beautiful candy apple red Fender Squier Strat. I would relax a little, which means I would write more. I would travel. I would buy my parents a boat. I would donate to charities.

The point is that I would still work my ass of, I would still do the things I am planning on doing now, but it would make those things a lot easier. Okay, I'm not really planning on buying my parents a boat. So maybe I would do things a little more extravagantly, but I live well. It would be nice, but I don't need it. Unfortunately, a vast majority of the people that spend their hard-earned cash on lotto tickets really do need the money. And maybe one of them will get it tonight.