Good for this person.   I hope they stay smart and the money lasts for generations.

I don't agree though on the annuity. I'm with DC. It would have to be somewhere in the $300m range before I would consider the annuity, regardless of age.  Then again, it may be right for this person. 

thats magnificants hope 2 join u as a winner soon.

Congrats to the winners.

I dont think they waited too long.   We would waited even longer to collect.

Anyone who remembers the younger couple (at least she was. . .maybe like 27) who won the $20M jackpot in the Canandian Lottery  will also remember the story that appeared a few months after their win about some guy who hatched a plan to kidnap the family to extort their money and then kill them all so as not to be identified. . .or maybe we could remember Bud Post's brother who was attempting to hire a hit man to revenge what the brother thought was not enough of a gift. . .or the thousands of reguests that well publicized Jackpot winners are deluged with. . .or Jack Whitaker's famous (infamous) hijinks, lawsuits, and tragedies that a huge Jackpot brought to him. 

 I could well imagine why many lottery winners wish to remain anonymous. . .so they don't end up as a cautionary tale on some new 'Curse of the Lottery Winners' show on 'E' or 'A&E' or some other cable show looking for fodder during a slow holiday weekend.   And who can (if they were members) forget the heated discussion about 'Bunky and the Lottery Win' about a year ago--lots of people here mocking him (although most, if I remember correctly, defended him) 

 Some people can handle the intense scrutiny that a Jackpot win brings them and others cannot--I'm no LotteryWinner but I already had a mooch threaten to hurt my parents if I didn't give him 100K of their money just before a con man got hold of them and had them liquidate 75% of their estate and give it to him to "invest".  The guy that threatened AND the conman are BOTH in prison, but my parents' retirement  money was never retrieved. . .I've learned that if you have $1 more than the next guy then that guy will ask you for some of it and then threaten if you still say no.

If I EVER won--I would make most members of my family and my SO's family minor partners and let them know that was IT. . .move my parents. . .one time gift our friends and then just travel til the brouhaha died down.  Then I would return to my home state and set up educational projects in the schools and  prisons in my community so as to provide gainful employment  to those who are chronically unemployed in the only area of growth in the next five years--development of green energy sources.  I believe that gainful employment would have prevented the guy from threatening my parents. . .as for the conman. . .well I later found out that he had dome the same thing to his parents, his parents' friends, his brother (who had given him a job in brother's company), his brother's friends and other people like my parents who were essentially strangers. . . so prison is the only place for that guy where he cannot hurt any other family.

Just a thought

I wouldn't even need strangers for that sort of thing, I've got a family full of crooks. At least with anonymity my name wouldn't be in the paper and spread over the internet for millions of people to see and read. I'd just want to keep the list of potential ******** to a minimum. But, as soon as things are set up and the claim is made, I'm gone soon after that. Though I'd probably wait a little longer just to make it less obvious since it'd probably be a little dumb to go through the trouble just to go and make it obvious with disappearing right away. I think I could make way with buying a new vehicle as long as it wasn't something flashy. Still, I'm sure word would get out, oh well.... Actually there's not many people I know that I'd feel it worth paying a ransom for, especially when half my family would probably fake such a thing. As for coming after me like what happened with Bud Post, eh by the time they come about with that I think I'd be well equiped to handle someone trying to pull that on me. They probably couldn't afford to go after me anyway with gas being over four dollars a gallon and rising.

I just had a image of someone demanding a ransom and the person on the other end not caring and the kidnapper trying to negotiate.

 Also because this person is getting it as an annuity, they get to pay taxes to the state of Ohio for the life of the annuity! That was NOT a smart move at all!!!!

If it would have been taken as a lump sum payment paid to the blind trust the state of Ohio would only get it's state tax on the money only once! Nothing like supporting the state when you don't have too!!!! (If I was them) I'd fire the estate planner that talked them into that bad deal and then sue them for the bad advice!!!!

i"m confused...how do you pay more taxes when you have an annuity??  They will take the same amount of taxes out either way.

I'm sorry but I could live on 5 million a year after taxes, but that's just me; i'm not too greedy...

I have a question.and excuse me for being completely stupid on the subject seeing I've never won a jackpot (yet). lol..but what exactly is the benefits of taking an annuity? I guess I can look up on this ?, but I'm too damn lazy and someone here has to know... Do you get more of your winnings if you take the 26 years? Does that knock out the halfing it for lump sum choices? Taxing every year, and paying different as the taxes change, arn't you kinda scre#&(% yourself?  Is it more of a greed thing?Want more, want more.  BUT YES>>>>I DO UNDERSTAND the idea of maybe budgeting yourself and limiting yourself if your put on a like 5 million a year annuity plan.  Dosen't always go picture perfect..I mean remember Bud Post? I'm totally not dissing the man at all, but there was trouble of spending more than he had that year, owing money, and waiting for that yearly $500 thousand to come in to repay people. Plus, you get those agressive companies who try and get you to sell future payouts for a lum sum.  Watch out for those guys! I mean for me, half that baby up and tax it once..I'm positive I can live a full and well taken care of life on my lump sum. Again, I do understand that they choose this for whatever reason went better with their lifestyle, but I'm just wondering how it all works and what is the benefits of taking it yearly....

The next advertised Mega Millions jackpot is $43 million and the cash value is $25.9 million.

"This (the $25.9 million cash value) represents the sum of the first annuity installment, plus the current market value of government securities required to fund the remaining 25 installments, as of 6/27/2008 at 10:45am"

Simply put the advertised or estimated jackpot is the amount the winner will eventually get if they take the annuity jackpot and the cash value is the amount it costs to fund the annuity. For taxes it's pay it all now if you take the cash value or pay them from the amount you receive each year. At one time almost all lotto jackpots were paid as annuities and many were for 20 years. Lotteries began offering the cash value as the jackpot amounts grew larger.

There are pros and cons for taking either on any size jackpot and has been discussed many times on LP.

I don't understand people and what they don't know about taxes...... You pay what % on your income? lets say 35% the top bracket...OK  Each yr your going to be paying 35% income tax on your annuity plus the state tax for the state of Ohio......  OK  now you take it as a lump sum and pay 35% + the Ohio income tax the ONE TIME!  Do you get it now?  I hope so...... Now lets say you invest wisely.... now you get to pay a 15% capitol gains tax on the investments instead of being taxed at the 35% rate on your annuity payment every yr..... I myself would rather pay 15% capitol gains tax vs 35% income tax rate any day of the week..... How about you?   

You can also go to the Jackpot Analysis page here in LP and see for yourself the difference and please check it out carefully to see the how much you can save in taxes over time... Please remember it's only an estimate but you can bet it's going to be pretty close for most people.

And yes you bet I'm greedy when it comes to how much I'm going to keep in my pocket! I'd rather have it than to be paying vast amounts in taxes to any State or Federal Government to squander on some stupid program or better yet to give away to some huge corporation in the form of corporate welfare!!!!!!!!!! I think I'm better suited to have the money to spend as I see fit, over any government entity ever could be!