Anyone else notice this about Mega Millions

Reply #40

Drenick1 — Sun, 19 Jun 2016 15:15:58 GMT

I was referring to the $1,000,000 amount as a supplement to ones current income. There is absolutely no way anyone could retire comfortably at a young age (under 40) with that amount. If by chance someone got $1million tax free and was in their 70's then it should be ok as long as no unexpected medical situation arises.

Reply #39

TheMeatman2005 — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 21:56:01 GMT

I don't know what your standards of living are, but I would want need more than $40,000 / year to live on.

Between general living expenses, utilities, food and other necessities and a nice vehicle (with insurance) that is just not enough.

Reply #38

KY Floyd — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 19:34:21 GMT

You may not have been referring to all of the cash, but that's what's used to determine the annuity value. There is no annuity valued at $9 million, and there's no negative interest rate, as part of the jackpot. There's a total cash value (or was at that time) of $173.3 million, and if it had been invested at the lower (but still positive) interest rate available at that time it would have produced annuity payments totaling $260 million.

Reply #37

Drenick1 — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 22:12:12 GMT

Thank you realtorjim, for the sales figures.

Reply #36

realtorjim — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 23:30:22 GMT

I thought some might like the sales figures (rounded) for the current MegaMillions run (sales do not include megaplier).

Jackpot (in M)

Sales (in M) Increase (in M)

293

280

36

20

260

34

9

251

34

16

235

29

17

218

30

15

203

29

16

187

26

13

174

25

13

161

25

11

150

23

12

138

23

10

128

Reply #35

Uluska — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 23:10:07 GMT

Then it makes sense not to use numbers associated with graduation month and approximate birthdays of the graduates.

Reply #34

Rexer90 — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 03:15:05 GMT

It was addressed in the news forum a couple of days ago:

https://www.lotterypost.com/news/304029

Reply #33

Drenick1 — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 16:37:29 GMT

I would agree that anyone who has modest goals and is just interested in being debt free while enjoying a comfortable lifestyle would never need several millions As long as you're sensible and stay healthy there is no reason a $1 million nest egg couldn't sustain you for 25 years.

The caveat is unexpected health care/assisted living expenses many of us may encounter as we get much older plays a major role in just how far our money will last.

Reply #32

Drenick1 — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 16:27:34 GMT

I wasn't referring to all of the cash in the current jackpot just the previous increase. An annuity valued at $9 million with a cash value of $10.8 million would require a negative interest rate. Simply put, your cash investment of $10.8 million would give you an annuity with a value of $9 million.

Reply #31

rcbbuckeye — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 12:47:30 GMT

At my age it would be plenty to live on. I don't care about 1% of anything. Just what I would need to be debt free and live comfortably for 20-25 years.

Reply #30

KY Floyd — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 05:53:42 GMT

The logical reason is that the interest rate applies to all of the cash, not just the increase since the previous drawing. You can see that in this table of PB values: http://www.txlottery.org/export/sites/lottery/Documents/jackpotestimates/pb20160608.pdf The advertised annuity is always the total cash value multiplied by the rate for that drawing (with a minor amount of rounding).

Reply #29

Drenick1 — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 19:56:13 GMT

Having $8 million in net assets not including your primary residence would put you in the top 1%. I wouldn't mind that but I have loftier dreams of being in the top 0.1% according to multiple publications requires a net worth of at least $20-$30 million (this figure always seems to change every year with some years being less than the prior year).

Reply #28

Kingofearth — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 19:40:10 GMT

Simple explanation, most of the people who come out of the woodwork when the jackpot gets big don't see 280 million as being large enough to spend money on it.

Reply #27

realtorjim — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 19:14:03 GMT

If the cash value of a jackpot puts me in the top 1% of net worth all is good in my world

Reply #26

Drenick1 — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 18:08:30 GMT

I think a base $15million MM jackpot win would be cutting it in terms of providing a dream retirement but I don't doubt it would be a good supplemental nest egg. A sole winner would net a cash payout of approximately $5 million after ALL taxes. On the other hand, the Powerball base jackpot of $40 million (cash value net of $13-$14 Million) should definitely secure an ideal and dream worthy retirement for 99% of us.

Reply #25

ArizonaDream — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 17:09:29 GMT

I think it has more to do with the occasional players who used to buy only when 100 or 200 million jackpots would make the news. Now that they've heard of a billion dollar jackpot, they're holding off for even higher numbers.

I hope MUSL doesn't think they can fix this by changing the MM matrix.

Reply #24

sully16 — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 14:15:31 GMT

Amen

Reply #23

rcbbuckeye — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 13:14:48 GMT

The amount doesn't matter.

Because whatever the amount is.....RETIREMENT BABY

Reply #22

sully16 — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 12:17:45 GMT

I never pay attention to the amount, not until I win.

Reply #21

Teddi — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 06:51:54 GMT

Nope. We're still in anomaly territory. Maybe we could chalk up the $9M as a fluke, but a $20M rollover at this stage with a jackpot that also has a correspondingly high cash value, is still really low. Unexplainably low. Maybe people started looking at the odds because we have reduced sales in MUSL lotteries but an increase in sales for scratchoffs.

Reply #20

Kingofearth — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 06:08:56 GMT

I doubt it just as much as you, but given there isn't an obvious reason i figured i may as well throw the idea out here. It looks like it was an anomaly given it just went up $20M.

Reply #19

Teddi — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 02:56:23 GMT

Doubtful. Historically, jackpot growth has little if anything to do with the time of year (except around Xmas) and mainly to do with its size, the size of competing jackpots, and how much media attention it gets. No matter what is going on in the world, I have never seen a MUSL jackpot at a quarter of a billion dollars get only a $9M rollover. If hurricanes, snowmageddons, and $4/gallon gas couldn't deter people from buying tickets, I'm not seeing graduations playing that big of a factor.

Th... [ More ]

Reply #18

Drenick1 — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 17:05:23 GMT

The only logical reason in which the cash value goes up more than an annuity would be a negative interest rate. There are many countries in Europe that have negative interest rates in which the customer actually has to pay the bank a percentage to keep his or her money.

Reply #17

TheMeatman2005 — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 12:18:36 GMT

It could be because of the lower interest rates. More cash needed to generate the annuity.

As long as the check clears after it hits my bank....that's all I care about.

Reply #16

savagegoose — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 11:07:07 GMT

i only noticed the jackpot graph in results is flattening out not climbing more sharply, unusual im used to that getting steeper. people sick of paying only a buck for lotto over there

Reply #15

PrisonerSix — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 22:42:34 GMT

With the jackpot rising, ticket sales are rising too, make the jackpot grow even faster.

Reply #14

Kingofearth — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 18:02:09 GMT

I'm a college student and I've noticed that for the spring graduations, many families buy lottery tickets as a gift for the graduates. Maybe the graduations had something to do with the bigger increases and the end of it being why it was so little this time around. Just saying.

Reply #13

Teddi — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 15:04:35 GMT

Well yes. Once it hits the news/media, we'll see a pick up in sales. That's a given. But when has a JP of over $250 million ever needed media attention to surpass $15 million on the rollover? Regardless of weather, economy, lack of media attention, status of other MUSL jackpots etc, $250 million has always generated more ticket sales than this.

Considering how many states rely on ticket sales to pay for education and infrastructure, this big of a fall off is something they better pray is a fl... [ More ]

Reply #12

jjtheprince — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 11:46:09 GMT

I've noticed that can't win is very strong with this one!

I expect it to roll until it gets to about a $4 billion jackpot with as strong as can't win has been.

Reply #11

Teddi — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 03:32:39 GMT

I'd expected it to be between 275 and 300 because PB isn't high enough to steal away sales. I just don't get it.

Reply #10

quicksloth35 — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 03:20:02 GMT

It was probably a freak occurence. If it gets above $300 million, it will be on TV. Doubt it will be a small jump in that case.

Reply #9

realtorjim — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 02:05:15 GMT

My thoughts exactly, Teddi. I had the jackpot pegged to rise to $271. This was a conservative estimate because sales have not been stellar. Needless to say the $260 figure was a shocker. If this is the beginning of a new normal I wonder if MUSL will listen to the statement players are making

Reply #8

Teddi — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 23:48:06 GMT

I did notice but didn't really care.

What really stunned me is an advertised jackpot of over $250 million with only a $9 million bump on the rollover. Has that ever happened before in the history of MUSL???

$9M isn't jackpot fatigue, it's jackpot exhaustion. One winter a couple years back had lower than normal sales due to severe weather in many states forcing people to stay home. The rollovers were still more than this.

Waiting to see if this is an anomaly or the new normal.... [ More ]

Reply #7

RJOh — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 23:09:20 GMT

That is the amount that I will end up after the deduction and all taxes are paid by April 15,2017.

Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

Reply #6

music* — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 23:02:33 GMT

and I did notice it. Who can complain about a cash lump sum just over $100,000,000.00? That is the amount that I will end up after the deduction and all taxes are paid by April 15,2017.

Reply #5

ArizonaDream — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 20:44:54 GMT

There must have been a change in the interest rate that MUSL can get on the annuity investments. A 10.5 million change in the cash value would normally mean about 16 million more for the annuity..

The cash lump sum is what matters though, so whatever.

Reply #4

psykomo — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 20:14:29 GMT

MM lottery must be out sourcing their accounting to the OMB government accounting pool on account some consultant told them out sourcing would save them more monnie

Reply #3

Rexer90 — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 19:28:16 GMT

I was wondering about that myself... plus it only increased by $9M when the previous rollover increases have been at least $15M during the past two weeks at least $10M since April 26th.

Reply #2

jacintasc — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 19:09:05 GMT

honestly, I didn't notice.

But I did notice that I did not win

Reply #1

Sunglasses — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 18:47:05 GMT

Some algorithm

Anyone else notice this about Mega Millions

Drenick1 — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 18:34:33 GMT

The Mega Millions annuity jackpot rose $9 million from $ 251 million to $260 million but the cash value went up from $162.8 million to $173.3 million a net jump of 10.5 million.