It might be the biggest JP in seven months but it's also 50M behind where it was last time after rolling over 12 times thanks to the weakness of the bond market. On the bright side, the cash option is only about a 20M difference between the last time (about 99M vs 119M) which certainly makes it look much more attractive.

$99 million is nothing to sneeze at.After taxes its still going to be in the $50 million range.I could really help the economy out with that kind of money at my disposal ~;)

Of course not! Just saying how they're two rolls behind the previous JPs that have made it this far due to the bonds issue and I'm willing to bet the powers that be are holding it back too to let it drag out a little longer. I round it up to 100M because it's nicer sounding and could always make it to that amount if someone wins Friday when the sales are totaled. Would be about 60M after all is said and done with the likely taxes. I think I could live on that, let alone the potential interest and dividends it could bring.

after tax you will actually end up in the 70 million range. you're  about 20 million short.

After Obama & his merry band of liberals get their hands on it the winner will be lucky to walk away with $50 million of it.

Actually, that's after what they withhold, not what you will owe. It's just about guaranteed you are going to owe more. My calculation shows with max tax, living in Michigan, you are going to wind up with additional taxes of almost $8.4m, leaving you just a hair under $61.6m. With a good tax planner, it only gets better.

MaddMike, all the more reason to take the cash option.

Anyone bought tickets yet? Quick Picks for me, single tickets, multiple locations, and $15 to spend.  Bought 3 today.

Thats under the tax laws that are in effect now.After January 20th,the dems will be in a position to change the tax laws.Obama campaigned on redistributing the wealth.Translation:Steal from the rich and give to the poor.This clown actually thinks he's Robin Hood!

You can take it in 2008....or take your chances that in this recession Obama & the Dems will hold off another year before doing the Robin Hood trick.

well, your calculation is wrong. Mine is right. 70 million after tax, thats pretty good. ill still give u a doller if i win and you dont youll be happy.

Your calculation is also wrong unless you're rounding up, taking off the initial 25% Federal and the 4.35% State income taxes you'd initially end up with $69,802,200 of the 98.8M cash option. However you'll likely owe another 10% at tax time which would make it $59,992,200 (taking the 10% from the jackpot amount before initial taxes) after those taxes unless you do a lot of work on deductions and exploring tax breaks with a really good tax attorney. With whom you would probably be able to reduce that, maybe even eliminate it (but I doubt it) or even having a chance of even receiving a partial refund of the initial taxes. I'm pretty sure I'm right unless there's something else I'm missing and I'm only going by the lottery income, not whatever else you might have had.

Still 60M (rounding up, obviously) isn't bad at all.

Even if you win the lottery another 10 percent of taxes is still alot.

Actually, no, it's not wrong. Using the moneychimp tax calculator, take 98,800,000 less MI tax of 4.35% and you have a net fed taxable of $94,693,500 - plug your number in, assume single, 2008 calculator (2009 published tax brackets are pretty much the same), you get fed tax of $33,121,322, leaving you with a nice chunk of change at $61,572,178 - give or take. This doesn't take into account your personal deductions, but at $61m, that's chump change.

Don't forget that the USA Mega calculation is calculated with only the minimum required witholding of 25% federal.

Just think how good it will feel to contribute $33M to help out the Feds bail more money. Yipppeeeeeeeee!  Sometimes I think the annuity may be better just for the fact that you pay taxes in smaller payments and have some time to "get used to" having that much money.   You may be able to learn, manage, and invest those annual payments over time to negate the massive "lump tax payment".  You can always sell the annuity if you change your mind.

I certainly could do just fine with $4M a year, invested properly, your returns could retrieve the tax losses.

jarasan, I keep thinking more and more like you. $60m is an intimidating amount of money. I think the stress of trying to manage without taking huge losses would just be too much for me. And could I trust someone else to manage it? That might be as much stress as the other.

With an annuity of $4m per year, you can live very comfortably and put money away for 26 years.  At the end of 26 years, you still have quite a bit of money and you have lived well.

But then to come full circle, LOL, 2% interest per year on $60m is  $1.2m. That's pretty comfortable, too.

With $60M you should be able to easily manage to get a yearly return of 5% with safe, mostly low risk investments.. Not to mention if that 5% compounded every year or daily for 25 years could result in over 200M (that's obviously without factoring in the taxes). In the end you'd have made a lot more than what the annuity would offer at this point. Of course trusting people would be an issue but I think that could be resolved with making sure you remain involved and just not trusting them with the choices being made with your money. Taking a few courses to be more familiar with what's going on couldn't hurt either. Then there's the real estate market which I'm sure is a either at now or soon to be at a good point to invest into again...

Heck, not really sure if buying a QP in Washington State is worth it anymore.  I have bought QP tickets for the last 3 drawings and have had 2 tickets that have had matching Mega Balls.  On 1 ticket of 5, I had 3 maga balls of 19 and 2 of 43 for the Friday draw of last week.  Then I got another ticket and it had 2 MB for 44 and 2 of 16.  In the years that I have been playing these games, I have never before gotten matching MB (or PB) numbers on a ticket before.

the problem with the annuity is do you trust the government to give you 4 mill a year? because i dont.

I feel the same way anymore.  When I buy QP's I get repeats on the lines, mega ball included.  Or I just get horrible numbers.....well.......not horrible, but I squirm when I see a line with say 36 and higher in white balls.

But, the repeat mega ball worked in my favor once.  I think I paid about $3 for a qp where 2 of the 3 lines had a 5 for a mega ball.  The mega ball that dropped that night was of course, a 5 plus I had one correct  white ball on those lines  so I walked away with like a $3 profit! lol Nothing to smile about I know, but..if you knew the luck I've been having on ANY lottery game..$3 is big lol.

At any rate.....I'm sure the MM will be won by someone before Christmas....and what a present it will be!  Lucky dogs don't even know whats in store!  Could be me lol.........ya right.

It isn't rocket surgery here.   To ballpark the net you just take the current maximum fed rate (.35) the current  maximum state rate (.0435 for Michigan...your state may not tax lottery winnings)

and the current maximum local rate if you have one (.01 in Michigan)

So, .35+.0435= .3935 +.01 = .4035

1-.3935 = .6065 (no local tax)

1-.4035 =.5965 (highest local tax)

98,800,000 * .6065 = 59,922,200

98,800,000 * .5965 =58,934,200

Under the current tax structure if you have no income you can add about 23,000 to that in Michigan (because of the different brackets).

That is how you ballpark the starting point.  Your figures will be different but this is how you start.

I also deduct from my ballpark a certain amount to pay someone else to figure it out

Now, working on the win is the hard part!

Your'e kidding right?  You would really take it all and put it on red wouldn't you ?

All those who trust the government, RAISE YOUR HANDS!!!     

....chirp....

....chirp....

 Guess that makes it unanimous.....   AND THE NUMBER ONE REASON TO TAKE THE CASH AND RUN!!!!!

It's not nearly as simple as your marginal tax rate. Bush obviously isn't a tax and spend democrat, but when it comes to financehe isn't a conservative ,either. His policyhas been to borrow and spend.

You may think you got a break because of Bush's tax cuts, but most people didn't, even if their tax bill went down a few bucks. In the 8 years Bush has been in office the national debt has increased by about 5 trillion dollars. That's an average of $2050 for every single person in the country for each of those 8 years. If you're married, and don't have kids your annual household share is $4100. Median household income in 2006 was just under 50 grand, so median taxable income was roughly 40 grand, which would put you in the 15% tax bracket. Half of the households in the country could pay an extra 10% on every dime of taxable income and still save at least $100, compared to the increase in thier share of the national debt.

Making minimum payments on your credit cards or taking a longer car loan to reduce monthly payments may sometimes make sense to reduce your cash flow and make money available for other needs, but in the end you pay more because your interest payments are higher. With the collective power of 305 million people it's inexcusable that the country would take out loans to pay routine expenses. As with personal credit cards, the only way to really get ahead is toreduce your spending relative to your income. If you want to see howthat has worked on a national level there's a graph of national debt asa percentage of GDP here: http://zfacts.com/p/318.html 

If I'm the lucky one who wins the next MM jackpot I'd happily pay the extra 3.6% increase that may return to the top bracket if I was sure that money would go towards reducing the deficit (and therefore my debt). In the long run I'd be better off, because I wouldn't be paying as much interest for the rest of my life.

It's not another 10%. It's the other 10%, which is different. You owe the taxes once you win, but for a big win they don't withhold as much as you're (almost certainly) going to owe. As pointed out elsewhere, if you win a jackpot you can expect to pay the highest tax rate on almost all of it. It's just a matter of when you pay it.

You guys are seriously arguing over the taxes?  Who cares?  I just want the jackpot., and big fat "wahh" if I got to pay taxes on it. 

 I actually don't mind paying taxes.I just don't like how my tax dollars are being spent...by either party!

Hopefully, you or one of the other LP members will actually win a lottery jackpot one of these days and then we can have a real argument about paying lottery taxes rather then these fantasy arguments.  Probably if it ever does happen, the last thing the winner will have their mind is coming to LP to argue about paying taxes.

Ok, I haven't laughed like that all day...

I couldn't agree with you more, Mike.  It is too bad Al Gore and Goerge Bush played the role of spoiler in in the 2000 election.  Ralph Nader would have made a good president.  A hell of a lot better than any of the Republicrats(Democrats and Republicans combined) anyway.

SC

Thank you RJOh!  I don't think anyone who wins will be coming here to wine about the taxes.  Maybe to tell Todd, so he can know.  Some may even give a hollar out to LP members during a press conference.  (Whoa!  Talk about the traffic here then!)  But taxes?  Nah.  Not me anyway.