Just like last year's 'Christmas Miracle'?
By Todd Northrop
Lottery players across the United States are buying their Mega Millions tickets in preparation for Friday's massive $168 million Christmas Eve drawing.
The lump-sum cash value stands at a staggering $107 million.
For gift-givers who enjoy giving loved ones and friends lottery tickets, the Friday Mega Millions drawing may make a good gift, as the recipient can instantly see if they have won. On the other hand, should nobody win the Friday jackpot, the next one held the Tuesday after Christmas will be even bigger.
In 2009, a Kentucky couple claimed a state-record $128.6 million Powerball jackpot in a drawing held the day after Christmas. The prize was termed a 'Christmas Miracle', as the winning ticket was printed by mistake on Christmas Eve. (See Lottery Post's coverage of the winner: www.lotterypost.com/news/206635.)
Tuesday's Mega Millions jackpot is the accumulation of 12 consecutive drawings without a top prize winner. The current jackpot run-up started on Nov. 12 as a $12 million grand prize.
Players should note that jackpot amounts are conservative estimates provided by the lotteries, and are often somewhat higher by the time the drawing occurs.
In the latest Mega Millions drawing that took place last night, there was no jackpot winner, but 10 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $250,000 prize: 4 from California, 1 from Delaware, 1 from Kentucky, 1 from Maryland, 2 from New York, and 1 from North Carolina.
The four California winners will each be awarded prizes of $195,910, because California awards all prizes in a pari-mutuel formula, which calculates the prize amount based on the number of tickets sold and the number of winners in each prize category. This often has the effect of making the prize higher than the other Mega Millions states, but in Tuesday's drawing, because an unusually large number of people won the second prize, the payout is lower then normal.
Following the Tuesday drawing, the Mega Millions annuity jackpot estimate was raised $23 million from its previous amount of $145 million. The cash value was raised by $15.2 million, from its previous amount of $91.8 million.
The next Mega Millions drawing will take place Friday evening at 11:00 pm Eastern Time.
Mega Millions is currently offered for sale in 41 states, plus Washington, D.C.
For a complete set of game descriptions, results, history, and all questions regarding Mega Millions, lottery players are encouraged to visit USA Mega (www.usamega.com), a Web site that caters to the Unites States's two multi-state lottery games, Powerball and Mega Millions.
What a great stocking stuffer.
I am hoping that it will be a great bank account stuffer!
69,000,000% ROI after taxes !
Im dreaming of a $168m Christmas
Guess Ill buy me two tickets
and if I win I'm taking the 26 Year Period not the lump sum
first off, anyone who takes the 26 year payout is a Sucker, 1 the govt spending trillions they don't have, and the dems want rich people money, you trust them with your future as a rich person, your a nut
2nd, any person with a brain can make more money, for the rest of their lifes by taking the cash now, and investing it into,
Dividend Paying Stocks
i know of tons of great stocks rangin form 5 to 10%, fyi, dividend payments are taxed much lower then income 35% rate, try 15% max!
and where not talking about fly by companys ether, where taking solid rest of your life time companys
you know at&T or even verizon
, the 2 biggest telecos in USA, thats right, their dividend rates, 5.8 right now for AT, and 5.6 for Verizon
with 69 million cash invested in stocks, ,that's even atfer tax's 35%!, i be earning more then your Lolz 26 year payments, as you be tax'ed 35% if not more down the road, how you think they going to pay for all the trillions they loaning now, WITH YOUR MONEY wise guy
, while i have all future income tax'ed at 15%, i did the math, even low end of 5% payback, with a MAX tax rate of 15% for dividends, am sure making more then you Per year in dividend payments by investing 69 million by my own CHOICE, and if you go for the higher close to 10% dividend stocks, your Rapeing 26 year payouts amount LOLZ
and its the fact ITS FOR THE REST of my life, not 26 years to boot, your 26 year payout is a sick joke pulled on dumbies who fall for it, if anyone takes that, your losing money
owning a company stock, that pays out to their owners their profits FOR THE LIFE TIME OF THAT COMPANY, , is the smartest invest in the world atm if your thinking LONG TERM, my great grind kids will be living it up dividend payments in a trust they can't touch but collect the money form dividend, now thats what i call LONG term investing :P
thro out history, nonething has came close to the rewards of owning a solid company who goal is to give back to its owners, ask IBM stock holders who have had the stock for over 30 years, how they Feel about their investment in the stock then, ROFL
They will with hold 25% for taxes, that is a federal requirement so it's true for all states but that in no way accounts for all of the taxes you will owe. Come April 15th, you'll likely to have to pay at least another $10 million if not more in taxes in addition to the $23 million they with held from you.
A lot of jackpot winners that were foolish enough to not solicit professional advice wound up having to negotiate with the IRS.
Of course, the annuity is effectively a tax deferred investment and you will be unable to find much opportunity to invest the money tax free so you would be a fool not to take the annuity especially since the first payment should be more than enough to pay all your bills plus provide for an extravagant lifestyle
i love people who don't read what i say
if you FREAKING READ my post, i even said quote
"with 69 million cash invested in stocks, ,that's even atfer tax's 35%!"
i said, i have 69M to invest ATFER 35% , thats ATFER max fed tax rate,
next time, try talking to someone who does not read usamega jackpot Jackpot Analysis
i like to think of my self as a Professional invester, as i have already done the research and could beat easy annuity payments
only thing the annuity payments have is they invest the money into CARP govt bonds with the money BEFORE tax's, you sure pay the tax's on collecting of the money
so don't be fooled, while you have all of the currect 107 cash invested into the govt annuity, you sure pay tax's, i was trying to tell people
to take the 35% max tax now, and use the 69m in cash atfer full fed rate , and YOU CAN sure make more money, per year and for the rest of your life
god do i hate people not understanding logic
awesome
its Xmas squabble about it after ya win ......
as for me ..... I'd be very happy just to see it go to anyone of us here so long as it was put to good use
besides the goverment hasn't totally destroyed us YET ..... count yer blessings
Merry Hexmas to all and humbug new year
This jackpot amount could not have had come at a better time than this! I guess one american player could away with it!
It could be you!!!!!!!!!!!!!it could be you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It could change your life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love the subtle programming hints to motivate ticket buyers to buy-by-bye......
Aint mad at them. If it works then the states can say "HO! HO! HO! MERRY CHRI$TMA$!"
To the jackpot winner, congratulations and what a wonder Christmas present. You deserve it.
To be honest I would not be surprised if the jackpot rolled over to New Year's eve. What a way to end the year..
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, I only buy with my co-workers when the jackpot is 100 mil or above.
This will be an Awesome Christmas Present for someone...(HOPEFULLY YOURS TRUELY!!) It would make a Great Christmas.....and an Nice New Year also! I would celebrate my New Years in the Bahama's or in Hawaii maybe..... Don't worry LP I would send a nice video Post Card of Me on the beach...LOL
What would be better is having 4 or 5 winning tickets and maybe one of those being a lottery pool. Don't get me wrong, I would gladly accept $60 million after taxes, but why not spread the holiday cheer?
Good article, but there was no Powerball drawing on Christmas Eve last year - Christmas Eve fell on a Thursday. The Christmas Miracle drawing referred to in the article actually took place on the day AFTER Christmas.
The ticket WAS printed on Christmas Eve though (I know that's not what the article was saying but thought I'd throw that out there, since it would still be a Christmas Miracle since the numbers were printed before Christmas).
Thank you, the article has been fixed.
I always said Id take the annuity, but when its this large I'll take the cash option. If I win, I'd be taking 74.9 Million after taxes. I wouldn't know what to do with all thats. Its crazy to think that I could win it all on christmas eve.
Welp, looks like the winner is from Indiana. Congratulations to the winner.
I think you may have looked at the wrong thing?
This was about MegaMillions, which isn't drawn tonight, and I don't think anyone won the PowerBall.
Now I'm thinking how weird it will be if someone from Indiana does win on the 24th...
hes saying that cuz look at his location, hes in indiana. haha
Yea that thought came to mind, kind of a good luck charm.
Just wasn't sure if maybe I had missed something, haha.
yeah it is crazy to think you are gonna win it all
becaus eim going ot win it all bwaaaa haaa haaaa
After 35% Federal Taxes, you would net about $69.55 Million!
A nice ROI of 69,550,000% for me ......... I am only spending $1!
I hope it is one ticket and one person that wins!
as for me ........... I do know what to do with the cash if I win ..........
Same here, the clerk that almost always sells me my tickets knows what I usually choose so when I said cash yesterday she kinda froze for a second since she's so used to hitting the annuity option.
When the pot gets big I also start thinking about collecting myself, without a trust or anything, just so I can go through a big thing and since I'd be getting such a huge amount I could move to a better area right away, which would help limit those who could contact me. Of course I still don't sign the ticket right away, since I'm sure if I actually held the winning ticket it would all hit me how bothered I'd be and I'd collect through a trust like I've always planned on.
In Ohio we have up to sixty days after the drawing to decide if we want cash so all I have to think about now is winning. If I don't win then I don't have to decide.
Ah, I see.
I wish that's how it was here but we have to decide at the time of purchase. I guess it does help if you want annuity and want to wait a while to claim (since most states only allow annuity within the first 30-60 days), but I'd rather be free to decide how I want to collect after I've won.
In Massachusetts, we have 60 days to decide on a payment option. If you dont choose within that time, its automatically annuity. We also have a full year to claim the prize from the drawing date.
Also, last time MA won a major jackpot was in 1999 and 2004. I think were due again, or another state that hasn't won at all might win.
Winner from Indiana. That's what I read.
Heads up ... this applies to us future multi-millions $ lottery jackpot winners:
- Our current U.S.A. President, Barack Hussein Obama, and his administration has spent the last 6 months writing and saying that they intend to INCREASE the qualified dividends and long-term capital gains rate to a whopping 20% in year 2011!
- Our current U.S.A. President, Barach Hussain Obama, and his administration has spent the last 6 months writing and saying that they intend to INCREASE the Federal Maximum Tax Bracket rate to a whopping 39.6% in year 2011!
- It is possible that since most of the U.S.A.'s states are either in or near bankruptcy they TOO may increase their tax rates for income earned and income received from lottery winnings!
- It is reported that hundreds of thousands of "municipal bonds" will be 'falling-through-their-floors' before mid next year, 2011!
Summing it up, careful, new and somewhat seasoned investors. True, you must quite your job to become a part-time investor once you win a multi-million dollar net jackpot lump sum or even annuity. However, don't rush with real investments yet. Instead, spend six months reading daily and making "pretend paper-trades" whether these be: stock purchses, stock option trading w/insurances, mutual fund purchases, ETF, futures, hedge fund purchases, and/or bond purchases. They all have risk, your priority should be seeing how to get as close to 90% ensurance of profit as you can get. Most of the prior can't guarantee that. Best to keep your money in many FDIC insured accounts -- until you are ready to transfer much of the money into investing accounts with a couple different companies. And then divide those company's accounts into several sub-accounts. Diversify in every conceivable way. Lastly, keep rembering that you already won, no need to play the lottery anymore nor plan more than safer 2% each month on balances in each account. Can you each see how to do this correctly and safely, a multi-million $ net jackpot winner couldn't possibly work a full-time "outside job"?
Since it takes anywhere from 2-4 weeks to receive the electronic funds transfer, after claiming a multi-million $$ jackpot at the 'ticket purchase state's lottery headquarters' in the U.S.A., that means that all winners from here on out will be receiving their monies in year 2011. Time for us to now fight these proposed tax increases OR re-calculate the net amounts received from cash lump sums OR both! This way our calculations will be more accurate. Better to figure on the conservative, rather than be wounded by too much being taken out by state and or fed taxes, and giving too much or soon to friend, relative, and/or charity.