LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Ligia Dennis got the type of surprise most of us can only dream about: she won the lottery.
Dennis purchased the ticket from a coffee shop while doing her laundry. She bought three $6 California Lucky Life Scratchers. However, this lucky moment might not have ever come for her. She decided to give two of the lottery tickets to her mother and brother, and she nearly gave her winning ticket away to a homeless man looking for change.
Dennis was overjoyed we she found out that she had won the lottery. "When I saw LIFE, the winning symbol, I went crazy for a minute," she said. "It didn't really process."
The 26-year-old Los Angeles hairdresser thought her winnings from the ticket totaled $1,000 but soon found out that it was actually $1,000 per week over the next 25 years. That sums up to be a jaw-dropping $1.3 million payout.
It was only after she went to the California Lottery Van Nuys District Office on Dec 26 that she was told that she was to receive $1.3 million from her win.
"I'm shocked. I can't believe it," Dennis said.
Dennis has the option of either going with getting a weekly payment or a lump sum which would total around $750,000 before taxes. She is talking to a financial planner and hopes to be able to open up her very own hair salon with the earnings.
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Great things come to those who give. Good story.
Congrats to Ligia Dennis on her win!
I hope she goes back and gives that homeless man at least a $5 bill.
She didn't and doesn't owe that homeless man a dime. It's always nice to know how much a lottery ticket is really worth before foolishly giving it away.
that's another thing...how did she "almost" give it away? did she have it tucked away with the money? Did she have it in her hand to give it to him but a voice in her head spoke up and told her to put it back in her pocket? the never ending questions on this one...
They mysterious hand of fate surely helped Ligia here. Congratulations & Happy New Year !!!
Oh she would have cried out so loud all Californians would be deaf. I'm very happy she won.
It's interesting that we have a similar $2 scratcher called $1,000 a Week for Life and it's lump sum payout is $800K and the one in California is $750,000
California Lottery is going backwards. They raised the odds for most top prizes on their scratchers in 2014. They "improved" the 2nd chance drawings by reducing payouts by millions (sneaky marketing is on-going). So, I'm not surprised they take a bigger cut when calculating the annuity payout than other states.
Something is going on with these lotteries. They seem three times greedier than they were in 2010. The scratch cards from 2010 had much better odds. For example back then $5 cards that offered $1M had odds of 1:3.024M. Now they're at least 1:4.2M and some like Cadillac Riches are 1:5.04M.
Wow what a lucky woman. Fate intervened more than once on her be behalf.
Mixed feelings on this one. Really happy that she won and will now get a chance to open her own business as she wanted, but also sad that the homeless guy came so close to no longer being homeless. May good fortune smile on him as well.
I think you're right. Remember that lady who gave away a $250,000 winning ticket and sued the guy she gave it to? Saying she gave it to him in error. Funny thing was that she only remembered her 'mistake' after she found out he'd won with the ticket she'd given him. She was really boohooing it up on one of those news programs calling it unfair, that it was her ticket and therefore her money.
So I guess you not only need to be careful who you give away a ticket to, but also be careful who you accept a ticket from. You may end up in a long, drawn out and nationally public court battle. And you just know the lawyer is going to end up with most of it regardless of the outcome.
Don't you just love these " almost" stories?
l mean think of all the " almost stories" we have had with just the lottery Alone.
At least if a homeless person reads this story and someone gives them a lottery ticket, they will check it out before throwing it away hoping they made a mistake. Anyone else too will do the same hoping the same.
Indiana also has these "Cash for Life" games. I know if I ever win at one of those, I'm not taking the lump sum. I'm taking the continuous payments.
Nice story, Congrats to the very Lucky Lady.
26 yrs. old, has a job and now has $1k/wk. for "life" which I really consider free money that she does not have to touch. I'm sort of conflicted about this story. On one hand, I'm happy for the winner, on the other hand, it sucks nuts for the "homeless guy". It appears that this "homeless guy" is destined for a life of pain and misery unless of course, he decides to change his destiny{CAN DESTINY BE CHANGED? Stay tuned}. Congrats to the winner and good luck to the homeless guy.
I like the $1000 per week, the winner gets to budget it. If a winner gets a lump sum, they may blow iit.
I still believe it is crazy to require winners to go public. I hope Ligia is strong enough to resist all the requests she will get from family and friends.
Have fun with the unaffordable non-care act health insurance mandate.
Homeless people get lucky too. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/19/homeless-man-wins-lottery-greenville_n_1989771.html
Whether it's weekly or a lump sum, she'd still have to budget. There have been many annuitized payment winners who have lost every single dime or worse, ended up in bankruptcy, having less than what they had before they won.
It's a myth and an outright fallacy to think they make out any better than those who take the lump sum. They overspend then take out loans against future payments or simply sell their future payments for pennies on the dollar for a lump sum payout. Budgeting is the key, not the payout method.
You can't believe everything you read.
What are we not to believe? That this lady almost gave away her ticket or that Warren Buffett hasn't lived in the same house for decades?
For people who travel a lot and are in different places most nights having the same address for many years is not the same as living in the same house for that amount of time for most other people. A house is just a place they call home which could be anywhere.
There's a billionaire in Mexico who says the same thing. Saw him on one of those news programs. He and his wife have lived in the same modest house for decades. He said that when his kids still lived at home he liked the coziness of everyone close together, and now that they're all grown and gone he sees no point in getting a larger house, since it's just him and his wife living in it.
I get the feeling he and Buffet don't spend money just because they can. They spend money if they need to or have a real purpose for it. They have private jets but they aren't like the 'look at me' ridiculously pimped out behemoth Trump flits around in. I think they have the financial wherewithal to stay in the .01% even if the market went to zero tomorrow.
I wonder if there is an economic mental maturity that some people are born with and that others will never achieve.
I think I have to disagree with you here. How many multi-millionaires/multi-billionaires do you know of who call a middle-class house their home.
Seems to me that they all log serious travel time for business and/or pleasure, but they all come 'home' to seven figure mansions at some point. That in itself is nothing unusual since most people move into bigger and better houses as soon as they can afford it. And people who get put up in world class hotels while traveling want to keep certain world class amenities when stop. THAT'S what makes Buffet such an anomaly. It's an incongruity for anyone to have that much money and still live in a middle-class starter house. The fact that he's seen so much of the world makes it that much more of an oddity. If he were an eccentric recluse it would be easier to grasp...I think.
Congratulations to the lucky winner.
I know that I have been trying for those $xx a week for life, but have mot succeeded, but if I do, I would take the weekly payments, and try to save up for stuff, like I am doing now. And yes I would quit my job, because I would be making more money than I am at my job now. And my job is not worth keeping.
Congratulation Ligia
If ur going to give away a scratch off ticket give to a someone real close to you,that way if its millions of dollors you may get some for ur generosity.Question for anybody who knows,at 26 if she takes the weekly payout,would this affect her taxes in the future,or if she takes a lump sum does she pay taxes just on 750,000.
I've loaned money to relatives who never paid it back who would never lend me a quarter for fear I would do the same. When it comes to money, nobody is that close.