What was it like to win the lottery?
Well, first off, I can remember when our group at work would each talk about what we would do if we won. It’s really a big insight into every aspect of a person’s life.
We called our group the ‘corporation.’ We usually would put $5.00 each into it. However, that amount would usually climb as the amount in the lottery went up. We always played Power Ball. But, we would take turns buying the tickets. Each person could decide how to spend the pool when it was their turn to buy. We would run copies of all the tickets and distribute them to each person in the corporation. The number of people in the corporation would go up and down. I just had to be in it. I would have kicked myself forever if that one time I didn’t get in was the one time it hit. That could almost ruin your life for good.
One of the guys made us all swear not to let anyone know he was in the ‘corporation.’ He didn’t want it to get back to his ex-wife if we ever won anything. He couldn’t even consider the possibility of that drug addicted ‘witch’ getting any more of his money.
One of the guys never made any secret to his wife being gone if he won it. Now there’s a happy marriage for you. They stayed together, why?, before winning? I think he was the first to tell me the joke about the guy that won the lottery and told his wife to pack her bags when he got home. When she asked if she should pack for cold weather or warm weather he told he he didn’t care–as long as she was gone by morning. Anyway, he always said he would give his wife half and they would just go their separate ways.
One of the other guys was going to stay home and get drunk every day. All he wanted was to quit and drink. Now, there’s a formula for longevity, I used to think.
As the amount in the lottery would change, someone would always have it figured what each of our splits would be after taxes. Of course we never even considered anything except the lump sum payment. Some of us wanted to get a lawyer to handle it all, so no one would ever know who had actually won the money.
Just about everyone said they would never go back to work again, except, some, to gloat. Some used to get rather elaborate with their stories of how they would say this or that, or leave some ruthless email to that person, or tell off that boss.
Me? I never said much about it. But, I always started out calculating exactly how much I would have to invest with my split. I would calculate the return for around an 8% investment. That’s about as much as you can get with low risk. I would pay off all debt, make the investment, help the people on my help list, and live happily ever after.
The amount I had to have, in my head, before I could quit work started out being enough to earn at least $80,000.00 per year. But, after several months of hoping and dreaming, that amount kept going down. I finally had it calculated where I could retire if I only had $20,000.00 a year coming in.
I used to say “No bills, except maybe a car, gas and electric, phone, internet, and whatever you need to eat out occasionally. Shoot, I could retire with as little as $15,000 a year, maybe.
Every time someone would say how stupid we were, we would remind them that SOMEONE had to win it. Anyone that ever won it had the same chance. It was worth a buck just to be in the game–just to have the hope, the fun, the dream of life changing. It was that much fun even if we never won it.
So, actually winning the lottery, what was it like?
I pray to God I can tell you that, after we win it tonight!
Regards.
