Running and Spiffing . . .
Although still not quite up to snuff, Jan was getting rig fever, so about 5pm she and I headed out to have dinner at Jason’s Deli right down in Conroe.
Jan just wanted soup and sandwich, in this case a cup of Broccoli Cheese and a quarter Turkey Muffaletta.
I got my usual, a bowl of Southwest Chicken Chili and a small Reuben sandwich.
For a non-beef chili, this one is pretty much the best.
Coming home I stopped off at the Kroger’s for a Powerball lottery ticket. It’s up to $173 million, so I’ll spend a few bucks. I don’t smoke of drink, so I’ve got to waste my money on something. And there’s not a chance that smoking or drinking will make me a millionaire.
Unfortunately I always have to stand in line at the service desk because the machines don’t offer you a choice of cash payout or annual payments, just cash payout.
So if I want annual payments, and I do, I have to get it at the desk. And the reason I want annual payments is that with cash payout I’m giving up $64 million. That’s the difference between the annual payment total of $173 million and the cash payout of $109 million.
And it gets worse as the jackpot rises. In January 2016 there was a Powerball Jackpot of $1.6 BILLION. If you took the cash payout you would only get about $1 billion, giving up 600 million just to get the cash up front.
In the case of tonight’s jackpot, if you won in Texas (no state income tax) and took the 30 annual payments, you would get almost $3.5 million a year after taxes.
While if you took the cash, you would get a one time payout of a little over $65 million after taxes. Now honestly, what can I really do with $65 million that I can’t do with the $3.5 million. Yeah, I could invest it, but then I’d have to worry about it. And more than likely I’d be investing a large part of the 3.5 anyway. I mean, what can I actually spend it on, anyway. Jan and I’ve already said we wouldn’t get a new rig, but just get Beauty a new paint job and spiff her up a bit. Including those new blue window awnings.
On the Mega-Millions front, it looks like they’re finally increasing the cost of a ticket to $2 to keep up with Powerball’s pot sizes. Powerball went to $2 in Oct. 2015 which, along with decreasing the odds of winning, greatly increased pot sizes, leading to the $1.6 billion one I mentioned earlier.
As I always say, “Let’s run the numbers”.
The Word of the Day is: Kafkaesque
Thought for the Day:
“Political Correctness is Tyranny .. with manners.” – Charlton Heston
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