I don’t know about your line of thinking. I mean, sure, the return is low, but so is the risk. You could do worse with a few dollars. The important thing here is to not depend on the lottery.
The chances of someone winning the lottery are relatively good.
The chances of YOU winning are almost zero. Therefore, even if you only spend a penny, the penny will almost surely not get you anything, and thus be a waste of money. Given that your chances of winning are so low, the money could be better spent on something else- especially if you consider how much money people spend in total, if they play the lottery on a regular basis.
The problem with this guy is a philosophical one. Well, I mean his problem is that he's a crack addict, etc, but the problem with his situation is one that can be addressed philosophically. I would wager that this guy wasn't planning on living very long, so he go crazy and party. A lot of people have this attitude, I think mostly younger people, ironically. He was not interested in any long-term goal, including simple security, because he does not perceive a long-term.
There's an old Chris Rock joke that goes something like "People always say life is so short. That's bullshit. Life is long. And if you make stupid decisions, life seems REALLY long."This isn’t something I invented. It’s established. The problem with your argument is that it assumes that the amount of money determines whether it’s good management or not when as I’ve stated before it’s entirely independent. Whether you throw away a dollar or 500 dollars you’re still throwing away money with no return which is the very definition of bad money management. Rationalizing it by decrementing the loss does not change the principle. You’re still throwing away money. The only difference is that you’ve convinced yourself that it’s an acceptable loss. The fact that you could do worse is unrelated, leads to the fact that you could do a lot more with the dollar, and not necessarily true. You’re still giving away money. Even if you spend that dollar on a burger you’re still getting a guaranteed return for your investment. The only way you could really do worse is if you took that dollar and paid someone to rob you later.
i actually get quite hyped at the prospect of winning if the jackpot is around £90mm pounds, i certainly get more enjoyment out of buying that ticket every few months than i do from anything else that costs 1.50. i’m not just paying for a chance to win, i’m buying 3 days of “oooh, what car will i buy with the money” happy thoughts.
i always said only retards play the lottery. i see im right as usual.
It’s because they out number everyone 
Once again, the old saying is proven.
A fool and his money are soon parted. If I won even HALF that, I would be set. My new job would be to have fun and live well until I was in my grave. Spent wisely, it isn’t as hard as you might think.
-Starhammer-
You beat me to it, Starhammer.
There’s no such thing as too much money to spend. Given to the right jackass, it’ll be gone in record time. It’s nice to know that there are urchins so low that they’ll willingly refer to themselves as “King of Chavs.”
shit i know people who gamble a tenth of that amount away, but in a single day. then again they really dont miss it.
I’ll admit I buy powerball/megamillions tickets when the jackpots over $200m. But I only buy one and I rationalize it in the fact that someone has to win and I attribute the cost to entertainment value and nothing else. Someone else mentioned the gambler’s high, so obviously it doesn’t last long but it also doesn’t cost much either.
I have never bought a lottery ticket before, but now I really want to. Maybe I can win like one of these idiots, and show them how to not blow the money. Oh wait the possibility of winning is only 1: 23,000,000. :rolleyes:
Yup. I seriously don’t understand how people can lack this much common sense. Investing lottery winnings in stocks, bonds, joint business ventures, and other avenues to ensure your money perpetually grows is the obvious and smartest choice how do people lack the capacity to understand this?
However the fundamental important question with lottery winnings is what’s more important: A lot of fun for a little while or a moderate amount of fun for the rest of your life?
How many people do you know that actually own stock, or bonds?
I do, but barley anyone else in my family or friends have any. Oh and the ones that do own stock was through stock option from their firm, because they didn’t have cash on hand so they gave out stocks. Ex: Microsoft in the 90’s Amazon when it was starting up etc… I don’t know anyone that actually own stock that they went out to purchase and not through stock option from their firm except for me.
anything over a couple of million bucks, buy some houses, and live in one and rent the rest out. Dont be stupid and buy a stupid expensive house or car. Take a HUGE chunk of the rest of the money, and invest it. Even something stupid will give you a nice amount of change in interest if invested properly. You figure 10 million at even 1% interest is still 100 grand of interest.
i win the lottery, u can bet your sweet ass I sure as fuck ain’t ever working again. You don’t need to live a rockstar life, but u CAN enjoy yourself a lot and never have to work again at the same time.
i would also hire a plane and either get it to skywrite “suck my dick Im rich” or carry it around on one of them banners.
that being said, I’ve read MANY MANY things about how people who win the lottery end up having bad/fucked up lives afterwards. People have stated many times that giving a random schmuck a large amount of money is a bad thing to do, and having SEVERAL lower prizes would be a much better idea instead. Nobody needs to suddenly have 20 million dollars. 5 million is more than enough
The only reason this is so tough to swallow is he is way too fat to be a crackhead of that magnitude. Fattest crackhead i’ve ever seen.
look how he started out actually. Not that out of shape.
If the dude was blowing through THOUSANDS each day on hookers and crack (wtf? why do rich folks even touch crack? or ANYBODY?), I doubt his diet was all that…healthy.
So does he still technically own that house he is terrified to return to?
“I bought my mother a house. I spent the rest on… PCP.”
This story made me smile. 
so did he get the inheritance? or did those lawyers screw him over again
I gotta agree with Black Jesus on this.
The reason people who don’t know what to do with money win the lottery is because people who play the lottery almost by definition don’t Know what to do with money.
Most people who say “if i won the lottery i’d invest the money” have enough financial sense NOT TO PLAY THE LOTTERY.
It costs one pound a week. Playing the lotto doesn’t require a lack of financial sense, it’s just that in the grand scheme of things $1 £1 a week isn’t going to help you out. If you’re looking to make cut backs, the food you buy, the amount you go out, TV bills, amount you spend on electricity etc. are the things you should pay more attention too.