Interesting? economics lesson in the lottery line
 

I'm in line picking up lottery tickets for my pool, while a woman is asking if she should take the cash or annuity option (rookie)

The man right behind her was emphatically saying "cash- if you take the annunity you won't have anything left, but if you take the ton of cash you'll still have a ton of cash at the end" (this is for the $192M jackpot)

Of course, the same guy gets up to the window and is upset that the vendor is out of the scratch-off "$5K a week for life" tickets.... :P

Re: Interesting? economics lesson in the lottery line
 

The guy's right though, lump sum is better. Even though you get less, the lump sum properly invested will get you more in the long run than the annuities.

Re: Interesting? economics lesson in the lottery line
 

"properly invested" if people knew how to properly invest you woulnd't have so many bankruptcies. Most do NOT knwo how to invest better than the company who discounted your cash payment in exchange for the annuity.

Re: Interesting? economics lesson in the lottery line
 

[ QUOTE ]
"properly invested" if people knew how to properly invest you woulnd't have so many bankruptcies. Most do NOT knwo how to invest better than the company who discounted your cash payment in exchange for the annuity.

[/ QUOTE ]
All you have to do is call your friendly insurance agent -- he'll have it set up in a jiffy. Think of it in reverse, if you had $1MM cash, would you rush out to find someone to incrementally serve $2MM back to you over 30 years?