My inside sources tell me that Debs has been diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs. That explains the 103 degree fever. What bothers me is that they did not catch it with the first set of X-Rays last week. I guess massive doses of anti-biotics are being administered. The second part, rapid heart beat is un-explained. Believe it or not they have medication for that too. She needs to get well for the Tom & Deb reception this weekend. I understand Tom is struggling with some sort of foot infection. What is going on here?
When I was working at the "Foods" we would regularly buy tickets for the Wednesday/Saturday Power Ball Lottery knowing full well that our odds were about 100 million to one. But, we dreamed together. Because I was in charge, I always had a slight twinge of conscience that if a group of 20-25 of us won, we would all leave the company and it would have to scramble to hire new people. Believe me, I didn't think about it long. It wasn't my problem. I would take my money and run. Alas, it never happened.
Then Saturday night a group of 100 from Sargento in St. Cloud, Wisconsin bought a winning Power Ball ticket from the "miracle mile" in Fond du Lac. They get to split $208 million dollars. Whoopee!
Now the reality. Each person wins $2 million if taken over 20-25 years. That is not a good alternative I'm told because you forfeit all monies not paid to you. So lets say you live 2 more years, the last 23 years of payment are forever gone. I don't know if that is true but it is rumored. Most people want the lump sum payment. If you take a lump payment you would get $1 million gross. Now you have to pay federal tax of about 35% and state tax of 7% so you would receive $600,000 cash. It is a nice chunck of change but if invested at 6%, you would get $36,000 per year. It is not enough to retire on but when added to your present income, it would be pretty nice.
Most people are sensible. They want to pay off their mortgages or buy a different home. I have heard new cars mentioned along with boats and vacations. After that short spending spree, it is back to living life.
I will say it would be exciting to deposit $600,000 in my savings account. Suddenly you have that cushion for emergencies, college education for kids becomes available and you have a "leg up" on early retirement.
Putting any money on a Power Ball Lottery ticket is stupid. The odds are so much against you that it really is a stupid wager. I would guess the employees with the winning ticket from Sargento don't think it was a lousy bet.
My advice Grasshoppers is work hard. If you happen to piddle away a few dollars on a lottery ticket be advised that it is really stupid and a waste of money. Of course I knew that and I stupidly would throw a few bucks into the pool each week because there was that one possibility that I could become instantly rich. Nobody's perfect.
Love,
Dad