You know what lottery numbers will be drawn. How should you play?

[Mallard]

@pkbites

@Mangetout

Are you assuming there would be no repercussions from your behaviour - that nobody would regard your sudden purchase of hundreds/thousands of the same numbered ticket as evidence of some sort of fraud (even if it were just your magic psychic ability)?

I guess that’s another way of saying: are you weighing ‘trouble’ in the equation of benefit?

No. These things are irrelevant. I’m only interested in what is more beneficial regarding taxes and such.

Make sure you only buy lottery tickets in Canada and leave your winnings in a Canadian bank. (although they probably narc you out to the US revenue agency)

[md-2000]

@SciFiSam

They wouldn’t need to be enough to be a life changer, though. 5% of £1million is $50,000 (before tax, but they’re taxed lower than wages). You wouldn’t live large on that, but you wouldn’t be forced to tough it out in menial jobs, either. And “multi million” would then presumably mean at least $100,00. Keeping the shares is pretty sensible.

Yes, I specifically didn’t allow for asset growth. Without it, you’re only good for 20 years. When I was young (Once Upon A Time) the saying was “just live off the interest”, but now that assumes there is still such a thing as interest income. We’ve had what? 3 episodes since 2000 where the stock market and economy have dipped a significant amount.

As for allowing for elder care… That would be important if you were aware enough to appreciate the care. If by then you can’t remember what happened 10 minutes ago, what does it matter?

We’re straying from the basic topic - but it seems to me the world (and particularly USA) are in for a major reversal of social norms. There will be a flood of Boomers who need greater medical care, long term assisted living, etc. Many have not saved enough to cover that. Society will have to step up. Also, those that have saved - we will see an economy where the generation that had the best savings now are cashing out those assets to provide for elder care. it’s going to be a very different dynamic.

The question - about lottery winnings - is how many are suited to plan properly? It’s my impression that the people who tend to buy lottery tickets are more likely to be the less financially aware type. OTOH, from what I’ve read about the occasional $50M winners that do make the news, they are usually very older, cautious types and do not go hog-wild when presented with a windfall.

Best advice I’ve seen about lottery winnings is - first, cash it and put it in the bank. then sit back, think, talk to some financial planners before making any big decisions.

[SciFiSam]

I’m not talking about interest on lottery winnings - I was responding to a post about inheriting shares. IBM pays out about 5% of the share value in dividends, so it’d be worth not selling them unless you were pretty sure they were going to go down and stay down.

[A2Steve]

Real life again trying to imitate the SDMB:

A North Carolina man accidentally bought 2 identical lottery tickets -- and...