What to do if you win the $1.4B Powerball
Mackenzie Stafford
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing has garnered the attention of many and the dollars of many. The prize has climbed to $1.4 billion.
According to Powerball, Wednesday night’s drawing will feature the fourth-largest prize in the lottery’s history. If no one wins tonight, it will go even higher.
Winners Corner in Pueblo is statistically the luckiest store in Colorado, as it has sold the highest number of winning tickets this year.
READ MORE: This Pueblo store sold the most winning lottery tickets in the state, but there’s a reason why
On Wednesday, many people flowed into the store to try their luck and buy a ticket.
Are there numbers that increase your odds?
John Morris, a math professor at Pikes Peak State College, has some tips that can increase your statistical probability of winning the lottery.
Firstly, sentimental numbers like birthdates could hurt your chances. Some might pigeonhole you into making selections from numbers 1 through 30.
“Whereas they can draw any number from one in 1 to 69. Your best way to ensure that you’re not limiting yourself is to do their quick pick, which draws it completely randomly, and therefore it is simulating what you’re likely to see when the actual drawing happens,” said Morris.
He says that even if you don’t win the major jackpot you still have a chance to win some cash.
“it’s important to recognize that even though in the odds, odds are very much against you for winning the big jackpot. First of all, they have lots of smaller jackpots. If you go to, the official published numbers of the Colorado Lottery, they say that the odds of winning any of their prizes is about 1 in 25. And so that means even if you don’t get the big life changing money, you can get some money that is nice. Or just, hey, I can get a nice steak dinner tonight or something like that. So don’t be afraid to play it. Also, the thing to remember there is that they also have ways for very cheaply to, get the multiplier so that if you do win one of the lower prizes, it will double it, triple quadruple it,” explained Morris.
A map of the 25 luckiest stores (the ones that have sold the most winning tickets) is below. This map was created with data from the Colorado Lottery.
You won. Now what?
KRDO13 spoke to a financial advisor at FRS Financial Group who says he’s been preparing for the day one lucky winner walks into his office.
“I have actually built a plan over the years to help folks who do win the lottery to actually save themselves from their money, because we know oftentimes those lottery winners within three, five, seven years down the line really have nothing left to show for those winnings. So building out that plan to not only make the money available now, but to make it last, not only your lifetime, but this is something that’s going to change your family’s financial tree for generations to come, and we want them to be able to have those dollars available, you know, two, three, four generations down the line,” said Rick Stevens, LPL Financial Advisor.
Stevens provided tips regarding how to give back, without giving it all away.
“One of the first things that’s part of that plan is actually a giving budget, because we know the lottery winners that win these huge sums, all kinds of family and friends come out of the woodwork looking for the opportunity to, you know, have some of that money themselves. And I have told folks we’re going to set a giving budget and, you know, if you win a billion and a half dollars, we’re going to give away maybe $10 million a year. And that starts January 1st, and if by January 5th we’ve given away $10 million we have 360 days left to say no to people and come back next year,” shared Stevens.
Stevens recommends paying off your debt and putting away some of the money. He also noted how important it is to think about the additional costs that will come with any purchase. Stevens says if you buy a new car it’s also important to set aside the money for the license plate and to renew the registration every year.
And what about the lump sum versus annuity? Stevens suggests taking the lump sum, as it’s best to just get the tax burden over and done with.
“Even over those 30 years that this is going to pay out to you, you’ll end up with more to pass on to future generations. If you take that lump sum and invest it in a wise way, rather than taking that smaller amount over those next 30 years,” explained the financial advisor.