Guess what? Odds don’t favor you winning the Powerball jackpot. According to the USA Today, your odds are 1 in 292.2 million, but we at G@H are still buying tickets. If we win, the naysayers get nothing.
On Saturday afternoon, we were in a lonesome bar in Washington D.C. watching our Chiefs trounce the Texans for their first playoff win since 1994. The particularly chatty bartender shared his unsolicited advice that only a fool would buy a Powerball ticket. His rationale: you almost certainly will lose.
source: Bitmoji
In our humble opinion, that represents an awfully obtuse viewpoint. If we spend two dollars on a Powerball ticket, yes, we will not likely win the jackpot. We will then be out that money. But we waste cash all the time. Case in point, we bought those beers at the D.C. bar and cocktails at the next place and games of ski ball at the next place. None of these were smart investments. When we spent that money, we did not gain—however remote—a chance to become a billionaire.
On the other hand, if we do win the Powerball jackpot, we never need to work again. Neither will our children or our children’s children. We can buy a beach house on Maui, a ranch near the Grand Tetons, and a condo in NYC. Those will be for vacation only. We can fly all over the world and do wickedly awesome things.
If you want to be frugal, keep your two dollars. Watch it grow with compounding interest. Be proud of yourself. But don’t tell us what to do because our two dollars are worth the dream, even if it remains just a dream.
