Lotto Max: $50 million plus 10 $1 million plus 6?

This Friday’s jackpot (Friday, December 24, 2010) was $50 million, up from last week’s $40 million which nobody won. On top of it, there are an estimated 10 Maxmillions prizes of $1 million each. However there is even more for those of us who live in Ontario. On December 24 we will have six extra chances to win $1 million called the Ontario Lotto Max Bonus. This is a one-time promotion and only for tickets purchased in Ontario. Wow, that’s a total of 16 extra prizes of $1 million on top of the grand prize! Oh boy, oh boy, some people are going to have a Christmas which is a little merrier than usual. Will I be among them? [smiling while rubbing my hands gleefully together]

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Lotto Max Numbers: Christmas joy and lots of money!

Lotto Max: Fri Dec 24: Nobody won!
 

MSN Money has an article called 8 lottery winners who lost their millions which gives 8 stories, 8 sad stories of people who won then lost. Yes, they won the lottery but managed to lose or squander their winnings to the point of ending up in very modest circumstances. Some people started in somewhat dire circumstances and even though they won millions, find themselves today pretty much back where they started from. It is difficult to believe that anybody can blow through a million bucks or even millions of bucks and wind up with nothing but these 8 stories prove that yes, it is indeed possible.

 

The end of the article analyses the reasons why anybody can win the lottery and end up broke. The most obvious reason is that they didn’t really know what they were doing financially before winning the big prize so having all that money only accentuated their lack of financial savvy.

 

As a point of interest, anybody winning a large sum of money should immediately seek professional advice. Why? Do you really know what you’re doing? If you did, you’d probably already be a millionaire but if you’re not, there is an excellent chance you haven’t got a clue about making money never mind handling it.

 

What’s everybody’s biggest mistake? Buying stuff. Yep, right off the bat you win the lottery and want to buy things. It’s funny, you lived without those things before winning and now, all of a sudden you seem to think you need those things. Do you really need stuff? Is having a Porsche all that important? Anybody should take a good hard look at purchasing consumable goods like clothes, cars, boats, etc. and get some professional advice about investing.

 

Okay, I’ve stepped onto my soapbox and now for my earful about principal and interest. I can hear you saying, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that." Okay, if that’s true then why is there a Porsche in your driveway?

 

Picture this, you win $1 million and immediately invest for a modest rate of interest of 5%. At the end of the year, you will still have your million bucks BUT you will now have another $50,000! And guess what? You have it for doing absolutely nothing! Zilch, nada, you didn’t even have to get out of your La-Z-Boy. Is that cool or what? Heck, with $50,000 a year, you would never have to work another day in your life.

 

Now I’m only talking about a modest 5% return on your investment. I’m sure that with professional investment advice you could even do better than that. Now I trust you’ve got some interest in the bank’s interest.

 

Okay, you’ve got a mortgage on your home. Well, that may just be a good way of spending some of your million but before doing so, let’s come back to you getting some good solid financial advice. Whatever you do, don’t go nuts buying stuff and don’t go nuts giving it away. I’m sure that once the news hits the papers, you’re going to be hearing from Bernie your sister’s second cousin twice removed from her first divorce of 10 years ago. If you can get that money into the bank, into some decent investments by not touching the principal, you can get that money working for you. Don’t work another day in your life! Well, not if you don’t want to. If you just happen to be one of the few lucky people to have a job they really, really enjoy, you may just want to continue to do it but at least you’ll have a few less worries about other areas of your life like the house mortgage.

 

 

Prize: $3,500,000

 

Ooo, that means this past Wednesday’s jackpot of $7 million was won. Whoa, time to run up to the Lotto counter and check my tickets! Here I am talking about Lotto Max this coming Friday. I may have won before I’ve won!

 

If I win, I’ll let you know… from Tahiti. [chuckles] Of course, as my wife always tells me, "I won five bucks." You see, she never buys lottery tickets. I keep telling her that I want to win not to have a million dollars but so I can have the satisfaction of winning despite her admonishments to not waste my money buying the tickets. Picture me holding up the winning ticket in front of her and exclaiming, "Ah ha!!!"

 

Click HERE to read more from William Belle
 

 

Lotto Max