How many things could you do with close to $400 million? Time to let your imagination run free, as you now have two opportunities to cash in if you’re feeling lucky. Both the Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots are heading toward $400 million for their respective Tuesday and Wednesday night drawings.
No one hit all the winning numbers in either drawing over the weekend. The winless weekend has the Mega Millions jackpot pushing $376 million for Tuesday’s drawing and Powerball moving to $363 million for Wednesday’s drawing.
So, what exactly are your chances of holding the one single winning ticket? 1 in 302 million for Mega Millions and 1 in 292 million for Powerball.
If you win, you have the choice of taking a lump sum or an annuity over 30 years. The lump sum cash options for both lotteries would be around $280 million.
Your first big expense after winning the money would be to Uncle Sam, who of course would want his large cut of your winnings. You would shell out 24% in federal taxes, which would be about $70 million for either lottery, as soon as you get your check; but then come tax time, you would fall under the current 37% tax bracket, meaning you would be sending the U.S. government another large check on Tax Day for around $35 million.
So, what could you purchase with the roughly $200 million cash you would be left with? For around $5 million you could purchase a nice private island and still have plenty left over to buy Ryan Seacrest’s house in Beverly Hills, which is up for sale for $85 million. After those two big purchases, you would have a little over $100 million remaining to go car shopping, take some vacations, and hopefully find a few banks to save some of it for future use.
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