We all dream of winning the lottery so we can enjoy financial security and do whatever we want with our lives. Whether you’ve won thousands or millions, hitting the jackpot is an exciting moment you’ll never forget. Now that you’ve got some extra zeroes in your bank account, you may want to share your newfound wealth with your loved ones. Here are some tips on
Attention, Shoppers: Plan Ahead for Sales Tax Holidays
Anyone who loves to shop should consider timing their purchases to coincide with sales tax holidays; while only 16 states offer them, some shopping aficionados travel to take advantage of these tax-free windows. Jackie CohenJackie Cohen is an award winning financial journalist turned turned financial advisor obsessed with climate change risk, data and business. Jackie holds a B.A. Degree from Macalester College and an M.A.
Someone in Florida is Loaded
As you know, last week the Powerball lottery was $590 million. I had considered buying a ticket (roughly my 3rd or 4th ever) but never made it to the store to actually pull the trigger. I haven’t been tossing and turning all week wondering if I would have won. The reality is that the odds were VERY against me. There is at least one person
Will the Latest Lottery Winner Lose it All?
There was another huge lottery winner. This time Pedro Quezada won $338 million. That’s a lot of coin. He opted for the lump sum and walked away with $152 million after taxes. Yeah, that’s still a lot of coin. If you just took a conservative 3% annually, you’d still be living on $4.5 million before taxes. Any way you slice it, you could live FAT with
Learning a Lesson From the Mega Millions Jackpot
The lottery frenzy is starting to die down now that we’ve all heard three people won the largest jackpot in the history of the world. I’m sure those three people haven’t slept much in the past couple days but I’m also sure there are plenty of people that didn’t win, that haven’t slept much either. In the build up to last Friday’s drawing, every news
How to Keep Your Money (Listen Up Lottery Winners)
I will confess that I really like Business Insider. Their latest article that caught my attention was a pretty long set of instructions on how to keep your money after winning the lottery or making millions as a professional athlete. It won’t be a surprise to most of you that it simply requires spending less than you make and creating a revenue stream from the
I Bought a Powerball Ticket
Okay, I have clearly lost my marbles. Last weekend, I read an article about how the Powerball lottery was over $300M. I caught myself dreaming about what I’d do with that kind of money. After taxes they were saying it was somewhere around a $200M payout. Of course I wouldn’t use the winnings for anything other than generating interest income but that would still easily
Bayou Billionaires
Have you heard about this new show? It’s called Bayou Billionaires and is about people who are being paid large sums of money by gas companies who are digging for gas in their yards. From the little that I’ve seen of it so far, they should rename the show, “How to spend all your money foolishly until it runs out”. I’m sure I’ll watch it
Which States Do Not Allow Deficiency Judgements?
These days it seems like every other house on the block is headed towards foreclosure in some areas of the country. We’ve seen a few around our neighborhood but overall it’s been relatively light compared to some parts of the country. When people walk away from a home and the bank forecloses, there is often a gap between what the bank sells the house for
Banks Suing For Remaining Mortgage Balance on Foreclosed Homes
As we’ve been living through the foreclosure mess of the last few years, I haven’t heard all that much about the banks going after homeowners for remaining balances on a mortgage once the foreclosure and sale of the property has taken place. This appears to be on the incline and there is a whole new secondary market for the debt. This is only happening in