If You Loaned Money To Someone Who Won Powerball, What Next?

Tonight's Powerball is up over $1 billion again.  Here's a scenario you'll never deal with, but it's fun to think about . . .

A friend asks if they can borrow $10.  You hand them a ten . . . they use it to buy Powerball tickets . . . and they hit the JACKPOT.  How much do they owe you?

I don't know about you, but for a Billion Dollars, I would expect my "friend" to pay me back more than just the 10 bucks I kindly loaned them. Would they have won without my kind generosity? What if they had nobody else to ask for the money to buy their winning ticket? Let's say that I was the last person he saw that had 10 dollars on them and was willing to loan them the money, wouldn't they somewhat beholden to me?

Now I'm not saying that I would expect let's half of his winnings or even a quarter of it, but I think 10% would be a fair amount. Think of it as a "finders fee" or a skimming off the top just like an agent peels off his artists (and for some mega agents, it's a lot more than 10%)

Someone asked, and people voted.  Here are the four options . . .

1.  Just the original $10 you loaned them. (wow, these people are really nice!)

2.  Half of the winnings. (seems like a lot, how about 10%?)

3.  All the winnings (this is not going to happen, good luck with that)

4.  Nothing. (these people are saints! they don't even want their 10 bucks back!)

The top vote-getter was just the original $10.  It got 72% of the vote.  If they want to give you more, great . . . and maybe they should.  But they're not obligated to.

Half of the winnings is next with 15%, then nothing at 12%.  (Keep your $10, jerk!)  2% think they should give you the full $1 billion.

If the roles were reversed, 64% say they'd only feel obligated to pay back the original $10 . . . 27% claim they'd split the winnings . . . and 9% say, "Screw 'em!  I know I'm a billionaire, but they're not getting that 10 bucks back."  (???)

(Reddit)

Huge jackpot

Tonight's Powerball Jackpot is estimated to be over 1.2 BILLION dollars, your chances of winning it are roughly One in 3 Hundred Million, but still for two bucks, why not give it a shot?

Of course if you are the lucky winner of the entire Jackpot, you have decisions to make, a lot of decisions.

Do you take the lump sum or do you opt for the annuity?

That's a big decision because you can get it all at once but it will be a lot less than if you opt for the annuity of say, 19 Million a year for 2o plus years. I personally would love to know that at the end of the year I can expect a nice fat check.

Experts say there are Five things you need to do if you're the lucky winner.

Make sure to secure the winning ticket. Make photocopies of the ticket and keep it safe in a safety deposit box at a bank and keep it quiet.

It's going to be very important that you hire a top tier accounting firm, remember, now you can afford the very best!

Now that you're super rich, you'll want to protect your assets, which means hiring the very best law firm you can find, because you better believe that people will want a piece of your assets.

You want your Millions to continue to grow and that means hiring the best Investment firm you can find. Again, you can afford the very best now, so hire the best one you can find. They will be more than happy to have your business, trust us.

Every expert agrees that you have to keep your good fortune a secret from anyone outside your household (and that includes your kids). You need to get everything in order and buttoned up tight before you go public. In Massachusetts you don't even have to show your face, so you might consider keeping your luck on lock down.