Dare to dream the impossible dream
Now, this post will sound like it is written by the CA lottery commision.
You can’t win if you don’t play…
What would you do with all the money if you won?
These are questions that I ponder, as I look at my Mega Millions lottery ticket.
Mega Millions tickets cost $1.00 per play.
Players may pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers – five different numbers from 1 to 56 and one number from 1 to 46 – or select Easy Pick. You win the jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing.
What if you win the jackpot?
Annuity option: Provides 26 annual payments. For every $1,000,000 in the jackpot, you will receive approximately $38,500 per year before taxes.
Cash option: A one-time, lump-sum payment that is equal to all the cash in the Mega Millions jackpot prize pool.
In addition to the jackpot, there are other prizes ranging from $2 to $250,000*.
* In California all prizes are pari-mutuel, meaning payouts are based on sales and the number of winners. All other Mega Millions states set the 2nd through 9th prizes at pre-determined amounts.
So, that is how you play. You probably already knew all of this. That is not the entire purpose of the post. The reasoning behind the post is that I stopped on Monday when I got gas and spent six dollars on lottery tickets. Now, most of you might succumb to weak wililed thinking and say that I wasted my money. I didn’t and it has nothing to do with winning.
You see, what that ticket bought is a dream. It bought the ability to fantasize about the possiblity of being dirty, stinking rich. I love to dream about the things that I will do with a lot of money.
First, its the house. Not just a house, but a compound that will have multiple bulidings on the land.
This is just the sitting room!
Second would be the cars
and finally trips to your private island, like Richard Branson
Richard Branson’s Necker Island is located in the British Virgin islands in the Caribbean. The famous British entrepreneur and founder of Virgin bought the 72 acre island from Lord Cobham. In 1979 Branson offered the owner of Necker Island just £200,000, even though there was a £3,000,000 price tag on the property. The offer was quickly rejected, but the owner ran into financial difficulty and Branson bought the island for £180,000.
Necker Island was uninhabited when Richard Branson bought the property and he has since spent millions of dollars on creating an exclusive retreat for his family, Virgin employees, and the general public (the general rich public).
The whole island is available to rent with a maximum capacity of 26-28 guests allowed on Necker Island at any one time. There are also special “Celebration Weeks” where individual rooms can be hired by singles or couples. Facilities on the island include pools, a gymnasium, tennis courts, function rooms, bars, speed boats, and a library.
In 2008 the rates for renting Necker Island were $47,000 per night, which works out to be $1,679 per person, per night if you bring all your friends! There’s also a 5 night minimum.
What’s included when you rent the exclusive Necker Island owned by Sir Richard Branson? The below list is taken from the Necker Island website in 2008.
• Your accommodation
• All meals and drinks (both alcoholic and other)
• Return launch transfer from Virgin Gorda or Beef Island airports
• A team of approximately 50 fabulous staff
• Two freshwater pools and two Jacuzzis
• Beach pool
• Two floodlit tennis courts
• Windsurfing and kite surfing equipment
• Fully equipped gymnasium
• Sailing and speed boats
• Kayaks, Water-skiing equipment, Snorkelling equipment, Inflatable
banana etc
• Fishing equipment (not deep sea)
• Local calypso band for one party evening
• Extensive video, book and music libraries, and board games
• Full sized snooker table
• Laundry facility (dry cleaning not available)
• Business facilities, wireless internet
• Phones available throughout the island
When I think about that, then the small price of admission is so worth very dollar that I spent, until the next batch of lottery numbers come out. I actually didn’t even know when the drawing was, I saw that it was at 145 million and knew that I had to play. It has swelled to 171 million for the drawing that is happening on Friday. I can dream about the good life and its really only one single dollar to dream about it.
Dreaming about the lottery made me think about the 50 Cent/Rick Ross beatdown that is happening. Among the many nuggets of goodness was this line, which symbolizes the entire post nicely…
I do whatever the F@#K I want, you do what you can…
Wouldn’t life be sweeter if we lived the first and not the latter?
Too Old For Maxim, Too Young for Esquire 