Fantasizing about Powerball

The Powerball jackpot is up to over $91 million dollars this Saturday (immediate cash value) and after a 25% hit from the IRS, the winner, if there's just one, will take home over $69 million dollars. That's been my favorite number for as long as I can remember so I thought this would be a good week to write about it.

Everyone who plays Powerball dreams about winning and then dreams further about how they would spend their money. Some are very specific; going so far as to sit down with their spouse at the kitchen table with a pen and paper and literally write down how they would spend every penny. They write down what they would buy, who they would give money to, including charity, and how much they would save or invest.

I've never done anything that specific because the chances of winning are astronomically bad. But as a good friend of mine always says, someone's going to win it sooner or later and the only chance you have of it being you is to buy a ticket. So millions of people do, twice a week.

I don't buy a ticket for every Powerball drawing. I wait until it reaches a certain level and then I start buying and that level was reached this week. So I'm all in come Saturday. I certainly think about what I would do with that much money too. In fact, it's what I think about when I go to bed at night that often leads to some really wild and crazy dreams.

I would certainly leave a lot to my two boys because they're the most important people in my life and I don't ever want them to have to worry about money if they don't have to. A good friend of mine and I long ago agreed to give the other person a million dollars if one of us wins. I would build a large, modern home on the golf course, buy a new car and take a first-class trip around the world with the love of my life.

There would still be a lot of money left over after doing those things and I would hire the best financial planner I could find to guide me in protecting and investing my money. I would get an unlisted phone number because a lot of people are going to be want a piece of the pie and my phone would be ringing off the hook if I didn't.

I wouldn't date a woman I wasn't already interested in because they would be coming out of the woodwork too. There's a line in a classic Fleetwood Mac song that says, "Players only love you when you're playing" and I've found that to be true all my life. I would certainly become a major player with that kind of money and a lot of other players would come looking for me, hoping I would share my wealth with them.

It would be hard for me to turn down people I've known for awhile when they come to me with their hat in their hand, begging for a piece of the action so they can start their own business, improve their own business, help their family with bills, etc. but I would have to do that. The best way to do that is for my financial planner to have control of my money and the only way either of us can spend any of it is with both our signatures. I would give him a list of people ahead of time I had already decided to give money too and forbid him from allowing me to give money to anyone not on the list.

Because I'm older, I would never be able to spend that much money before I die so a large chunk would go to my favorite charities in order to help those people who can't help themselves.

So now you're at least partly in on my fantasies, fantasies we all have. We think about what we would do if the stars aligned just right and we finally got what we had always wished for; a job, a house, a spouse, or a lot of money. It's not a foolhardy exercise because it keeps the adrenaline going and makes getting up every day a little more exciting.

Those of you who don't gamble have other things you think and dream about. But the biggest fantasy of a gambler is making that one big score that makes all your previous wagers worth it.

It will probably never happen but it could.

And the fact that it could keeps hope alive.