I love reading about the American lottery prizes.  The Mega Millions recently was won when the jackpot totalled $540 million.  When you multiply that, at whatever the current Rand rate is, and it fluctuates all the time, but let’s assume R15 to the Dollar, you get R8 100 billion.  One does not even know where to begin if you won all that money.  

The fact of the matter is though that you only win that amount of money if you agree to take the money in yearly instalments.  If you want to take the cash, then you get a reduced amount which in the $540 million example, for 8 July, is $380 million estimated in cash or R5 700 million.  I guess it is easier to just say it is R5,7 billion!  That will leave you a lot of pocket money, after you have bought your Clifton mansion, a golf estate at Leopard Creek, a fancy house in Sandhurst, a private jet and a boat, etc.   Helicopters are relatively cheap, or base models are anyway, starting at about R4 or R5 million, so you could get a few of those as well.  Strangely enough, this is not even the largest payout ever.  The largest single payout, to one ticket only, was in 2013 in the Powerball Lottery when it paid $590,5 million.  Although, you will recall that it was recently in the news when in mid-January the total Jackpot was $1,56 billion which was then won by 3 different winners.

Let’s imagine that the South African Lottery worked a similar way and you won a R100 million that was to be paid over 10 years at R10 million a year, or a cash amount immediately of R60 million.  What would your choice be, and why?