MegaMillions Mania!: Advice For Picking Your Lucky Numbers!

The entire nation is going insane. The MegaMillions jackpot is now at 640 million dollars! It may even increase further before the official drawing tonight.

I managed to get me some tickets even though I currently have slipped a disk. The older guy in front of me actually asked the clerk for a "ticket with all the numbers on it". The clerk was like, "Uhh...You mean you want the Megaplier?". LOL

So we all know that if you purchase a ticket that you have a very, very slim chance of winning. However, if you don't purchase a ticket then your chance of winning is ZERO. Guess what folks? People can and do win off of just purchasing one ticket. I won $150.00 just off of one ticket. Other people have won the jackpot off of just purchasing one ticket. So don't get it in your head that you MUST purchase dozens of tickets. You don't. Most people who win the lottery tend to spend just a few dollars on their tickets. I have heard cases of say a man who ran out and purchased $100 worth of tickets and won. However, most cases that I have heard are of people who spent a couple of dollars and who won. So don't deceive yourself that you shouldn't play because you can only afford one ticket. That one ticket just may be the winner.

Below are some tips to help people pick their lucky numbers and play the lottery.

1.) You have to play to win. You need to purchase a minimum of one ticket. In the MegaMillions lottery that will cost you $1.

2.) Think about the Megaplier option. If you purchase the Megaplier than anything you win, minus the jackpot, will be multiplied either 2, 3, or 4 times based on the Megaplier number drawn. So let's say that you won $4 and you had purchased the Megaplier. The Megaplier number drawn was 4. So you actually won $16. Another example, let's say you won $10,000.00. You purchased the Megaplier. So you actually won $40,000.00. Purchasing the Megaplier is an additional $1 per ticket line. So if you purchased just one ticket with the Megaplier it would cost $2.

3.) Quick Pick or Pick Your Own Numbers? There is some controversy surrounding this question. Should you pick your own numbers or allow the computer to randomly pick them for you? I've checked around and it seems as if slightly more jackpot winners have used the Quick Pick option rather than picking their own numbers. However, there are people who claim otherwise.

4.) If you are picking your numbers then there are a variety of ways that you can receive your "lucky numbers". Dreaming of numbers is believed to be one of the strongest ways to receive your numbers. Playing loved one's birthdays is also quite popular. Another method is to play the numbers found in a fortune cookie. So the point is that if you are going to pick your numbers then you of course need your numbers to play.

5.) If picking your own numbers, do not use all consecutive numbers. (Ex- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

6.) If picking your own numbers, do not use all odd or all even numbers.

7.) If picking your own numbers, do not use all low or all high numbers. Low and high numbers are found by taking the total number available in the game and dividing it by 2. In the case of MegaMillions the total number is 56. Dividing 56 by 2 gives us 28. Low numbers are the numbers below 28 and high numbers are the numbers above 28. So the numbers we play should be a mix of low and high numbers and should not be all low or all high numbers.

8.) If picking your own numbers do not make patterns on the play slip. So say you are a Christian and you want to make the sign of the cross on the play slip. Don't do it. Making a pattern will greatly diminish your chances of winning. The numbers are drawn randomly.

9.) If using Quick Pick don't purchase your tickets all at once or from the same location. So say you are buying 10 Quick Picks. Make the clerk break it up into 4 tickets, 3 tickets having 3 lines and then one ticket having 4 lines. Or got to 3 or 4 different locations. The reason being is that I've found when you buy a group of Quick Picks the numbers can be bad. For example, I've bought 5 Quick Picks before and received some bad numbers. In one case I got a line having 4 consecutive numbers. So breaking it up or going to multiple locations will help limit this.

10.) If picking your own numbers, avoid the "lucky numbers" that most people play, such as the number 3, 7, or 11, and possibly even 13. The reason being is that if those numbers win then you will have to split the jackpot with a large group of people.

11.) If picking your own numbers, avoid picking numbers that are multiples of each other, such as 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 or 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30,

12.) Do not get your tickets wet. I won $14 on a ticket once and accidentally dropped some condensation water from a cup onto the ticket. Don't you know it landed on the bar code and the ticket was then void. I even tried to cash it in but the machine wouldn't take it.

13.) Keep your tickets in a safe place.

14.) Sign your tickets. Signing the back of your tickets will lessen the chance of another person stealing your ticket.

15.) Check your numbers yourself. Do not give your ticket to the clerk and ask them to check it for you. Unfortunately some less than honorable clerks have stolen winning tickets and lied to the person by telling them they were not winners or that they only won far less than they actually did.

16.) If you win the jackpot, make a photocopy of your ticket and then hide or keep the original ticket in a safe location, such as a safety deposit box.

17.) If you win the jackpot, wait at least one week just to do some soul-searching, to ponder about how this will change your life.

18.) Don't tell anyone if you won the jackpot.

19.) If you win the jackpot and after you have taken a week off to ponder your win, hire an attorney and a financial advisor.

20.) Check your local laws to see if you can remain anonymous. Check with your attorney about how to claim your prize without revealing your identity.

21.) Check with your financial advisor as to what would be the better option, the annual payments or the cash value.

22.) Quit your job. The biggest mistake most people make is by trying to keep their job after a big lottery win. Unfortunately your boss and coworkers will begin to resent your insistence in staying on the job. The way they view it is that you are taking the position of a person who truly needs the job. There are many horror stories of jackpot winners who were run off their jobs in a nasty way because they refused to quit and wanted to keep their jobs.

23.) Change your phone number.

24.) Move to a new house. You may even consider moving out of state.

25.) Hire an assistant or third-party to answer your phone calls or mail. You will be overwhelmed with phone calls and letters from people wanting money. Having an assistant or third-party be a stand-in for you will better help you be able to say "no". The assistant or the third-party can be instructed on what the types of things or situations the jackpot winner may consider and can weed out anything else.

26.) Be prepared for the so-called friends, ex's,  and family members who will come out of the woodwork and bug you for money. It may be a girl you dated back in the 1980s and haven't seen since. It may be a guy who claimed to be your best friend back in the day. It may be long-lost cousins or family members who hated your guts but suddenly love you after your win. Be on your guard.

27.) Share with your family and friends. Spread the wealth. Another big mistake people do is to hog their winnings to themselves and not help their family members or true friends.

28.) Set an amount to splurge. Once that amount has been blown, make sure that the remainder is saved and/or invested. You do need money to splurge as you like so that you get it out of your system.

29.) Keep in mind that the majority of jackpot winners go broke within 3-5 years after their win. It's called the lotto curse, where jackpot winners go bankrupt, or worse, when the win is a contributing factor to the break-up of a family or even death/murder/suicide. People go broke because they do not know how to handle their money. There are also cases of spouses filing for divorce after one of the pair wins the lottery. Remember, spouses get half of everything!

30.) Charity, Charity, Charity. Give back. You did nothing to deserve this money. Give some of it back because there are people who truly need help. Pick your cause and go for it.


Good Luck! :)