Honey, we've won $340m... better start spending it now

[emad]

By James Bone



A FAMILY who won $340 million in a lottery celebrated their good fortune by buying their dream car: a yellow Humvee.
Frances Chaney, 68, won the 27-state Powerball lottery with her husband Bob, 72, their daughter Carolyn, and her husband, Steve West.

“For the past year or so he’s been wanting to get a yellow Hummer,” Mrs Chaney said. “Needless to say, there’s one in our driveway now.”

The Powerball numbers were drawn on October 19, but the two couples waited until they could consult financial advisers before claiming their winnings.

They elected to take the money — the equivalent of £195 million and the second-biggest payout in the US — in an after-tax lump sum of $110 million, rather than 30 annual instalments of about $7.6 million.

Frances Chaney told her local television station in Oregon that she had decided to buy lottery tickets only after hearing on the news that the prize had risen to $340 million — second only to the $363 million won by two ticketholders in Illinois and Michigan five years ago. “So I called Carolyn and said ‘Give me $20 and we’ll put in $20 and buy some tickets’, thinking that if we won twenty, a hundred, maybe a thousand dollars, fine — that was fun playing,” she told KOBI-TV. “It never even crossed my mind that we had a chance in zillions to win the one ticket.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-1865379,00.html

[RedCloud]

1. Sounds like they could be repugs!

[Midlodemocrat]

2. Nothing says wealth like ruining the environment.

[Craig3410]

3. And $340 million might almost fill up the tank!

:)

[zanne]

4. I've never heard of something like this ending well...

Can you imagine the constant harassment these people will be put through now? And think of all the moral decisions to make; billions of people in the world hungry or dying; earthquake victims, flood victims, famine victims, etc. Then the relatives. Then the friends. Then, you'd argue with your husband/wife about who should get what. Then, anything you've worked hard for is not good enough anymore. I dunno, but I think the lucky ones are the people who DON'T win the Powerball jackpot.