Last week, the whole nation had lotto fever as the jackpot for the 6/49 lottery breached the 200 million-peso mark.  People from all walks of life made it a point to place a bet, thinking that a 1 in 13,983,816 is better than no-chance at all if no bet was made.  After all, if the prize to be won is P200 plus million, a  P20  bet surely wouldn’t hurt.

All hope was dashed on the day that fateful Palm Sunday when a lone bettor from Luzon snatched the P249-million  jackpot.  The lotto fever did get me thinking on what I would do if I had won the jackpot and how much would I need to win to be able to live comfortably for the rest of my life.

First, let’s talk about the minimum jackpot of P4 million.  If you do not have a house or car, then that amount is hardly enough to get you both, if you plan to pay in cash.  For someone like me, who is on his first year of a 20-year housing loan, and on his first year of an eight-year car loan, I’d be left with approximately just half, or around P2 million if I decided to immediately pay off all those loans. 

Since my priority is ensuring the education of my two kids (a new born and a 3-year-old), I figure that a decent amount I’d have to spend to get me an educational plan that will erase my worries for a good college education, which means at the very least, one that is earned in Manila, would cost me a million peso.  That leaves me P1 million to play with.  I can put it in a business or a mutual fund so it can grow, but definitely not in another car or toys.  As a reward to self, I might take my wife for a Bangkok vacation, but nothing more than that.  P4 million may be a significant amount, but it would not be enough to change my life significantly in my opinion.

If you ask me, the ideal jackpot would be in the range of P30 million.  That would be enough to pay off my loans, finish the work that we started on my 50-year old house (although it would not be enough to allow us to move to an exclusive subdivision), ensure my kid’s education from grade school up to college in the United States or anywhere they want if the part of the winnings that I set aside for investing and business earn enough, get a second car for the wife, enjoy my hobbies, and travel abroad on a regular basis, and still have enough to earmark for charity and still retire comfortably. Waking up with an instant P30 million would be life changing, meaning I can stop worrying about a lot of the things I worry about, but if I make drastic changes and start living like a poser and live in the lap of luxury I cant afford, then it won’t last long and I’d be just another sad story in less than 10 years.  In my book, winning P30 million still means no Hummers, Range Rovers, or European luxury cars, no Louis Vuitton for the wife, no balato giving spree, no mansion, and I’d still need to keep my day job.

After that ideal range, I stopped thinking about what to do with lotto winnings if it got bigger than that.  P249 million may be peanuts when it comes to government corruption and the campaign budgets for nationally elected officials like senators and the president, but during the time that I sat down to write this and consider what I would do with such an amount, I couldn’t even see myself spending half of it (well here in Bacolod only at least because if included a house and lot in Forbes Park, it would probably eat up half of the P249 million).  I’m hoping that whoever hit the jackpot will be able to discover after spending the first P50 million that money is finite, and cannot buy real happiness, and after that works on making the remaining P200 million last up to his or her grandchildren.

The funny thing about winning money is because you did not work for it, it is so easy to lose.  Jackpot winners think that they can stop working, buy a house, get several new cars, collect jewelry, and travel all over the world.  Most forget that living is expensive, even more so if you have children, and they have not yet even considered retirement, which can be costly as well.  Given the odds, winning millions of pesos through lottery is one of the toughest things to do.  But human nature has made losing those millions so much more easier than winning it.  So for everybody hoping to win a lotto jackpot someday soon, just remember that while winning the money is the long shot, being able to keep enough of that windfall to be able to retire comfortably is the tough part.  Good luck.