Four Easy Strategies for Winning the Lottery

There are a number of occurrences that are more likely to happen than winning the lottery. These include being killed by a vending machine, plane crash, flesh-eating bacteria or being caught in a terrorist attack. On a more positive note, it’s also more likely that you’ll become a move star or an astronaut or discover that your child is a genius. Winning the lottery just doesn’t happen very often.

Regardless, we’ve scoured the Internet for some tips and techniques to increase the odds that you’ll win the lottery–we hope.

1. Decide on Quick Picks vs. Self-Picks

Seven-time lottery winner Richard Lustig recommends that players avoid the “lazy way” of choosing numbers by buying the quick-picks. Indeed, more people have won the Powerball with quick picks; however, more people also use quick picks. Furthermore, the odds that any given combination of numbers is picked is the same regarding of whether you use a quick-pick or you self-pick.

In addition to not relying on the machine, Lustig says to follow three other rules:

• Research and see if your numbers have won before.
• Select your ten sets of numbers and keep those if you continue buying tickets.
• Buy as many tickets as you can afford, but not more than that.

2. Purchase more than one ticket

The more tickets you purchase, the more likely you will be to win the lottery. Simply by purchasing fifty tickets in the multi-state Powerball lottery, you odds go from 175,000,000 to 1 to a less inspiring (but greater) 175,000,000 to 50. In other words, the best strategy might be to purchase more tickets once a month rather than play each week, which increases the chances that you win without increasing your financial risk.

3. Purchase tickets with other people

So maybe you don’t want to buy fifty tickets, but if you gather a group of individuals together from your office or school, for example, you can even purchase many more than fifty tickets further increasing your odds. Of course you would have to share the prize if you won, but with large lottery payouts there is often plenty to go around.

4. Any information helps, right?

Though this might not directly help you the most frequently selected numbers in the Powerball are 29, 20, 33, and 2. Perhaps, it’s worth using some or all of these numbers.

Winning brings its own challenges

Taxes greatly reduce the profitability and sensibility of playing the lottery. So if you do play, try to minimize your tax burden. Even if you do win the lottery, you could be challenged in collecting. For example, Bloomberg.com is reporting that Illinois state budgets are so bad that the state is issuing IOUs to lottery players who win more than $600 dollars.

Finally, even if you do win, you still need to hold onto the cash. A lot of lottery players have trouble doing this. For example, winners Lara and Rogers Griffiths won $2.7 million and divorced years later amid mutual acrimony after a freak fire gutted the home they purchased with their winnings. Canadian Gerald Muswagon won $10 million, but later blew it on drinking and partying in just seven years. Muswagon later hung himself in his parent’s garage.

Try the slow and steady approach towards winning

The slow and steady approach to winning the lottery is – not playing at all. Ultimately, playing the lottery will never substitute for a sound financial plan built around prudently saving and investing over time. Sound financial planning usually gives you some basic financial education and saving and investing over time tends to hone your money management skills. So, if you want wealth, don’t rely on the lottery – instead focus on saving and investing.

For more on this topic read up on Raymond C. Buxton, a lottery winner who did it right and how to will the lottery when the jackpot reaches a billion.