[Renderofveils]

So he gets 38% of the total sum. And I thought Uncle Sugar took a lump out of my paycheck.

[JasonC]

The reason the figure is so high lottery "jackpot" figures are not the present value of the payments but the literal dollars paid over a period of 20 to 30 years. If you want all 20-30 years of payments up front, that is worth something like 65 cents on the dollar, the rest being the interest. That is, 1/30th of the payment reduced by 29 years interet, the next 1/30th reduced by 28 years interest, etc. Then, on the resulting 65 cents or so, you get to pay about 40% taxes... (maybe more for state income tax too).

[cranked]

True that, but I could be quite content and happy with $88 mil...

[Star Traveler]

You said — So he gets 38% of the total sum. And I thought Uncle Sugar took a lump out of my paycheck.

—

That lottery value is future value, not present value, so you can’t use that figure. You take the figure that they give you for “present value” (i.e., immediate payout and not the one for 30 years later) and use that number...