A New Jersey woman who bought a lottery ticket with a buy-one-get-one free coupon she clipped from a newspaper ended up winning a big Cash4Life Prize.
Carole Halleran got what turned out to be a second-prize ticket while purchasing coffee for her husband at ShopRite in Wayne, state lottery officials said Monday.
Halleran's ticket for the April 19 drawing matched five numbers but not the Cash Ball, meaning it's worth $1,000 a week for life or the cash option of $1 million. She chose the cash option.
The Wayne resident told lottery officials had no idea she won until her daughter called with the news that the winning ticket was sold at her local supermarket. Halleran then checked her tickets and discovered the free one had been very lucky.
Halleran, who previously never won more than $11 playing the lottery, said she will save and invest the money.
The odds of winning the second-prize with a $2 ticket are 7,282,016 to 1.
No one matched five numbers and the Cash Ball for that drawing — the prize for doing that is $1,000-a-day for life or $7 million if a winner chooses the cash option. That's a 1 in 21,846,048 shot.
Lottery officials don't disclose the ages of winners but Halleran is 38, according to public records.
I'd take the cash option too. Who knows what the future brings. Take the money and run.
That is awesome. Good for her.
Maybe Shoprite is the New Lucky Place to Buy Lottery Tickets!
Atta girl Carole !!!!!!
Kudos and Congrats
Congratulations to Carole Halleran from Wayne, New Jersey!!
Man, what is with these people who buy lottery tickets and don't check them? Maybe I should try that strategy, seems to work!
Take the money and run off into the sunset!
Preferably this tropical one!
Well, $52.000 a year for life v/s $1m cash. You could retire and made $1m over 20 yrs or $2m if you live for 40 years. A 20ish or 30ish yr. old person already making $35K+ per year would be better off continuing working as long as you love your job - working for someone else.
I'm 64. Cash it is! Apx $650.000 after taxes. A nice vacation/travel or two a year, a new vehicle and a few toys. Maybe even World Series tickets! Ohhh Yaaah!
It definitely pays better than Lucky 4 Life; secondary prize of $390K on my Season Ticket in Massachusetts--not that I've won that yet! (Cash option I'm talking about).
music*...maybe some year CA will add Lucky 4 Life or Cash 4 Life.
BTW saw on CA lottery FB page that you can now scan tickets from a smart phone...I of course wrote it would be nice if you offered on-line sales as well.
As tech savvy as California is this should be a no brainer.
Hey, what about sports betting there??? Something I will never do personally.
at age 38 she should have taken the 1k a week. you know she isn't going to save and invest that lump sum entirely. saying that to ward off the moochers. by the time she's 48 she will regret this poor decision. if she lives to age 78 she would have collected 2,000,080.00 before taxes instead of the less than 600k she grabbed today. that's 2,080,000.00 oops. some wealth management guys are drooling over trying to get this account into their fold if she does indeed invest it.
OK, say you win the top prize, $1000/day for life and decide payments. Would you take it as a payment of $7000 every week or as $365,000 every year?
That's a very good question. If I were a CPA I'd know the right answer. If I'm not mistaken, they pay just once/year so it should come out the same amount.
at age 38 she should have taken the 1k a week.
I agree.
They don't call it the Garden State for nothing, winners grow there.
Bleudog101, I found the following on USAMEGA FAQ. All California lottery winnings are paid out on a Pari-Mutuel basis. I have no idea how L4L or Cash4L pays its winners. I will leave that up to the CA Lottery Commission.
I agree with your stance on sports betting. The CA Lottery is here to fund Education. My small way to support CA schools.
What do they do when it comes to a leap year? Do you get $366,000 that year or is it always $365,000 / year?
If they tax the cash option they probably tax the $1000.00 too. Anyway, even if they didn't, how much would $1000.00 buy in 20 or 30 years? It might be enough to pay your electric bill. LOL
of course they tax the 1000.00 a week. probably her best move would be to buy a 3 or 4 unit property and become a landlord. that would stream in revenue and in 30 years or so sell it.
I can tell you never owned a rental property.
Would imagine it would/could be quite a headache. One of the guys I worked with in PICU did that on the side. He said the government is very strict with Section 8 folks and evict violators.
Something I'll never do is become a landlord.
How about business real estate. Stores, laundry mats, convenience stores, offices, government offices and buildings which could require a contract with the government entity, take a drive down the business section of a city and imagine. Some of those tenants are loyal and well behaved.
I agree. Takes an act of God to evict deatbeats.
i would think it would be better to buy a 2 unit condo in a top area and be able to charge an outlandish rent to keep out the section 8's and riffraff. it's all about location, location and it is unbelievable what is being charged for rent in exclusive areas these days. affluent professional type people line up to pay it.
Could be another real estate boom/bust cycle in play. Be ready to jump in after a bust.
Personally wanted to own a bowling center for decades.
It won't happen now @ my age ( I doubt), but it would have had tenpin/duckpin and candlepin. Never did duckpin, it only made it to MD; candlepin strictly New England. Both are wicked hard to get strikes vs tenpins.
unfortunately bowling has seen a severe steady decline in interest and participation in the last 25 years or so. the one mainstay was thought to be tenpins but declining tv coverage of the pba tour and an inability to find adequate sponsonship for the events they still had has pro bowlers not even able to participate because of expenses. there are still big tournaments and you can earn halfway decent money if you are a top 15 bowler. league participation by amateurs has declined sharply. duckpins are still around in ma and ri in maybe a half a dozen places. candlepins are another story. there was a time in new england that it enjoyed extensive tv coverage which led to dozens of lanes running two league a night through the week. there were traveling leagues and tournaments for every class of bowler. it was popular. it began to fade when channel 5 in boston cancelled their long running (32 years) saturday noon 3 string match pitting the regions top bowlers in a win and you return until you lose. show had huge ratings but station had to carry abc sports programming. now bowling centers hold mainly birthday parties for kids to subsidize the business volume dropoff. anyway, investing in a bowling center would be about as wise as buying a gym to train boxers. both of these former pastimes have peaked and ebbed.