I dropped $24 on tix today (mostly Mega Millions but one was powerball). Sure, my odds are almost zero, but I can afford it and it’s fun to do the mental exercise of what you’d spend the money on. I started looking into costs for really nice all-in-one retirement homes (I guess they are called continuous care?). My parents are living on a fixed income in their own home and looked into retirement living but can’t afford it until they absolutely have to have real nursing care. I’m liking the thought of being able to have them live out their years at a nice facility with other seniors, and then help my sister the single parent high school teacher out, plus my husband’s family, and then I’d probably buy 3 more Bay Area houses for my kids to live in eventually, have some great vacations, maybe help our church buy a pipe organ (pipe dream, LOL), and still have oodles of money left over for political and charitable causes.
@aunt bea this past January, a 20 year old from FL (originally from Maine) won the fourth largest lottery. But as a NJ resident, I’ll take the state winning odds!
I’m chuckling at the idea of someone winning hundreds of millions in a lottery worrying about health insurance.
@washugrad if I win I’ll ship you the incredible pipe organ that is in my church. We’re probably closing soon and would love to rehome it.
I dream of being the one who forgets to check her ticket and its the last day to claim the prize. Bought a couple of tickets this AM and stuffed it in my wallet.
@KKmama sad to hear your church might be closing. Maybe if you win the lottery you can keep it running a bit longer 
'Actually, I wouldn’t stop working right away, at least not until I figured out health insurance."
Don’t worry You could definitely self-insure.
" I started looking into costs for really nice all-in-one retirement homes (I guess they are called continuous care?)"
Dream bigger! You could build your own continuous care facility with everything your parents want. Heck, build a bunch of them!
Did any of us cc people win 
?
I didn’t have a heart attack, so no. =))
Sorry Cotton Tales. I feel guilty bragging about my big win…matched a Mega Ball. Yes, I won. $2!
Nobody won.The frenzy and daydreaming continues. Scratch that. Accelerates. New estimated jackpot is $1.6B but I’m confident it will probably top that.
As usual, my 3 tickets were absolute losers. Only 1 ticket even matched a single number (not the Megaball), so nothing for me. I had hoped I’d recoup the $6 I spent on tickets, but I should’ve known that that wouldn’t happen.
I will be the first to admit I will play on Wednesday. @busdriver11, I would have been a bit giddy for that.
I can’t believe I’m not a billionaire!
But I did have fund chatting with my sisters about winning and with my hubby aboutt it. I planned on getting rid of the business, paying off the house and letting everyone in the family retire.
I’m not looking at the numbers just yet. No one won, but there were two million dollar winners in PA so I can sort of dream a little longer as long as I don’t look.
I will buy 5 more tickets for Tuesday’s draw. Tonight’s Powerball doesn’t really interest me at the moment. I can dream off one lottery I suppose - no need for two.
Now that I know it’s going up to $1.6B, I think I’m just going to have to dream bigger!
DH got in an office pool. Everyone in his small group pitched in except for one guy. (I’ll call him Steve). He said everyone was joking about the office being empty on Monday. DH said he for sure would come in, wait for the boss to tell him to do something and then respond, “No. You’re going to have to ask Steve to do it.” Looks like he’s going to have to do that work after all.
As a business owner I hate when they do an office pool. I know if they won I’d be sunk. I’ve thrown money in on it before as insurance.
I spent 7 years (18 - 25) without health insurance and with a chronic medical condition and 10 years (18 - 28) without dental insurance, so, yes, how to cover health insurance for myself and my family is a major concern. I would no longer keep my current plan of working till at least 62, but I would want to have the health insurance stuff squared away before I retired. I would probably set up a separate account just to cover the premiums, etc. and keep it apart from my other money - ha ha!
The second thing I would do is MOVE. I hate my house, I hate my town and I hate my high taxes. If I won, though, I could afford to move out and then gut and fix up this house to sell it. I can’t do that while I am forced to live here.
I already bought my tickets for Powerball tonight and will get my Mega over the weekend.
Good luck to all of us.
I contributed to the office pool. Just got word that each us won $0.19. We’re going to take the collective winning and buy some more tickets. Yes, I realize the odds of winning are ridiculously high, but we’re having fun with this during what has been an incredibly stressful time.
@techmom99 It sounds like you are serious, but surely you realize that if you win a mega-lottery, you don’t need health insurance. Just pay for your healthcare as you use it with your $$$$.