The megamillions lottery and the irrationaliy of people

It is infinitely easier for someone (poor, relatively uneducated), to buy a lottery ticket than it is to buy stock. Most poor people would not have the $2000 minimum to start an TDAmeritrade account, or the knowledge to manipulate their accounts successfully, but have the few spare bucks at the gas station to buy a few lotto tickets. That is why.

Well, they are only perpetuating their own cycle if that is the case... I would wager if they starting saving those "few spare bucks" they could come up with initial deposit amounts pretty easily...

In many cases, you don't need $2000.
 
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If you buy one lottery ticket every day for ten years, you've spent $3,650.

Put that $3,650 in a stock portfolio averaging $8% growth, and you have $3,942 after a year.

You have $4,257 in two years, $4,598 in three, $4,965 in four, $5,363 in five, $5,792 in six, $6,255 in seven, $6,755 in eight, $7,296 in nine, and $7,880 in ten.

Double that $1, and you double the figures. Add in $3 a day for Starbucks, and you've quadrupled the figures.

That is the power of compound interest. Those who understand interest get it, while those who don't pay it.

So, buy your lottery ticket. I'll go with the compound interest model for my retirement, thanks.
 
If you buy one lottery ticket every day for ten years, you've spent $3,650.

Put that $3,650 in a stock portfolio averaging $8% growth, and you have $3,942 after a year.

You have $4,257 in two years, $4,598 in three, $4,965 in four, $5,363 in five, $5,792 in six, $6,255 in seven, $6,755 in eight, $7,296 in nine, and $7,880 in ten.

Double that $1, and you double the figures. Add in $3 a day for Starbucks, and you've quadrupled the figures.

That is the power of compound interest. Those who understand interest get it, while those who don't pay it.

So, buy your lottery ticket. I'll go with the compound interest model for my retirement, thanks.
Too abstract for the common folk. If they could buy a share of stock for a dollar at the local 7-11 and service stations, there would be a lot more stock purchases.
And, for the record, I never buy lotto tickets (any gambling is a fool's pastime), but have have 13,700 shares of Gold Mining stocks at this point. My post was to answer the question of why people buy lotto tickets instead of invest in stock.
 
Too abstract for the common folk. If they could buy a share of stock for a dollar at the local 7-11 and service stations, there would be a lot more stock purchases.
And, for the record, I never buy lotto tickets (any gambling is a fool's pastime), but have have 13,700 shares of Gold Mining stocks at this point. My post was to answer the question of why people buy lotto tickets instead of invest in stock.

The bottom line is that they don't look at the long term, only at today. If they have a buck, and can buy a lotto ticket at the 7-11, then it's easy and forgotten tomorrow. Building a portfolio based on compound interest requires long term planning.

How is investing in gold mining not a gamble of another sort? It could gain a lot more than a diversified portfolio, to be sure. It could also collapse pretty quickly. It's a much better gamble than a lottery or a casino, but a gamble nonetheless.
 
How is investing in gold mining not a gamble of another sort? It could gain a lot more than a diversified portfolio, to be sure. It could also collapse pretty quickly. It's a much better gamble than a lottery or a casino, but a gamble nonetheless.

Investing in any stock is a gamble. Many of the stocks that were considered to be very safe investments have taken hits (radically devalued), in recent times of financial difficulty. There is no such thing as 100% safe investment. Nevertheless, a diversified portfolio is the safest, but in my case, being 67 years old and not dependent upon the income from my stocks, short term and higher risk makes the most sense for me.
 
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