Are you ready to win $1.5B US? Financial planner offers advice
Canadians rush to the border for chance to play Powerball lottery
Tonight's Powerball lottery jackpot in the United States is $1.5 billion.
You are about to go on the biggest roller coaster of your life.- Peter Merrick
In Canada, the life expectancy for a man is 80 years, 84 for a woman. Let's say you have a baby boy today and you celebrate by buying Jr. a Powerball ticket. Now imagine that the lucky tyke wins.
$1.5 billion represents $18,750,000 a year for 80 years.
Before you head out in a frenzy to buy tickets, here are some other numbers to consider.
The odds are 292,000,000-to-one.
"I have a better chance today of getting hit by lightning, that's one-in-700,000," said financial advisor Peter Merrick. "So good luck, two dollars is worth the dream."
And if you beat the odds?
Someone might win, and so if it's you (or Jr.) Merrick is on stand-by, ready to help.
"Take a big breath, because you are about to go on the biggest roller coaster of your life."
Toronto-based Merrick knows what he's talking about. The financial advisor has helped lottery winners to try to navigate that roller coaster ride.
"As soon as you claim that ticket, you are going to become the most famous person on the planet, and everybody from nursery school, all the way up to the London Times, CBC, BBC, everybody is going to be calling you, wanting to talk to you."
Merrick suggests finding a good tax or corporate lawyer before going public.
"If you are not happy today before you win, I guarantee you are not going to be happy tomorrow after you win."
Retailers in many communities along the border say a lot of Canadians have been buying tickets. Canadian law says lottery winnings are not taxable, even if the ticket is bought in another country.
However, Merrick cautions, there is an "obscure little law" that forbids the export of U-S lottery tickets, so though the Canadian buyers can go home, their tickets would have to stay in the U-S.