The Powerball jackpot has climbed to an estimated $1.4 billion, which marks the third-largest prize in Powerball’s history, per USA Today. While that might seem like a tempting amount of money to take a chance on winning, the odds of doing so aren’t great. According to Nerdwallet, “the odds of picking all six numbers correctly are about 1 in 292 million.” And if you did end up winning, about 24% of your winnings would be withheld for taxes.
In short, even if buying a lottery ticket doesn’t cost you a fortune, there are still much better ways to spend your money.
Pay down high-interest debt
Given the unlikely odds of winning the lottery, it’s a better bet to put that money toward paying down high-interest debt like credit card debt. As Kiplinger pointed out, “paying off a balance with a 13% interest rate is like earning 13% on your investments — an incredibly valuable use of the money.”
