When Is Enough Enough

The age old question ... "when is enough enough" goes back to the dawn of time.

The Lord offered Moses a choice either seven (7) commandments just like all the other nations or six hundred thirteen (613) so the Jews could be special. You guessed it we got the 613. Way to go Moses. Not to be outdone, the Rabbis said ..."only 613, why we can do better. So, they went and had a contest. The contest to see who could create more rules to enhance and expand and make life harder and of course to keep lighting from striking me ... a better closer to the Lord life. Yeah, I know that Oral Law thing but it was only a 40 day conversation or so some say and he did not take any notes. So, admit it ... making up laws is fun.

The only thing I might have asked given the opportunity is to have only one day instead of two day holidays. It would reduce the embarrassment in not being invited out for meals to a simple two instead of four. It is an enormous emotional burden ... not being wanted at someone else's table. I know there was the time one son heaved his guts onto a Shabbat table but you would think people would forget and not put that out on wide blast emails right before holidays.

But the point, yes get to the point ... please get there.

Well, the Florida lottery has created a new enhancement. When you buy a magic number, instead of paying $1 for that ticket and getting the amount posted on the billboard brought back to the present value less income taxes and processing fees, you can pay $2 or $3 dollars for that chance and your winnings will be doubled or tripled. So, instead of the current gross number of $25 million you could get $75 million by tripling your purchase price from $1 to $3. Wonderful.

Now this does not increase your chances of winning, those are still 1 in 14 trillion. What it does is increase your fantasy until Saturday or Wednesday night when your precious piece of paper becomes scrap.

And by fantasy, I mean the financial planning for those millions. It is a past time of mine, I admit. Those long drives to clients, the walk to Shul, pretending to listen to in-law conversations, how was your day questions ... there is so much time to fantasize. Pay off school loans, pay off mortgages, put money away for current and maybe future grandchildren's college or day school education, buy a car that does not have something wrong with it, take a vacation, fund a day school scholarship fund, put money away for nieces and nephews college education, pay for weddings, put some money away for retirement, take a golf lesson, buy a proper hat. So many things to consider.

Well, I thought this was a great idea. Increase my fantasy world.

But there is always a bubble burster out there in bubble burster land. An unknown bubble burster person wrote into the local newspaper and railed against the bonus purchase. This party pooper said "when did $3 million become not enough that you had to pay three times more to increase the potential to $9 million". Now their premise being that the minimum winning is $3 million and that should be enough. Well, leave my fantasy alone. Three million adjusted for the present value of the 30 year pay-out reduced by taxes and those huge processing fees brings it to approximately $1 million. Well, that is nice and I would take it don't get me wrong but not enough (see list above). It would make life a little easier but not enough. It would still leave gaps.

Now "party pooper" says you should only waste the $1 and not increase your bet to $3 because the odds of winning are 1 in 14 trillion, your more likely to get hit by lighting, and in Florida the lighting state even more so than winning the lottery. So, they believe the extra $2 would be wasted. Well, I am a financial person so I beg to differ. If it is going to be 1 in 14 trillion, I want to maximize my winnings not minimize them to so I am tripling my bet. But for the pooper I hope they win the $3 million receive the $1 million and then kick themselves for not tripling their bet. For me, the money I don't win should be more because then the money I still don't have will need to be higher because there is never enough.

Fantasizing is a hard job and requires a larger and larger pool to fantasize about. There is never enough.