What to Do (and Not Do) If You Win the $400 Million Powerball Lottery

Another huge Powerball lottery is on the way to making someone a sudden master of a new empire. The Powerball drawing for Wednesday, February 19, is now up to massive sum of $400 million in annuity value. An all-cash payout value is listed as $227.8 million.

The Powerball jackpot starts at $40 million, and it keeps rising until someone hits the jackpot. The question to ask, outside of whether you should really be playing, is what you should do if you win the lotto.

24/7 Wall St. has created a 12-step lottery winner program that is a bit more extreme than other lists of things to do if you win. Technically, it is a list of what not to do. The items covered include protecting yourself immediately, getting the proper advice in planning and in taxes, some things like what not go splurge on, and many more items.

Coming into vast sums of money this size is instant dynasty money, which should last for multiple generations ahead. Believe it or not, many lottery winners have ended up broke within just a few years of winning. We would not wish that on you, but without proper planning lotto winners put themselves in a serious predicament.

Here were the statistics from the February 15 Powerball lottery:

• 0 PA winners, jackpot rolls to $400,000,000
• 1 PA player matched 5 of 5, each receiving $1,000,000
• 3 PA players matched 4 of 5 and the Power Ball, each receiving $10,000
• 164 PA players matched 4 of 5, each receiving $100
• 231 PA players matched 3 of 5 and the Power Ball, each receiving $100
• 7,418 PA players matched 3 of 5, each receiving $7
• 3,491 PA players matched 2 of 5 and the Power Ball, each receiving $7
• 19,964 PA players matched 1 of 5 and the Power Ball, each receiving $4
• 38,295 PA players matched the Power Ball, each receiving $4