New Jersey, Here’s What Experts Say To Do If You Win The Lottery

There's a fever, and no the cure is not more cowbell!

Lottery fever is not only taking America by storm but New Jersey as well.

Wednesday's drawing is going to be for a historic one point two billion dollars!

I'm not typically the lottery type but there are a few exceptions; whenever I'm at a game and there's a 50/50 raffle I usually buy a ticket. It goes to a good cause.

The other instance is when the Powerball or Mega-Millions jackpot hits a historic high.

Right now, NJ.com reports that the Powerball jackpot is the fourth highest in US history sitting at one point two billion dollars.

That's a lot of cash!

But What Do You Do When You Win The Lottery?

There's always the debate of whether or not to take the lump sum of cash or to take the payout if you win, and that's a big if by the way.

Right now, the odds of you hitting all the correct numbers are 292,201,388 to 1 according to NJ.com.

Let's say against the odds you win. Do you take the lump sum payout or go with the 30-year annuity?

Right now the Powerball sits at 1.2 Billion dollars.

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That's a lump sum payout of just under 400 Million dollars In New Jersey according to AfterLotto.com.

Or you could take the annual payout, which ranges from payments of 14 million dollars to 40 million dollars over the course of the annuity when you use Afterlotto's calculator.

Moneycrashers.com says there are pros and cons to each; with the lump sum payout you can lock in current tax rates, and potentially see more of your winnings.

If you take the annual annuity your pros are having a steady annual stream of income, you could get better tax rates, and it keeps overspending in check.

Let's say you do buy a ticket for Wednesday's drawing, and miraculously you do win, this is what experts say are the first things you should do.