In a new post on The Consumerist, the author shared that a recent study found that poor people, those making under $13,000 a year, spend 9% of their income on lottery tickets. As sad as this fact is, it gets worse if you think about it.
So, I did a little math, and if these people, who don’t make above the poverty line, invested that 9% of their $13,000 a year, which works out to $97.50 a month, over 50 years with a 9% return over that time (reasonable rate of return), they would have a little over $1 million dollars at the end! Yes, you read that right! $1 MILLION dollars at the end! That means that there is a good chance for ANYof those people earning $13,000 a year to have a million dollars when they retire, if they are disciplined enough to invest what they spend on a chance at instant gratification!
And that’s the difference, isn’t it? Most of us DO NOT win the lottery. We know that it only parts fools from their money. What truly helps people build wealth is discipline with their money and the ability to wait for the payoff over time. Problem is, I don’t know if a poor person would believe me if I told them that they could have $1 million dollars when they retire. However, given the study and the little bit of math above, we hope you decide that the lottery is a waste of money and perhaps saving to become a millionaire isn’t as hard as you once thought it was!
