The Mega Millions jackpot is estimated to be $1.56 billion, and people across the U.S. are dreaming about what they would do with that amount of money.
No winners of the Mega Millions jackpot were announced Friday night. The odds of winning the jackpot prize is now one in 302.6 million, according to the lottery website. But that hasn’t stopped people across the U.S. from buying $2 tickets with the hope of changing their lives.
Bethany Valente, 30, is a middle school counselor in Rochester, N.Y. Her wife, Tori Valente, 30, is a high school band director. The Valentes bought Mega Millions tickets this week to try and score big on the multi-billion dollar jackpot. One goal they have is to pay off their combined student loans of almost $270,000, they said in an interview with Barron’s.
“Every time we talk about winning and how awesome or how relieving it would feel to pay off all these things or help all these people, I’m just like, whatever, $2 is fine. We’ll just get a ticket and maybe we’ll win,” Tori Valente said.
But for the Valentes, it’s about more than taking care of their own debt. They told Barron’s that they have big dreams of helping out their community.
“I want to buy a couple houses in downtown Rochester that just need a little bit of work. I’d buy them, have someone come in and fix them up, separate them into a place where six to eight people could live at a time. I would want to take people that just need help,” Bethany Valente said.
“The homeless population in Rochester is not small and I would love to be able to just help people get off the streets and give them a space that’s safe that they don’t have to pay for,” she added.
The Valentes are not the only people who want to use the money on others. Clark Torres, 44, is a supervisor for the U.S. Postal Service on Long Island. He told Barron’s that he recently bought $50 worth of Mega Millions tickets, with the goal of purchasing his family new homes and helping out the homeless population in New York City.
“I didn’t have the easiest upbringing. I struggled a little bit with money growing up and had to work two jobs and stuff to get to where I’m at now,” Torres said. “And right now, I’m at a good position. So just me going through the struggle of my young childhood, I would like to extend a hand on people going through a similar situation that I did.”
Robert Cacace, 58, is a senior managing consultant from Denver C.O., and a frequent purchaser of lottery tickets at his local gas station. He told Barron’s that if he wins the jackpot prize, he would immediately hire a lawyer and an accountant to ensure that he makes responsible and safe decisions with the money. Then, Cacace has big plans.
After giving away $1 million to family and friends, Cacace said he and his wife would open some sort of animal sanctuary and create a grant to help people in need receive mental health care.
“This would be an extreme amount of money, and it would be, quite frankly, immoral to just hoard it to myself,” Cacace said.
The next drawing for the Mega Millions will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 8 at 11 p.m. Eastern.
Write to Angela Palumbo at [email protected]
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