If you average a 10% return on investment, you can double your money every 7.2 years. In consecutive sets of seven years, $1 becomes $2, $2 becomes $4, and $4 becomes $8. At about the same time that the serial lottery payments would stop forever, you have increased your lump sum by a factor of 8 ($1 becomes $8). By taking a net lump sum today of $300,000 ($500,000 less 40% in taxes) and investing wisely instead of taking the $1 million jackpot in 20 payments (at $50,000 a year), you can have $2.4 million in the bank after 20 years and live off the interest forever. The wisdom of accelerating jackpot payouts is so compelling that our investment group has already helped over 44 lottery winners trade-in all or a portion of their lottery payments for cash-in-hand.