Will winning the lottery make me happy?

The jackpot for the Powerball lottery tonight has climbed to $900 million, a record-setting payout. According to reports, about 75% of all combinations have been bought. That’s a lot of tickets sold, and a whole lot of dreams of fame and fortune.

But will winning the lottery make you happy? According to a 2010 Princeton University study, money actually does make you happier - at least until you make about $75,000 a year. After that, there’s no evidence of improved “emotional well-being”.

It’s unclear why that particular amount is the cutoff, but I assume it has to do with having basic needs met along with the benefit of some discretionary income. Also no word on what the cutoff number is for Orthodox Jewish families, whose expenses are generally higher.

Even so, $900 million will clear that threshold like a home run ball on steroids. There’s no doubt that this would be a life changing amount. And not necessarily in a good way.

The National Endowment for Financial Education cautions that in the event of a sudden cash influx (lottery, inheritance, legal winnings), about 70% will lose their money within several years. That’s a lot of cash to go through. And financial advisors are full of cautionary tales of lottery winners’ lives gone horribly bad.

So why do we want something that will not make us happy, and may even cause us grief?

Thomas Gilovich’s findings may help us out here. The Cornell University researcher found that anticipated enjoyment of material purchases exceeds the actual enjoyment we get over time. (Interestingly, the opposite effect was found for experiential purchases like vacations.) That handbag, or car, or fancy electronic device you plan to buy will most likely not be as enjoyable as you think it will be, after the first few weeks.

Compound that by $900 million, and we have a problem. Our brains tell us that life will be so much more enjoyable with all the things we’ll buy. But evidence and experience show that our brains don’t know what’s good for us.

And for those reasons, I'm happy to say that I’m out.

“Who is rich? He who is happy with what he has.” - Ben Zoma, Pirkei Avot 4:1