I do not buy lotto tickets. Nothing personal. Maybe some religious concerns. But really, I just prefer to keep the dollars that I work for. I've probably spent a few dollars over my lifetime buying raffle tickets, scratch-offs, and the like in the past, but no regular lotto tickets for me.

I watched a show about lottery winners. It was fun to watch. I even found myself wondering what I'd do with all that money at once.

But here's the thing. I used to work with a gentleman who was in his late 50s and unmarried. He had a few expensive hobbies like traveling abroad, photography, and buying $20 worth of lotto tickets every Friday. Every Friday without fail he would tell us that he felt he had the lucky numbers this week and he would purchase $20 of lotto tickets after work. I worked with him for 10 years. We eventually grew tired of teasing him about winning, but I can only recall him talking about winning a prize of $500 and some odd dollars during the 10 years I worked with him.

The 'thought' of prosperity seemed to help him feel rich but I wonder, now that he's in his late 60s or early 70s (I'm no longer in contact with him), does he ever wish he'd put that $20 a week into something more certain? That's approximately $100 a month! Multiply that by 10 years and even without interest earned, it's over $12,000, which is a tidy chunk of change.

Anyway, he taught me to treat my paycheck as my own personal lottery winning. Yeah, I have to work for it, but payday is a good day. I'm happy for people who actually win millions in the lotto because that HAS to be exciting. But for me, every payday that comes, I get excited in trying to save as much as possible and stretch that baby out as far as it will go. That's about the only winning I'm going to be doing.