She can forget about gas money
By Kate Northrop
SHELBY, N.C. — A South Carolina woman's visit to the next state over was well worth the drive when she picked up a scratch-off lottery ticket worth $1 million.
Beverly Vercher was about an hour away from her home in Spartanburg, South Carolina when she decided to make a stop at a convenience store during her trip. Gas money wouldn't be a factor this time — purchasing a $1 million top prize-winning ticket would be enough to suffice.
About 40 miles away from Spartanburg, South Carolina, Vercher purchased her winning "Power 10s" ticket for $10, which launched last July. She bought it at Esha Food Mart on South Lafayette Street in Shelby, North Carolina.
"When I scratched it, it was the very first number," she told the North Carolina Lottery.
Although the top prize was revealed early on into scratching the ticket, the winner wasn't sure if she was looking at it correctly and asked her friend to double-check it.
"First, I was kind of numb," Vercher recalled. "I didn't really realize it was still true. It still didn't set in until the next day."
It must have set in at some point, since she visited Lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Tuesday to claim her prize. She elected to take the $1 million jackpot as a $600,000 lump sum and walked away with $424,503 after federal and state taxes. Her other option would have been to take the prize as an annuity of $50,000 a year over 20 years.
Not only will Vercher's $1 million prize allow for many more trips, but it will give her and her husband the ability to buy their first-ever home.
"We've been trying to buy a home for months," Vercher explained. "There were certain obstacles we were facing, but now we're able to buy it without any problems."
Now that Vercher has claimed one of the six available top prizes of $1 million in the "Power 10s" game, there is just one more top prize remaining, as well as nine out of 36 second prizes of $10,000 and 26 out of 73 third prizes of $5,000.
Lucky Lady Bug must have been playing on the radio from 1959 (Billie and Millie which Alexa won't play for me!).
Now get to pay the house off in full, best feeling in the world!!
Congratulations Beverly!!
If her plan was to buy a home why didn't she take the 20 year annuity and set up an automatic 20 year mortgage payment deal which would have gotten her into her home and given her an extra 200k approx. to spend on other things. Now she either spent the whole thing on a house for cash or if she just put down a 20% down payment in less than 10 years she probably won't be able to make the payments.
This win puts her in a comfortable spot. She can put 20% down, buy furniture then continue to make payments. When the money runs out she can consider selling the property and taking any gains from the sale.
That's a great prize for a $10 ticket. The fact that she can now own her own property will only increase her wealth over the years. I'm happy for her. Seems to be a lot of winning going on in North Carolina. Maybe it's time for me to take a road trip.
Not only will she have to pay NC taxes, but SC taxes too. That's why I don't buy tickets out of state. I'll stay in SC. lol
I think there is reciprocation for this. Todd and I discussed this some time ago.
I know what is going to happen. She will run out of cash before the mortgage is paid off for sure. So she will end up doing a reverse mortgage like Tom Selleck says isn't a scam to steal your home but they will if you let them. She does not have the fortitude to hang on to what are the scraps of money after a million dollar hit I feel. If she is working she better keep her job or this will end badly.
Looks like we have a psychic here.
She could just pay cash for the home and have a place to live without monthly payments. Having no mortgage payments frees up a lot of money for other things, or just saving for the future.
Just saying she is going to run of cash before the mortgage is paid when you don't even know her? Or are you talking from personal experience?
"Billie and Millie which Alexa won't play for me!"
Does Alexa play Alice Cooper instead? "Millie and Billie" is the title of a song from about the late 70's or maybe early 80's. I'm only aware of it because I knew somebody who was overly fond of it. Billie and Lillie is the group that originally did Lucky Ladybug before the Four Seasons did. Not sure where that memory popped came from, although I spent the early 70's listening to oldies when that meant songs from the 50's instead of songs from the 70's.
Beverly , congratulations on your tidy lottery jackpot win!
Billie and Millie will play on Alexa for me alright...the Cyrus's come up.
Frank Valli and the four Seasons version is so lame and I love that group and that's all that will play if I request the song. We have five Alexa and mine is the only one that will take specific requests for groups and or songs EXCEPT this one and it is not free for this one Alexa to do this.
There Alice Cooper playing in my bedroom right now!
If I knew her age or employment situation I could further analyze her future. Not sure if taking the lump sum was thought out very carefully. Seemed to really rush into that decision which will cost her if she isn't able to handle the lump sum correctly. She would net 34k x 20 yrs. 680k in cash instead she ended up with 424k. I can see taking the lump sum when it is 10m or more but a paltry 1m is hardly worth it. She already has a place to live why not just do some upgrades and relax. Passing up an extra 256k just to get it all at once seems foolhardy and a decision she jumped into lightly. 20 years is a long time to try to hang onto the remains of the 424k no matter how much she puts down on that house she wants but doesn't really need if she thinks about it logically. 7 years or less she will regret it as she will have less left than she owes on that house that she has. You say she can always sell the house. True, but who knows how that will go.Then she will be right back where she started with a little cash sure, but it probably won't work out for her.