The gift that keeps on giving. You could say that was what Joseph Amorese received in a Get Well Soon card.
Joseph Amorese (46) of Eaton, Pennsylvania, was in the hospital after undergoing hernia surgery. While recuperating, he received a card from his father, who lives in Congers, New York, wishing him a speedy recovery. Inside the card, Amorese’s father had enclosed a scratch-off lottery ticket.
“I scratched the ticket and it was a good thing I was already sitting down because I was shocked. I was — and still am — in complete disbelief.”
As Joseph lay in his hospital bed he wasn’t sure if he was reading the ticket correctly. He took a picture of it and sent it to his father. His dad concurred, Joseph Amorese had won 7 million dollars via the lottery ticket enclosed in the card.
“I had surgery so I didn’t jump up and down, but in my mind I was jumping up and down!”
The lottery winner works for Verizon. He called his wife, Jodi, who is employed as a social worker.
“I said, ‘Honey, I think we won 7 million dollars.’ And there was silence on the other end for a long time. She was too stunned to talk.”
After leaving the hospital, Amorese made his way yesterday to the dollar store in New City, New York, where his father purchased the winning lottery ticket and was presented with a ceremonial check.
In this day in age of staggering lottery winnings of over a quarter-billion dollars, 7 million might not seem like that much. In fact, both Joseph and his wife, Jodi, have no intentions of quitting their jobs. However, when it comes to lottery winnings, location, location, location matters.
Near where Amorese lives, in Easton, Pennsylvania, Joseph could easily afford a gorgeous 4 bedroom, $640,000, 4,000-plus square foot luxury home on 11 acres of land. Compare that with what you could afford for around $600,000 in Malibu, California: a 1,600 square foot bungalow with 3 bedrooms on a tenth of an acre.
Could Amorese and his wife realistically quit their jobs if they wanted to? It really depends on how they take the $7 million lottery winnings, and of course, how they spend it.
Most lottery winners take a lump sum payment instead of receiving their jackpot in installments over time thinking, that they can make more money with investments on the initial total rather than waiting. When they do, there is a penalty, and the lottery winner usually ends up with around half of what the total jackpot was. In Joseph Amorese’s case, that would equal roughly $3.5 million.
According to How Stuff Works , lottery winners usually end up in the highest tax bracket , which equals about 36 percent of their intake due for federal taxes. For Joseph, 36 percent of $3.5 million is a little over $1.2 million, leaving him with around $2.3 million. Of course, the tax man isn’t finished yet. State taxes, in this case, Pennsylvania state taxes, and perhaps local taxes, will also want their cut, which would end up leaving Joseph somewhere around $1.7 million dollars from a $7 million dollar lottery ticket.
Perhaps Joseph and his wife were wise to keep their jobs despite winning the lottery.
[Image via ImgKid ]