Powerball jackpot reaches $1.5 billion

<p>Surprise! You&#39;re not going to win the $700 million. Sorry. So here&#39;s a short list of things that will pay you back a lot quicker than that office pool will.&nbsp;</p><p>First, life insurance. Why? Because you have a better chance of dying from lightning, a vending machine or a bath gone wrong than winning the Powerball.&nbsp;</p><p>Another great use of your hard-earned money:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/04/09/4-investments-that-are-better-than-a-powerball-tic.aspx" target="_blank">shares of lottery operator</a>&nbsp;International Game Technology.</p><p>IGT makes money off of irrational dreamers like you once were. Its stock pays a 2.5 percent dividend yield, meaning by next year the $10 you almost spent on Powerball will be $10.25 which, remember, is better than $0.</p><p>Next up, student loans, because statistically you probably have some.&nbsp;</p><p>More than&nbsp;<a href="http://studentloanhero.com/press/2015-student-loan-burden-report-student-loan-hero/" target="_blank">43 million Americans</a>&nbsp;have student loan debt, and to the most recent batch of college grads: congratulations! You&#39;re the&nbsp;<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/05/08/congratulations-class-of-2015-youre-the-most-indebted-ever-for-now/" target="_blank">most indebted class ever.</a>&nbsp;</p><p>And finally, for those who have a weekly appointment with their local gas station, try putting that $20 a month in a stock index fund, any stock index fund.&nbsp;</p><p>The S&amp;P 500, for example, has a long-term average&nbsp;<a href="https://ycharts.com/indicators/sandp_500_total_return_annual" target="_blank">return of 11.8 percent</a>, which again, is more than the 0.0% return of almost every lottery ticket.&nbsp;</p><p>But if you&#39;re still not convinced, the Powerball is $700 million, the largest in U.S. history. Wanna know why it&#39;s so large? Because you have a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/01/07/as-powerball-jackpot-grows-to-new-us-record-10-burning-questions-about-the-big-lottery/78401800/" target="_blank">1 in 292 million chance</a>&nbsp;of winning. So, um, good luck?&nbsp;</p>