[imagesource: Property24]

The most recent Powerball draw in the US topped $2 billion and there was finally a winner.

Unlike our lotteries, the winner won’t receive that full amount tax-free and there’s also a deduction if they choose to take a one-time lump sum payment as opposed to having it spread out over time.

The $2,04 billion prize is pre-tax, for a winner who chooses an annuity, paid annually over 29 years. Should the winner opt for a one-time cash payout, which nearly all winners do, they will receive $997,6 million.

At today’s exchange rate that is R17,2 billion.

The winner isn’t the only one who had a cracking week, because the 75-year-old gas station owner who sold that winning ticket received $1 million.

Below from Insider:

Joseph Chahayed, who runs the family-operated store Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, California, received the bonus check from lottery officials on Tuesday morning outside his gas station…

Chahayed told the outlet that he plans on sharing the windfall with his family, including his 11 grandchildren…

Chahayed’s son, Danny, said his father’s gas station has sold winning lottery tickets before, but that they were only for prizes in the thousands.

Chahayed won a million bucks at the age of 75 and intends to carry on working, despite his son encouraging him to retire.

I can’t get on board with that but sharing it with his kids and grandkids is a nice touch, I guess.

Were he to decide he wanted to move to the Atlantic Seaboard, he could switch his winnings out for a sum in excess of R17 million.

He couldn’t afford the most expensive home currently listed in South Africa (nor could he afford that plot on Nettleton Road), but he could still snap up a lovely four-bedroom in Camps Bay.

Property24 has one for sale in “sought-after Medburn Road” for R15,7 million:

This stylishly appointed open-plan villa offers a secure, modern & relaxed lifestyle with generous flow from indoor living areas to outdoor entertainment terraces, including an upstairs view terrace plus an alfresco dining area both off the main living area, as well as a separate living room with bar & kitchenette, spilling out to an inviting & spacious sundowner pool deck on the lower level.

Rather than rifling through photos, we can take ourselves on a video tour:

There’s also a nifty 3D tour feature if you really want to snoop around.

If Chahayed has his heart set on sharing those winnings and living in Camps Bay, he could downsize to an apartment in the area.

I found a one-bedroom for R2,5 million and a two-bedroom for R3,5 million.

[sources:insider&property24]