Sometimes you get a message that nearly brings you to tears.
State governments make a mint on lotteries. For all but a very lucky few, playing the lottery is a money-loser. And the more you play, the more likely you are to lose.
There is some entertainment value in them like just about anything. It gives a dopamine burst to play that can get addictive. (But then again, so do notifications on your phone.)
Unless you do a lot of analysis to make sure the odds are in your favor, though, it's going to cost you money in the long run.
Lottery tickets that never lose
My Cool Serial Facebook group has numismatic enthusiasts from all over, talking about cool and fancy serial numbers — the numbers that appear on a currency that (usually) uniquely identify the particular bill.
I found out about this only in 2017 or so, so I have no idea how many of these special bills slipped through my fingers because I didn't take the two seconds to glance at the serial number. A whole community of collectors will fight over bills with particular serial numbers on them!
I started the group because I got a steady stream of comments and email questions following this post on fancy serial numbers, and needed a venue to deal with them that would help more people.
Essentially, every bill that passes through your fingers is a lottery ticket. If it has a desirable (cool or fancy) serial number on it, you “win” and can fairly easily sell it for more than its face value to a happy collector. If not, then you still win because you have the bill and can spend it, save it, or do whatever you like with it!
One of the members of my Facebook group was caught in the depressing lottery ticket cycle herself and used currency hunting as a way to get out of it.
Here's her story (gently edited, and with permission):
I love the hunt and to collect [….]
I used to be hooked on scratch tickets and keno. Never won was always sad and broke. Now I go get all my money every month; and purchase 1s and turn them as much as these two banks in my small town will let me [before] I pay bills and I have a blast!
I feel like a winner and the hunt makes me so happy. At the end of the day I have savings, haven't lost any money and I'm proud of myself now. I'm so glad that there is all you others like me to share my finds with and to see all yours; it's so fun and cool. Thank all of you just for being you!
Member, Cool Serial Facebook group
This just about made me cry. For real.
I started the Facebook group mainly so that I wasn't giving one-to-one answers for free about people's serial numbers. It was a bit selfish of me, to be fair. And still, the majority of the questions that arrive at the group are of the “what's my bill worth” variety.
These kinds of questions are cool and all, and I love seeing what other people see in their bills, but it's still mainly a niche geeky numbers-oriented venture.
Not with this particular member, though. The hobby had a significant positive effect on her life — far beyond what I would have imagined.
That's special. That's something to pay attention to.
A step toward our best life with better habits
She's nailed it.
She looked at her lottery-ticket habit, saw the connection with currency cherry-picking, and replaced it. Replacing a bad habit is an effective way to fix it.
Boom. Just like that.
If I were a tenth as successful at replacing some of my bad habits as she was, I'd be doing great. Some of my bad habits have been around … a long time.
But it's our habits that propelled us to where we are, and they'll continue to propel us, good or bad, for the rest of our lives.
Changing bad habits is work, but it doesn't have to be a giant amount of work, and the habits become automatic when they've taken root.
- We can identify those places where we're not using our money, our time, or our energy wisely gives us the opportunity to change the direction our habits take us. You probably have an idea where to look already.
- Then we can analyze the habit, breaking it down into its fundamental cue-response-reward habit cycle. This is common for all habits in general, though the specifics differ by the habit and the individual.
- Then we can systematically hack the habit cycle to dovetail into much better habits and get rid of the old ones. Substitution is one of these hacks (as in replacing potential fancy serial numbers as a proxy for lottery tickets). Habit stacking is another hack (like doing ten pushups after brushing your teeth).
- Rinse and repeat, practice, and build the virtuous cycle.
If you spend too much on lottery tickets …
… then you can try out currency hunting and get some of the same dopamine bursts that come with buying a lottery ticket, but without any cost!
If you have a different bad habit you want to change, then look for the habit pattern. Find the cue that triggers your habitual response, and figure out why you feel good afterwards (even if it's only temporary). Once it's laid bare then you can smartly inject changes in the routine that alter it in a positive way.
Consider reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Atomic Habits by James Clear. Two fantastic books on making big changes with small habits.
