Would winning Powerball put you on the Forbes 500?
If I win, how much do I get?
Depends on whether you take the yearly payment or the cash payment. As of Tuesday morning, if you opt for taking the whole $1.5 billion in 30 yearly payments, that's about $50 million per year. Otherwise, the cash value is estimated at $930 million, not including tax. Otherwise, the cash value is estimated at $930 million, not including tax.
Will I get a spot on Forbes Richest?
Nope. The cutoff spot for the latest Forbes 500 list is a net worth of $3.5 billion. But that's the whole world. The Forbes 400 considers just the U.S., with Donald Trump at #121 with a net worth of $4.5 billion and Oprah Winfrey at #211 with $3 billion. Aaaand still not on it. The cutoff is a net worth of $1.7 billion. While the prize could still rise to that level, that would be the value over 30 years, and before taxes.
So, who am I richer than?
According to an April 2014 Sun-Times story Gov. Bruce Rauner's net worth is in the mid nine figures - somewhere around $500 million.
Great! So what could I spend a billion dollars on?
You could not afford to buy the Chicago Bears ($2.5 billion estimated value by Forbes), the Chicago Bulls (estimated $2 billion) or the Chicago Cubs (estimated $1.8 billion) but the Chicago White Sox are affordable at an estimated $975 million and the Chicago Blackhawks are a steal at about $925 million, according to Forbes.
The Willis Tower (formerly Sears) just sold for $1.3 billion.
Finally, you could buy about 61 Cloudscape sculptures at $23 million each.
That's a lot of beans.