EDITORIAL: Fulfilling your own hopes and dreams

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast;

Man never is, but always to be blessed:

The soul, uneasy and confined from home,

Rests and expatiates in a life to come."

-- Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

If there is a good thing to come from the Powerball jackpot that has been won and made new millionaires of a few extremely lucky individuals, it is the power of hope. The power of dream. Everyone dreams about the things they could accomplish if only they had the money to do it, but as we've found in the run-up to the jackpot, money is rarely the answer, and many times jackpot winners broken lives can't be cured by money alone. What was broken before the riches stays broken. And in fact, the money could do more harm than good. Many jackpot winners find themselves within three to five years in bankruptcy court -- not on easy street.

However, if the thought of winning millions of dollars and what you would do with those dollars still appeals to you, there is an easy way to fulfill those dreams. Instead of wishing for a windfall, take the same money spent on lottery tickets and open up a savings account or enroll in a 401(k) plan. The saying about paying yourself before paying anyone else works. At the end of 2016, you'll see that you're richer than you were at the start. All you will have given up is a chance at a windfall that -- most likely, like lightning striking you -- will never happen.

This story was originally published January 14, 2016 at 10:01 PM with the headline "EDITORIAL: Fulfilling your own hopes and dreams ."