There’s $500 million at stake for Wednesday’s Powerball drawing, and with ticket sales soaring across the nation, people remain hopeful about their chance to win.

“If they don’t have a heart attack, it’s a great day,” says WOKV’s Consumer Warrior Clark Howard.

But with the climbing number of sales comes a smaller chance for you to actually win.

“You have much more chance of dying from a bee sting or being eaten up by a shark than you do of winning,” Howard says.

Despite that, the chance still remains. So Howard wants to make sure if you are the lucky one you are prepared.  He says, oftentimes, lottery winners do not live “happily ever after” because of the new demands placed on them from family and friends wanting money.  They are also facing the need to budget a sum of money most people will never deal with in their entire lives.

“People tend to always get the lump sum check.  Big mistake,” he says.

If you win you are given the option of getting the entire sum of money in annual payouts or a smaller sum in one big check.  Howard says getting the annual payout forces you to budget because even if you run out of money in one year, you still have plenty coming in years after.

And that very prospect is enough to keep all of us dreaming about when we would do with a few hundred million dollars.

“You daydream and you think about ‘I could do this, I could do that, I’d never have to work again,” Howard says.

But oftentimes, the reality of doing nothing wears out quickly.  Howard says he would give the money away if he won, and you can let us know what you think as well by weighing in on our Facebook page.