Within your heart, you know you are going to win a lotto jackpot eventually. Or else why do you buy lottery online tickets? Here is some advice for your head and heart while you get ready to win.

Do not make promises you do not intend to keep. It is easy to tell someone: “If I won the lottery, I would pay off your mortgage” or “When I win the lottery, I will buy you a new car” Such statements, even meant as sympathy for another’s plight, can come back to haunt you. You may forget you said it. Yet when you do win the lottery, that person to whom you uttered your promise will remember vividly and expect to collect their “due” And if you pay off the mortgage or buy that car, it won’t mean as much if it had not been “expected” or “promised”

Don’t trust anyone to hold your lottery tickets prior to the drawing. When large sums of cash are involved, it really is surprising how a long-standing friendship or family tie may become meaningless. Be forewarned: Buy your own lottery tickets — or at least have them in your own safekeeping before the drawing takes place. Being an extra precaution, sign the back of your winning lottery tickets immediately. After the drawing, possession is 99 percent of the law.

Stick to a budget. Do not play with money you are afraid to lose. Scared money seldom wins. Keep it fun so that your attitude remains positive. Enjoy it with others by pooling your money with friends, family or colleagues. Not simply is it more enjoyable playing with others, but it also stretches your lotto budget. When you pool your hard earned money with others, you can afford to use the larger lotto wheels.

Have your lotto pool sign a Pooling Agreement. Pooling your hard earned money with others to share in more lottery tickets is a good idea, but don’t pool your money with anyone without a signed agreement. You might think you are risking just a few dollars. But should the lottery ticket wins, you have put at risk potential millions.

Don’t be afraid to skip a drawing. To further stretch your lotto dollar, play a sizable wheeling system once a month and skip the additional drawings in between. Or use the money you could have spent (but didn’t) on some other form of entertainment. Should you have a multiple prize win, you can afford to spend more on lottery tickets next time, for example playing two or even more lotto wheels. You might be on a hot streak. Whenever you don’t win, stay on a self-imposed budget until you win again. But keep in mind, there is just one thing all lottery jackpot winners have in common: They all bought a lottery ticket!

Keep your lottery tickets safe. Keep your lottery tickets in a safe place and check them just after the drawing. Collect your small prizes (under $600) right away before the expiration date. Most states give you only 30 days to claim small wins from lottery agents. After that, you need to mail them in or visit a claim center.

Save your losing lottery tickets. Save all of your losing lottery tickets while they are tax deductible, dollar for dollar, against your lottery wins. Receipts for other gambling losses could also be deducted against lottery wins. When you win even a second prize, you will be glad to have those deductions at tax time.

Play some low-odds games. If you want to start winning sooner rather than later, invest the higher portion of your lottery budget on the cash-5 game offered in your state. You will win more prizes more often whenever you play the bottom odds pick-5 games. Top prize could possibly be only a hundred thousand dollars or so. Nonetheless, I guarantee that when you win one, you will be very, pleased!

Trust your hunches. Although my strategies are scientific, determined by mathematical probability, I am a good believer in playing hunches, too. If you feel strongly about a particular number, play it. Your inner conscious mind becomes stronger and even more accurate when you use it. Even your hunch muscle has to be exercised to work efficiently. It is crucial to think of yourself as a lucky person — to think of yourself as a winner.

Practice saying, “No,” before you decide to win the lottery. The most important word any jackpot winner can learn to say is definitely an emphatic “No!” Many jackpot winners have gone bankrupt while they allowed freeloading friends, relatives, neighbors, as well as others to bleed them dry. If you think you don’t possess the backbone to harden your heart against endless sad tales of need and greed, then don’t accept your lottery win in a lump sum. Select the annuity payout and collect your lottery win in once-a-year installments.