Vice · a habit, redirected
The daily ticket, in the boring winner
Three dollars a day chasing a jackpot. Here's the unglamorous bet that quietly tends to pay.
$3 a day on tickets, set aside since 2015
$11,597 spent
could have grown into
$25,013
in the S&P 500 · grew 2.16× · +116%
A lottery ticket is the one “investment” almost everyone is willing to make — a few dollars a day on a near-impossible jackpot. The quiet irony is that the unglamorous alternative, a broad index fund bought a little at a time, is the one that historically tends to pay. Same daily outlay, wildly different odds.
No promises — markets can fall, and this is a historical what-if. But the contrast is the whole point. Compare the dream asset against the boring one on the head-to-head page.
The same $91/mo, across assets
Only assets with data for the whole window — no unearned head starts.
Not your number? Change the spend, the asset, or the year and watch it move.
You'd have
$25,013
from $11,597 set aside — up 116%.
— — — dashed line = total cash you put in
Common questions
- Isn't the lottery just for fun?
- For many people, yes — and that's fine. This only shows the opportunity cost: what the same few dollars a day could have grown into in a broad index over the same years.
- Could the index have lost money instead?
- Over short windows, absolutely — markets fall as well as rise. This is a historical what-if for curiosity, not a prediction or advice.