Right after Jason Lalonde won Ontario's Cash for Life lottery on the weekend, he did a little math

Ottawa Citizen, by Dave Rogers
March 2006

And the 23-year-old apprentice plumber from Alfred quickly calculated he'd be better off taking the weekly $2,000 cheques, rather than a $1.35-million lump sum.

"At first people didn't believe I had won, but when my girlfriend told them the ticket read 'Life Life Life,' they didn't doubt me," he said yesterday. "My mom is really happy that I have won."

He figures that if he invests most of his tax-free winnings every week for less than 15 years, he will earn more than the lump sum.

With such a strategy in mind, Mr. Lalonde, who has been an apprentice for about a year, intends to complete his training at Algonquin College or La Cite Collegiale.

Full text: Cash for life winner calculates his golden future