Tips To Win The Massive Mega-Millions Jackpot + What To Do When You Win

The $900 Million Mega-Millions jackpot is the biggest in history, and we have a few ways to increase your chances of winning it all.

Let's make one thing clear, the odds are unbelievably stacked against you. When the lottery gets to record numbers like this, the odds only get worse. This is the largest Mega-Millions jackpot ever, and the second largest jackpot in lottery history.

When you add in the huge Powerball jackpot, there's a potential $1.3 Billion in lottery jackpots waiting to be won.

So how are you going to do it?

There is a book called 'Brain Trust' where 93 scientists gave some advice on how to improve your chances of winning.

• Pick the most unpopular numbers. Avoid, for example, numbers thought to be "lucky," such as 7, 13, 23 and 32.
• Don't pick the number 1. It's on about 15 percent of all tickets.
• Do pick the "especially overlooked" number 46.

Ticket holders have a 1 in 300ish million chance of winning. To put that in perspective, the odds of hitting the jackpot are about the same as your odds of flipping a quarter and getting heads 29 times in a row.

• The only way to increase your chance of winning? You gotta buy more tickets.  The catch? The more tickets you buy, the worse your chances get.
• Forget lucky numbers. 3, 7, 11 and numbers under 31 are popular choices because they coincide with dates like birthdays and anniversaries.
• Sometimes bigger jackpots aren't better - look for smaller ones that cause less of a frenzy.
• Quick picks and personal numbers have the same chances of winning - one in 175 million.

If you do happen to win the grand prize, there is one piece of advice that you MUST consider when thinking about how to claim your prize.  MarketWatch offers this advice:

Take the lump sum, which currently would be about $430 million.  That's not typically the suggested path, but the threat of the fiscal cliff—and expiring tax breaks—makes things different this year.  In the long run, the lump sum "could save you millions in taxes."

I think the main thing to remember is that winning the jackpot is very unlikely.

Another big thing to remember is who gave you these great tips if you do win.