Your Zip Code Could Be Ruining Your Luck

Someone very wise once said to me that luck is when preparation meets opportunity. I will agree that concept or philosophy, if you will, makes a lot of sense. However, I also believe that out there in the world there are forces that bring us good fortune as a reward for hard work, almost like a karma thing.

I feel like I have been pretty lucky in my life. I won't say that everything has gone my way but I will say that more times than not I have come out ahead in the game. I haven't had the winning lottery numbers for a billion dollar jackpot but I have had my share of slot machine pay outs.

If you aren't feeling luck it could be where you live. Yes, your luck factor could be based on the state you live in according to a new study by Zippia. The folks at Zippia came up with a way to rate each state based on some data they collect which included lottery winners, life expectancy and your likelihood to die in a car crash. I know weird but go with it for now.

The map below shows you where each state fell in the ranking but the why and how Zippia came up with their results is a bit more complicated.

You can see from the map that New York placed #5 overall. This is attributed to the fact that New York has had 50 big lottery winners including Powerball, we have a low incident of death per 100 thousand due to a car accident and that New Yorkers can expect to live to be 81. Another notable state would be Hawaii coming in at #10. They don't have any lottery winners but they do live to be 82 and have a car accident death rate similar to New York.

The state you don't want to live in is Mississippi. Apparently the Magnolia State also known as the Hospitality State is the unluckiest. They have no lottery winners and you are only expect to live to be 74.