There was no winner in Wednesday's multi-state Powerball drawing, which has pushed the jackpot up to $286 million for Saturday night's drawing.

  • Powerball jackpot grows to $286 million
  • Top prize odds: 1 in 292.2 million
  • Check your numbers: Lottery results

The numbers drawn Wednesday were 1, 16, 54, 63, 69, and the Powerball number was 18.

The chances of winning the big prize are about 1 in 292.2 million, according to the Powerball website.

If that doesn’t discourage you, make sure to buy your ticket before the 11 p.m. ET cutoff time.

Powerball is played in 44 states, Washington D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

Whoever wins that money can take it in a lump-sum cash payment or choose to have it paid out over 29 years.

The lump sum payment after taxes is an estimated $178 million.

What to do 1st if you win a big lottery jackpot

Playing the lottery lets us dream big, but the reality is, if you win, you'll be facing some big changes and big decisions. That's why International Business Times Personal Finance Editor Lauren Lyons Cole says don't rush into anything until you understand your options.

"This is the sort of thing where you want to not just sleep on it for one night but sleep on it for as many nights as you need to before you make any financial decisions," Lyons Cole said.

As far as Powerball, you have 60 days to decide how to collect your prize.

A majority of winners take the lump-sum cash payment — although that amount is actually less than the full jackpot amount. About half of it will go to Uncle Sam, leaving you with what's still an enormous amount of money that may be tricky to hold on to.

"If you're not used to having that much money, it's very easy to spend through it quickly," Lyons Cole said. "It's easy to be taken advantage of by financial advisers who might be interested in exploiting your winnings. So it's important to educate yourself. No one cares more about your money than you do."

For her money, Lyons Cole puts more stock in the annuity option, which spreads your winnings over 30 years.

"Whether you are coming into tens of millions of dollars or hundreds of millions of dollars, it's a huge change to your financial situation, and it's going to take time to understand how to best manage that money," Lyons Cole said. "So if you can spread it out over 30 years, you have a greater chance of holding on to your money than if you take it all at once."

You'll also want to assemble a team of professionals to help you navigate these new waters: lawyers, financial professionals, tax experts to name a few.

"Obviously you want someone who is well-educated and well-trained, but you also want to check your gut and make sure that this is a person that you like, that you can work with," Lyons Cole said.

A financial adviser can also serve as a buffer between you and every long-lost cousin who will come crawling out of the woodwork to ask for cash.

So is it even worth playing?

"At the end of the day, we have to remember, you're paying to play a game," Lyons Cole said. "But if it makes you happy to be part of something, everyone's excited about it, that's fine."

In other words, have fun dreaming, but do not spend more on tickets than you can afford.

Some people think pooling money with coworkers will improve their chance of winning. But with such tiny odds, adding 50 or 100 chances doesn't give you a leg up.

And if your group is lucky, lottery officials recommend preventing hard feelings by putting in writing how you plan to split the prize, because it's easy for misunderstandings to crop up when hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake.