The ability to retire comfortably and find care throughout old age can feel like winning the lottery.

For one Montgomery grandfather a purchase of a lottery ticket turned into just that.

After winning $200,000 on an Illinois Lottery scratch-off ticket from a Jewel-Osco in Oswego, Clarence Neuenkirchen, of Montgomery, couldn’t wait to tell his wife.

“I honestly thought she was going to break the floor, she kept jumping up and down,” Neuenkirchen said in a news release by the Illinois Lottery.

The store in Oswego in Kendall County is receiving $2,000, 1% of the prize amount, for selling the winning ticket, according to the release.

Neuenkirchen said he plans to invest in his retirement and set up education funds for his grandchildren.

“The older ones will get a nice check,” Neuenkirchen said. “Maybe once the money is in our account, it’ll finally feel real.”

Neuenkirchen said he’d love to take his wife on a cruise in the Gulf of Mexico and possibly travel to France.

According to the Illinois Lottery, about 99% of the funds generated by the lottery go directly to the Common School Fund, which supports K-12 education funding in Illinois.

According to the Illinois Association of School Boards, in fiscal 2021, the lottery generated $762 million for public schools, 5.3% of the state’s $14 billion in total contributions to public education. The vast majority of the $45.6 billion spent on public education in fiscal 2021 is generated from local property taxes.

The Illinois Answers Project reported that, “lottery revenues earmarked for education are used to offset money the state used to spend on education, most of which is now spent elsewhere.”

The Illinois Lottery said 100% of the profits from the bingo ticket Neuenkirchen won on go toward social service programs, such as Alzheimers support programs, breast cancer research and support services and HIV/AIDS education and research programs, homelessness prevention and assistance programs and other various agencies.