$99.1mn up front or $171mn over 26 years?

the first - even with safe investments you'll probably wind up with way more than 171 million at the end of 26 years.

The first because I would just like to live moderately off of the obscene amount of interest it accrues. Then when I'm old, donate the whole shebang to something awesome and die. But I'm a simple guy-- a nice place and a nice TV/computer are all I really need.

It depends upon what you feel you will be able to do with the money. If you're not a spendthrift and will be able to invest all or most of the money so that you'll be able to live off of the interest, that's probably going to be the safest thing.

However, if you can't, the portioned receipt of the reward will assure you of relative wealth for the better part of 3 decades. If you aren't dead by that point, hopefully you will have saved/worked enough so that the 27th year isn't too hard of one for you.

As for me, I would probably take the one-time payout, invest two-thirds in ways that I could only access the income/interest off of, and then buy a large, very secure house in a very nice part of the world.

Either would be just fine.

And I would quit my job, as I am having a shit day by none of my own doing.

the first - even with safe investments you'll probably wind up with way more than 171 million at the end of 26 years.

-- Hurting 2, Monday, August 20, 2007 2:57 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

um this is probly sub-finance-101 but, by that logic, couldn't you do the same thing with the 171, even spread out?

yeah yeah "time effect of money" etc

and the answer is yes.

99.1 mil, growing conservatively at 4% a year, gets you 274mn at the end of 26 years.

171 over 26 years = around 6.5 mil a year. with the same 4% growth, + another 6.5mn into the pot every year, you end up with 291 million.

so i'd do that.

this answer brought to you by my slow as fuck work day.

Is there any reason to believe that in the future the top tax rate on income (such as your $6.5mn/year check) will increase enough to impact your decision?

I don't know which I'd take, but I believe I'd try to get the nicest stateroom on a six-month or yearlong cruise, just to make it harder for relatives people to find me.

4% is an absurdly low return to assume

MASSIVE FUCKING X-POST.

And I would rent out the adjoining stateroom and have them convert it to my library. And spend a year at sea, reading. Wow. That just sounds perfect and shit.

MFX-POST to milo, although Hurting does bring up a pretty good point, too.

Of course the higher rate you assume, the greater the amount by which getting the up front money beats getting the larger amount over time. OTOH, I guess you could argue that if the latter is absolutely zero risk, maybe you're better off with it because no investment is zero risk and because it's enough money anyway.

As for the tax stuff - it'd probably take an accountant to sort all that out and it would depend on where you live and on lots of unpredictable contingencies.

I'd go with the first option, set myself up with a chunky annuity with part of it, and use the rest to create a charitable foundation called Chaotic Good (with the logo being a couple of percentile dice). Like, Zippy the Pinhead crossed with George Soros.

can i get like $1m milo thx

If you have $100 million why would you feel the urge to turn that into more money? Build an uber-house for you and your best friends and live in paradise obv! Is there no point at which more money jsut becomes an abstract video-game-of-real-life where you're jsut shooting for the "high score"? Get your initials up on the "nobody gives a fuck when you're dead" leaderboard?

I will make this decision only when I am forced to do so. Until then, I prefer to keep all my options open. [nods wisely]

Because I should have that money more than everyone else that's not as smart/good/cool as me. xpost

xpost - If you don't at least earn a little interest you're actually losing money to inflation.

But I still ask, who cares if you got what you want? I mean, sure, I guess there are always ways to spend money, but... I dunno, as much as I'd like to THINK that I'd run out of ways to spend my money...

hey, you said conservative! financey types will sneer at numbers in the 4-6 range while giving u less than that, after their fees & laughable corrupt tulipomania shit like, uh, mortgage backed securities etc

besides, it's the same figure applied to both instances, so it doesn't matter? I could have put 45% in as the number, right?

taxes are the real wildcard i guess but i assumed we'd park it all in guernsey or the caymans or something, like the real players do, so i hear.

Stateroom? I would buy a boat. And a crew. I think I'd be the chef though, if it were a smallish crew. That would be fun. (xpost)

What I mean is--at the end of the day, even if you *do* run out of ways to spend yr money, wouldn't you rather you have the decision where it goes (charities, yr children, etc) then leave it to those fatcats up in their boardrooms etc?

beartraps

xpost There are savings accounts that pay more than 4% a year, and even at 6% a year the up-front money already wins.

besides, it's the same figure applied to both instances, so it doesn't matter? I could have put 45% in as the number, right?

Rong.

My Paypal account pays me 5%.

yr keeping yr winnings on paypal? wow

you never know when the bengals might come up on ebay, i guess

I keep my winnings in gold bullion in a decommissioned nuclear silo.

xp shit!

yeah yr right about the number. dudes i should probably just shut up, i don't even have a savings acct and i do math less often than i do laundry

use $171m to buy loads of houses in a prosperous area, and rent them all out (save one for yourself)

wait, use $99m even

HELICOPTERS

DINOSAURS

I would buy myself a little piece of Brokeback Mountain.

LEICA
VANILLA BIKE
ISLAND
MOST OF BC AND ALBERTA

Rental property sounds like too much of a pain.

I would open a chain of porn emporiums all over North Texas as close to churches and schools as legally allowed.

TED WILLIAMS'S FROZEN HEAD

someone just won £35m over here, didn't have the option as far as i can tell of taking it in chunks. the interest on this was more than her yearly wages EVERY WEEK.

> 171 over 26 years = around 6.5 mil a year. with the same 4% growth, + another 6.5mn into the pot every year, you end up with 291 million.

> so i'd do that.

you are assuming that you'll live 26 years 8)

if i have $171mn i'm going to make myself live 26 years.

Mountain Ape on the money.

The dream house I would build would be a good sized buckyball with as much earth shelter as possible.

Oilyrags, WTF are YOU doing in MY dreamhouse?

Also worth factoring in re the 171mn over 26 years: probability of "them" (whoever "they" are) stopping their payments early due to bankruptcy or whatever other reason.

i'd give it all to lyndon larouche to run for prez again

gotta buy carbon offsets for the mansion and private jet

um this is probly sub-finance-101 but, by that logic, couldn't you do the same thing with the 171, even spread out?

yes of course.
but one way to choose between these two amounts of money at different points in time is to try and figure out how these amounts would compare at the same point in time. for instance, in 26 years. we already know how much the 171mln is worth in 26 years: 171mln. with a (rather conservative) 4% interest the 99.1mil is worth more, at that point time.

(another way would be to try to figure out how much the 171mln would be worth today. if this is móre than 99.1mln, you obviously think it's worth the wait)

yeah thx i'll alert my accountant

> Oilyrags, WTF are YOU doing in MY dreamhouse?

Admiring your excellent taste.

My wife HATES when I get into this conversation with people. She's all "You're too focused on money."

No. I am too focused on getting exactly what I want, and then discussing what other people want (exactly). In the dream world of winning over a hundred million dollars in the lottery, that convo becomes MUCH more open.

Like to supercars, giant homes on islands, islands, groups of islands, weekly trips to exotic locales and a general lack of need to sit on the freeway for an hour and a half to get to my underpaying job.

So, what part about talking about what you would do when you win the lotto isn't fun, dear? The escapism? The setting yourself up for disappointment? If that's your philosophy, you are going to be miserable for a LONG ASS TIME.

She's not really that way. She just gets a bug up her butt sometimes when I repeat the same convo too often.

Can we confirm that the 171m earns you interest, I doubt it tbh