A eccentric billionaire invites you to tea. As you’re snacking on cucumber sandwiches, the billionaire explains that she’s conducting an experiment and has chosen you for her subject. You have five minutes to name a monetary sum. After she hears it, she will either
(a) set up a trust fund with you as the sole beneficiary, the sum you named deposited as the principal, and yearly disbursements of 1% of the principal as your income from the trust, or
(b) say, “No, that’s too much. Nice to meet you. Griselda will show you the way out.”
If she sets up the trust fund, you get to choose the financial institution that manages it. But as a consequence of getting income from the trust, you must quit your job as soon as the paperwork is completed, the trust is funded, and then agree never to work again for a salary again so long as the trust remains solvent. I’ll arbitrarily define “solvent” as "having no less than 25% of the original sum as principal. “Work” includes starting or buying a business and taking the profits. You can do anything you choose with your time except taking money from any other source. There are only two exceptions to the “no other income” rule: you can place your yearly allowance into an interest-bearing check account, and if you want to gamble on roulette, the ponies, or a poker game (but not the financial markets), you can keep your winnings.
There will be no negotiation, the billionaire tells you. After your five minutes of reflection, you get to name your sum exactly once; if she shows you the door, no amount of pleading that you actualy meant half what you said will help.
Would you accept the deal? What sum would you name? What do you do afterwards?
I would probably say $15,000,000. While not an exorbitant sum, the 1% should be more than enough to live on comfortably without working. If someone is going to tell me I can’t work to make money, I wouldn’t settle for any less than that.
The worse that happens is I go back to my life the way it is. And I get to check out Griselda’s ass on the way out the door. It’s all good.
I’d say $20 million American. Worst-case, the point at which the fund would hit 25% of original value and become “insolvent” is 5 Million, which would still pay me 50 K per year, and let me work if I chose.
An answer to a simpler, unasked question, is that I’d need 50 grand a year to feel comfortable not working ever again.
What would I do afterwards?
Go to the bar, go to the track, go shopping, see a lawyer, I don’t know - who cares anyway? I’d have a BILLION DOLLARS!!! I can pretty much do whatever I want!
I’d name an overly large number, say $100 million. I like my job and am comfortable enough, so it’s not like I’d be disappointed if things stayed as they are. And I’d need a fairly large incentive to agree to a lifetime ban on working for additional income, since life is long and a lot can happen.
If the agreement forbade me from working for free, I’d reject it. I’d rather do something interesting with my life than be rich.
I’m confused by the proposal- 1% of the principal as my annual income? So what’s the point in investing it and generating interest if my 1% can’t come off of the increased value? If I choose $5M, every year for the rest of my life I get $50,000, with no inflationary adjustments, or do I actually get 1% of the total value including P & I?
Also- why so little? If invested, I can increase the principal by a conservative 5% annually, maybe 10%. Yet I’m only allowed to accept 1%. Why does the interest continue to grow if I can’t enjoy it?
Assuming I took the deal, which I wouldn’t until it was clarified for me, if the only stipulation is that I can’t ever work for a salary, I’d just start a non-profit charity group and accept no salary. That’s allowed, isn’t it?
I’d say about five hundred million would do. That would give me around 1 to 5 million a year in interest income.
The agreement forbids me from working for a salary, not from working at all, correct? So I’d simply keep doing my hobbies and volunteer work (Esperanto; comics; helping to build solar-powered houses for people ), but on a much larger and well-funded scale. I’d abandon the plan I have for selling drawings, and just give them away.
Well, since I can name the financial institution, I’m sure I could get a guarenteed 4% return. I’d ask for $8 million, 1% to me as my annual allowance and 3% to increase the principal. That should keep me up with inflation. I’d learn to do some more do-it-yourself stuff to save even more money with a bit more time on my hands.
No kidding. I think I’d be more excited about the extra forty hours a week than the free cash
I think I’d ask for ten million, with the assumption that I’d get 100k/year and whatever part of the principal is left would be earning enough interest to keep it moving right along. I might even ask for five million, figuring that it couldn’t hurt my acceptance chances to lowball, that we live pretty comfortably on less than 50k/year as it is, and even when and if the fund ran dry I’d have had a good couple years to hang out at home with my kids and my hobbies.
Can my husband still bring in an income? If so, five mil it is.
What I would do afterwards: spend all my time working on building a heritage-style, self-sustaining, living history farm just for the hell of it. Falconry. Raise kids.
Unless you are working at a job that is particularly awesome, it’s called “being pathetic”. I have no trouble finding alternatives to putting up with other people’s shit for 10 hours a day.
The only hard part is finding people to socialize with as 99% of the world is at work during the day.
Right now, the job I have is something that I would probably do for nothing. I enjoy it, or most of it. I have pretty much arranged things so the parts of it I don’t enjoy are not parts I have to do. (That would be filing.)
If I won the lottery I would quit this job, for sure. But I would probably start a company doing pretty much the same thing, and I would expect that company to make money eventually. Maybe not for 10 years.
I can’t think of a number that would give me enough $$ to capitalize my business and still have enough to live on (and send my kid to college) (assuming he figures the math thing out).
I would not accept being prohibited from earning a salary, or money from a business. The whole idea of having a lot of money is that it makes you free to do what you want.
If I couldn’t earn any money at all, I’d refuse the offer outright. That would mean I’d never be able to sell my books. If I could still sell my books, I’d ask for $5 million. The $50K a year would be a good enough amount that neither of us would have to go out and look for a job, but it wouldn’t be so much that the money from my books wouldn’t be enjoyable.
), but on a much larger and well-funded scale. I’d abandon the plan I have for selling drawings, and just give them away.