Thats why I never buy lottery tickets with some special “magic” number. I can just imagine not buying one that week (I am a pretty irregular buyer) and I can imagine finding out that that was the week I woulda won not only alot, but something like 200 million.
I got enough regrets in life with setting myself up for something like that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, lottery tickets are stupid. I consider it a donation to the schools, I buy ONE every month or so, and the fantasy of buying all the land around where some assholes live that I’ve endured in life and building massive pig farms around them makes it worth the minor cost.
Oh, and that the reason I dont even think about looking at prices of something once I’ve bought it for years afterwards. I can’t even stand the idea that I could got a great deal on something if I had just waited.
Wait for the $20m. I can’t believe people would pass up $17m rather than wait 6 months. Living off $3m for life is not fantastically wealthy - you will make about $120k per year before taxes - very comfortable, but not wealthy. Living off $800k per year, on the other hand, is definitely wealthy.
And I won’t have much need for just $3m as I will be spending the first month of the wait in jail for mopery. Whatever that is.
Hijack, but I think a 6-month waiting period wouldn’t be a bad idea for a lot of lotto winners. I hear so many stories of people screwing up their lives right away. Six months to get used to the idea might cut back on some of the crazy spending and saying “yes” to every relative & friend’s demands.
I’d wait for the $20 million. But the question is what would I do for six months. Would I quit my job? I’d like to think that I’d keep working, but would be tempted to go nuts for a while (drawing down existing savings).
I don’t have $3 million right now, so not having it would not be like losing anything. I think people in general would rather not have something in the first place than have it an lose it. That’s how I would feel anyway.
So with all things being equal, I would wait and get more. 6 months isn’t a long time to wait, though I would probably be a little bit more careful with my health in that time, it’s not a big change in my lifestyle.
Definitely wait for the $20 million. I’d use the six months to try to negotiate with work to see if I could set something up part time, because I really like my job and don’t think I’d enjoy just sitting around in my underpants all the time, lighting cigars with $100 bills. But I know I couldn’t keep working full time with $20 million in the bank, there would just be too many other fun things to do.
For those who say “what if I’m homeless now, etc.” - if the $20 million is lock-solid guaranteed, then I lock-solid guarantee you could suddenly find someone to advance you credit for a lot of money for 6 months. Hell, I’d put up almost anyone on this board with free room and board for 6 months, in exchange for a measly $100,000 payable on that 6th month.
There’s always a way when there’s certainty. Certainty has an opportunity value to it; uncertainty has an opportunity cost.
Another vote for the 20, of course. Would also wait 6 months even if the larger payoff was 6 million or so. I’m young, it might end up mattering.
I’ve seen the “where can you get this return safely” question in a couple of threads now. At the moment, it’s not easy. The key is long term investing, especially long term bonds. You can’t buy a CD at 5% now, but you could have bought a 10 year CD at 6-7% 3 years ago. Or you could buy into a fund like this one: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0522&FundIntExt=INT#hist=tab%3A1
Very steady returns. Slower in the last year, but not nearly as volatile as stocks.
So, some money at 6-7% from a few years ago, some money now at 3% short term, some stocks…it isn’t rocket science if you have enough money to diversify and wait (which I don’t, but my parents do in their retirement accounts and i take notes ).
That reminds me of the Gregory Peck movie “The Million Pound Note” (and based on a Mark Twain short story) about a sailor who is given a £1,000,000 bank note to see if he can get what he needs just by flashing it around.
Those of you who are saying the twenty million dollars in six month is not a sure thing, should remember that nothing in life is a sure thing. Maybe there’s a crazed psychopath who’s just waiting for you to receive the money so he can kill you. But he’s going to be run over by a bus next month. So if you take the three million now, you die but if you wait six months, you’ll live.
Yes, but this is a hypothetical where the $20 Mil is a sure thing.
If this deal were coming at me in real life, I’d likely take the $3M and run - because I agree with you, nothing is a sure thing. Although I’d need more risk analysis run to make sure, more details. Who is giving me this money? How good are they for it? What do the contracts look like? Does the right pass to my heirs when I die? If my very good friend Bill Gates is making me this deal with iron clad contracts that pass to my heirs, I’d wait. If this is a fly by night deal with no contracts and money arriving in a suitcase, I’d take it now (or pass on it entirely as ‘what’s the catch and how long will I spend in prison. And do I have to wire money to Nigeria?’)
But in this case, I’d take the $20M because the terms of the exercise are its a sure thing.
I’ll wait for the $20M, thank you very much. It would take that long to set plans and systems in place to make sure it didn’t evaporate due to poor investments and the like. I would use the time wisely, so that the money stayed around for awhile, being useful. Hell, it would take that long just to stop having all the daydreams!
You’re fucking nuts! Take the three million dollars! Time is much, much more valuable than money, and once you have several multiple millions an extra 17 doesn’t matter.
If the offer was 3 billion dollars now, or 20 billion in 6 months, would that change your decision?
Are you really going to live better with 20 million dollars than you would with 3 million?
Yes, I would. Probably most people under a certain age/current wealth level would. 3 million is about as much as an upper middle class person would make in their working life and, in this case, you’re given the money up front so you get investment returns etc. So, technically, you could take that money and live a upper middle class lifestyle without ever working. Problem: even the upper middle class has to think about money, work within monetary constraints, and occasionally deal with major real estate, medical, or social expenses (think family needing help) that strain their budget. With 20 million dollars, you could conceivably never think about financial cost ever again. Seriously, the only thing i would actually want to do that could take a meaningful chunk of that money is run for public office.
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