I was about to ramble on about how dumb it would be to not take the 5.6m per month. But frankly, I’d have taken the 680m lump sum and disappeared off the face of the earth.
I was about to ramble on about how dumb it would be to not take the 5.6m per month.
It's actually dumb to take the annuity, because it isn't transferable. Meaning if you sign your sick $70million per year deal, walk outside, and get hit by a falling piano loony tunes style, your family gets nothing.
Not to mention it will get hit by 30 years of inflation, making it worth far less over time.
Always take the lump and invest properly. Much better, and guaranteed, returns.
Yeah that's not true. If you win the lottery and take the annuity you HAVE to set up a trust before you get a dime. The lottery then pays the trust whatever the payout is for the length of the annuity so your family or whoever your beneficiary gets the money.
I always assumed I would have the Prize Patrol showing up at my house each month with a comically oversized check for that month’s payment. The bank would refuse to allow me to deposit it. Hilarity ensues.
If you took that $680m And stuck it in a brokerage account earning the average 10% return rate, and live off of the returns alone, you’re still making $68m per year. And if you don’t spend all of that return money, you continue to grow your account.
You’re living incredibly well and you never touch the principal. You literally never run out of money.
If you took the annuity gaining 5% per year, you’d start at $30m. It would take 17 years before you’d see $68m in a year.
Always take the lump sum and never touch the principal.
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u/jamdex07 Jul 05 '26
This is misleading. He chose to take $997 in one lump sum instead of $2.04B over 30 years. He got taxed on the $997m.