you have to die before the age of 65 (if you get to 65, you die in whichever way you want i.e. death penalty, gunshot to the head, etc.)
or
2) nothing, and you live your life as is today.
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100M for me
$100M
Otherwise I’m scheduled to die at 117.
I think a countdown clock to the end of your life would basically feel like mental imprisonment. I don't need money that badly. What would I do with $100M? Buy a bigger house?
10 chicks at the same time every night?
$100M today and die at 65 for sure. I'd take that money, stick it in a 30 year treasury or some stable income vehicle and probably earn ~$1.5M per year for the rest of my shortened life. I'd then quit this stupid corporate grind, travel the world or do pretty much whatever the hell I wanted and then ask to die in my sleep.
Now obviously, it would suck to not spend as much time with any kids I have, but I think I could live with knowing that me dying early will allow them and any grandchildren I have, at minimum, to be financially stable for the rest of their lives if they have any ounce of fiscal responsibility. Not spending as much time w/ friends and family is the only downside to this scenario in my mind, but at the same time, I also could die tomorrow, so I'd certainly hedge my bets and live to 65. I'd be old and unable to do most of what I want anyway, I'd imagine, by that age, so I don't feel like I'd be missing out on THAT much either.
This would be a totally different story, btw, if the hypothetical were 45 or something like that.
Hopefully you won't be buying a single candy bar with that $1.5 million in 25 years with the way the Biden inflation is going.....
ZWD, my favorite currency!
Biden gonna Biden irrespective of what my net worth is though. I'd imagine with $1.5M a year, I'd be able to talk to people that would be able to hedge my portfolio against inflation, but even if it can't, Twix bars will now be a status symbol and I'll be able to buy at least 1/year till I die.
This was my initial thoughts, but given the second clause of the prompt
I believe that this means that 65 is a ceiling for your life expectancy, not a fixed life expectancy. With this interpretation you aren't hedging any bets by taking the money.
Fair enough, but if that's the ceiling and I were going to die at 45, for example, anyway, then why in the fuck would I not take $100M now and monumentally improve my life till then? The real question then is are you comfortable dying at 65, which, as I articulated in my post, I would be OK with because:
1. I'd allow my heirs to have fuck you money the day they're born so they won't have to deal with corporate bullshit to be financially secure like I do
2. IMO, my health/QOL will significantly decline by 65 anyway, so the incremental ~15ish years I'd have to live wouldn't be as valuable as the ones I'm enjoying now in my youth. In other words, I'm personally willing to trade those "less valuable" years of my life to maximize my best years, if that makes sense.
But the $100mm would allow you to be a stay at home father for their entire young lives. You may not have as many years with them but you will spend at least 10 fold the amount of quality time with them than if you were working 60 hours a week their whole childhood. You’d never miss a single moment
65 is too high of an age, I would take that easily. Make the hypothetical age like 45 and then it gets interesting.
+SB I agree with this. I'm guessing that most of WSO is American males - we'll be really lucky to make it to 65 regardless of anything else. So I'm taking the 100 milli; make it 55 and the whole equation changes.
US male life expectancy is is 75 years, down by one year since COVID, WSO demographic is educated and above average income which means they live a lot longer. Do you really think obesity/COVID variants/breathing polluted air is really going to get us to the point where the life expectancy is so low that we'd be lucky to make it to 65?
this is a correct response
2 easily, regardless of how high the number. Anyone who values money over actual life, aka time on this planet which you only get to do once and which is always depleting, is fucking retarded. Life is literally the point. Money is a concept that was created to have a functional society so we can exchange a unit of value for goods or services without chaos/anarchy. Besides that, beyond a certain number, the marginal utility of additional dollars becomes extremely low. $50MM vs, $100MM -- what are you going to do, upgrade your 10k sq. ft mansion to 30k sq. ft? Buy a 4th home vs settling for 3? Definitely not worth a 20+ year life haircut.
That's easy to say when ur living comfortably right now with your income. What if you were struggling and unemployed?
Then I'd be enjoying my life on unemployment like many in the country who no longer even care to look for work
I enjoyed your post but I think that you are woefully underestimating what it means to get old in this country. If you're going to have any sort of meaningful life in your old age, you are going to need (1) lots of money and (2) lots of luck. The money is obvious - if its not, go talk to someone that lives on social security. The luck part will mostly be about your health. If you don't believe that, go and talk to an elder care lawyer and ask them how many millionaires they've seen go broke due to health issues (them or spouse). That number will shock you.
If you are missing either of those two elements, then your QOL in old age will suffer greatly and that's really what it all comes down to right? What good is a nice view of a golf course if you don't have the legs and/or lungs to play on said course? What good is the travel brochures if you can't actually travel? So, yes, life is precious, but I think you aren't considering the amount of luck that you will need to make sure that your standard of living now is the same 20 years from now. Most people don't realize that fact until it's way, way too late.
Easy to say when you think you've still got a lot of time left on the clock. Get back to me on this trade when you're 64 y/o with $80MM+ left on the books and we'll see what your choice will be then. Spoken like someone who thinks their time will never run out, or flat out doesn't value life.
you literally spend your life to make money though
You're still living though.
At the rate I'm going with finance, I'll be dead before 65 for a lot less than $100 million....
Option 1
I will elaborate on option 1: Most people are just pawns in the system for most of their lives. The system needs you to be productive for the system to continue thriving. You are exposing yourself as having a slave mentality if you choose option 2. You would seriously rather live as a slave for the rest of your youthful life rather than living a life of paradise. You could literally do anything that you want with $100 MM, meet anyone you want, live a 100x more fulfilled life, but you would rather live for an extra what, 20 years? when you are old as shit and can't do so much anyway. I'm going with option 1 all day. Maybe if it was 45 it would be an actual challenge to answer this question.
I would personally take option 2, but ask this question to a group of non-bankers / PE employees (i.e. people not making 3-4x national average salary at 22) and you'd be shocked at how many people pick #1.
I'm guessing that most members on this board are on the younger side. Go ask Henry Kravis if he would trade away the billions he has right now for another 10 years of life, I'm guessing there's a solid chance he'll go for it.
Not 100% though, because that guy really enjoys the good life. Even if he looks like you ran Mr. Wonderful through the washer and dryer one too many times
Why is your preferred way to go the death penalty
bc it's painless i think
My life is priceless
If we assume someone works 50H / week with 4w vacation per year for 40 years (pretty conservative estimate in finance). That would be a little under 11y spent at work.
So you either live 65 years at the fullest or 85 - 11 = 74y with a small probability of making it.
It seems like a no-brainer to me => 65 + 100M
100 million easy.
My family / kids / grandkids would have generational wealth.
One life does not a family make.
100 million and then cocaine overdose with 3 Russian escorts. sounds good to me
The way to think about this is how much of your normal life is spent on happy moments and fulfilling things like travel, being with friends, etc. Those are the moments you’re actually living imo (unless you have some very fueling job). Better put- time you own.
Not having to work because you have 100m actually increases this “happy time” by a factor of like 10 i’d guesss. You actually are living longer in happy years….
This is a good point ngl curious to hear if any rebuttal out there even to this harsh reality
These "happy moments" are in contrast to your mundane daily life. I think that over a certain point of lavish vacations, nice hotels / meals / etc... you'll eventually get bored and try to find something more fulfilling.
$100M, most likely.
If I worked 40 hours a week (lol) for 50 weeks a year (lol) for the next 40 years of my life (until 65), that’s 80,000 additional daytime hours I have to myself. That’s the equivalent of another decade and a half of life, putting my “effective” life expectancy in my late 70s, comparable with your average American, except that I get those extra years when I’m young and fit enough to enjoy them instead of when every round of golf might send me to the hospital. Plus, I will never again need to worry about money - I may not be Bezos/Musk rich, but I’ll still be wealthier than the vast majority of people who have successful careers in finance, let alone the average person in the world.
Every hobby, every passion, every desire that I’m now free to pursue is another lifetime I add. If you marry, now you can travel and romance for the next few decades instead of when you’re old and tired. If you want kids, now you can catch every soccer game, every play, whatever while they grow up instead of when they’re on their own and independent.
There’s more to life than money, yes, but money enables you to experience those things. I would be very open to trading the last decade or two for unbridled freedom over the next 4.
nobody yet pointed out that even if you choose option 2, there is a significant probability of dying before 65. how much do you think people live? people die in their 40s and 50s and especially 60s very often. and even if you live to be 80 something, what quality of life do you expect in your 70s and 80s?
people on this forum scarifice their 10s, 20s, and 30s to make $10M. and your question offers to sacrifice 70s and 80s (which might not even happen) for $100M.
"die whichever way you want" and you say death penalty or gunshot. LMAO, can't be more American.
Guess I'm the only one who prefers to die peacefully at home, in my sleep.
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