Would you trade 2 years of your life for $1,000,000 in cash?

Say the devil gave you the option of sacrificing two years of your life for a million bucks (tomorrow you wake up 2 years older and with a lotto ticket in your hand that ends up being worth $1 M after taxes) - would you take it?

I think it'd be very tempting. $1 M now would compound to around $7 M after 30 years at a real interest rate of 7%, so I could probably retire a good 5-10 years earlier. But on my death bed, I'd sure as hell be willing to give up any amount of money in the world to live for another two years.

 
ihavetoomuchmoney:
manbearpig:
Thousands of people sign up for this deal year after year for a lot less than 1M. It's called IBD.
IB is not equivalent to giving up two years of your life. you don't enter ib and suddenly wake up 2 years older. there are a lot of down times but many good times as well.

You're right. in IBD you don't sleep for two years, and by the end of it you physically aged 5.

 
UFOinsider:
I know people that joined the army for the $10,000 bonus

stupid question

Yes, I would.

Well people who joined the army aren't really people, they're just soldiers. Their lives are obviously worth less.

 

I have at one point actually been very close to death I would say that after being in that position you would give all the money world to live even just a few more days with the people you love.

 
Freshcut:
I have at one point actually been very close to death I would say that after being in that position you would give all the money world to live even just a few more days with the people you love.
Really good point.
Get busy living
 

Id do living 2 years less for a m now, so dying at 75 instead of 77.

giving up 2 years right now for a m, not so much.

for 5m wed be talking but a m is nowhere near enough to compensate for 2 years being gone without any other benefit.

IBD might be a shitty 2 years but u still get compensated alot more than a m in future earning potential and skills you acquire.

 

I would compare this to taking a job that paid $500k/year for two years knowing that you would not be allowed to leave the office or develop any personal relationships. It would effectively be like missing two years of your life. Now think about what the all-in comp is for analysts and I think you'll figure out how many people would say yes to this. Before you try to say that being an analyst opens doors to make even more in the long run, so does $1m. This is an easy answer. For those of you saying you would pay anything to get back two years on your deathbed, you'll be able to retire at least two years earlier and enjoy more time with them than you would have if you were still working.

 

Heres the real question, would you know you are two years older? If I wasnt aware that I was actually two years older I would do it. Its the easiest million you will ever make for fucks sake.

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 

lol WSO probably not the best place to ask this question. you are basically describing everyone on this board except we are doing it for less $

I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.
 
Best Response

actually not a bad trade if you think about it -

you dont really know how long you are going to live (62, 75, 84, 92?) and so the expected utility from those distant years is pretty low because of the high uncertainty.

Therefore, lopping 2 years off your life expectancy probably wont move the needle too much in terms of lifetime expected utility, and the increase in MU from an additional $1,000,000 might well out weigh the loss of expected MU of the last two years of life.

Another way to approach

Would you pay $1,000,000 in cash to extend your life by two years? if you would, then the MU of those two years is >$1,000,000 so you wouldnt take the $$$. if you wouldnt pay the million then you should be willing to accept $1,000,000 for two fewer years of life. [slightly off in terms of discounting but a good approximation in terms of original problem]

Economics is great...you can use it to justify anything!

 
deal_mkr:
actually not a bad trade if you think about it -

you dont really know how long you are going to live (62, 75, 84, 92?) and so the expected utility from those distant years is pretty low because of the high uncertainty.

Therefore, lopping 2 years off your life expectancy probably wont move the needle too much in terms of lifetime expected utility, and the increase in MU from an additional $1,000,000 might well out weigh the loss of expected MU of the last two years of life.

Another way to approach

Would you pay $1,000,000 in cash to extend your life by two years? if you would, then the MU of those two years is >$1,000,000 so you wouldnt take the $$$. if you wouldnt pay the million then you should be willing to accept $1,000,000 for two fewer years of life. [slightly off in terms of discounting but a good approximation in terms of original problem]

Economics is great...you can use it to justify anything!

Well after I've made my millions, I would be willing to spend the remainder of all my assets to live another two years, will is likely to have a future value of over a million dollars. But regardless, you can't consider two years of youth equal to two years of old age. They are simply different goods.

 

Look at it this way, you give up 2 years of your life now and get a million bucks in return. You then spend that million bucks over the next two years partying your ass off and you will easily recapture those two years and most likely 4 or 5 more years worth of life experiences in those two years. So 2 years of life experiences is less then the possibility of 7 years worth of life experiences. Therefore you take the million dollars and you go balls to the wall for 2 years after.

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 

I would take it in a heartbeat.

And to those who think that you'd be less willing to take it now than at 75, I think you are seriously mistaken. I think at 75 you would give a shit less about money and (if you lived well) would basically want to cherish the rest of your time on earth. At 24, time is ample, money is not.

looking for that pick-me-up to power through an all-nighter?
 

You mean the Devil is now accepting two years as payment for a million? WTF!? I gave him my soul in '06 for a million (interest rates were attractive at the time). Soooooooooooo mad right now...

"Cut the burger into thirds, place it on the fries, roll one up homey..." - Epic Meal Time
 

it is not just ANY 2 years of your life, it's two years right after college. starting in banking makes the transition from college even more brutal in some ways in my opinion. my buddies in marketing engineering etc. are still able to hang out with college friends, hit up house parties etc. they can take a day off here and there if there is something going on, and can at least plan shit for the weekend. in banking you can't do any of that.

i kind of feeling like i am losing touch with so many of my college friends, and feel kind of left out. so these 2 years of slavery when you are 22 right out of college are pretty brutal.

 

Million isn't worth much to financial professionals that are already pulling in a lot of money or expect to in the near future. Outside of the world of the "elite," I think you would be hard-pressed to find people who wouldn't accept the trade. There are so many people out there that struggle to save even a few thousand dollars a year, let alone a million. Many of them have their lives dictated by money and two years would be a small price to pay for decades of financial stability.

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 

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"If Henry Ford had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." -Steve Jobs
 

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