The only reason I may take the lump sum is to invest it in my own way. I think the annuity appeals to me more too.

Personally, though. the first two calls I would make would be to a lawyer and an accountant, and I would probably follow their advice on everything.

Jack Slater wrote:

I would take the lump sum and buy useful things with it. Anyway, it would be damn hard for any normal person to blow through that much money, even over their entire lifetime. Think about buying every thing you could ever possibly want. I would wager that everything wouldn't add up to more than 10-20 million.

There are countless stories of people who have lost multi-million jackpots over a few years. A lot of them lose it to expenses that aren't obvious right away - your multi-million dollar home is gonna have one hell of a property tax bill, for one, and probably require tons of money in upkeep. Also, everyone and their brother comes out of the woodwork asking you for money...you can lose a fuckton when investments go bad and you're on the hook for everything because you agreed to be a partner in your idiot cousin's harebrained venture that seemed like a good idea at the time.

A lot of it stems from the fact it's not earned money. People who earned 100 million the hard way have a sense of how to hold on to it and spend it wisely. People who have it dumped in their lap are usually people who may not have ever had more than $5,000 bucks in a bank account in their lives, so they have no idea what to do with it, and don't realize how quickly it can be pissed away.

username wrote:

Jack Slater wrote: I would take the lump sum and buy useful things with it. Anyway, it would be damn hard for any normal person to blow through that much money, even over their entire lifetime. Think about buying every thing you could ever possibly want. I would wager that everything wouldn't add up to more than 10-20 million. you never saw Brewsters Millions?

That's a different story, actually. His challenge was to waste 30 million dollars. It's surprisingly easy to spend 30 million in a month, it's another thing entirely to do it and end up with nothing to show for it.

He was able to gamble away 5% and give 5% away to charity. He was not allowed to destroy anything and he was not allowed to give anything away. He had to be dead broke by the end of the month, no assets at all, not even a house or car. And he wasn't allowed to tell anybody why he was doing it.

He did some clever stuff. My favorite is he bought a hugely expensive collector stamp (one of those upside down planes, I think), and used it to mail a letter to the lawyer assholes who got the entire estate if he failed. Though I think that might fall under "destruction of property". But, hey, it's a movie.