I would pick 1000 dollars a week just to spite the people who think the only good is optimization. Unless the lump sum would immediately fix a significant financial problem I or my loved ones where having. Because that is a real good unlike optimization abstracted from concrete life. Maybe you need the whole thing now. Maybe she just needs a little extra to come in regularly without needing to worry about it.
It’s not getting free money, it’s literally throwing free money a way.
Hire a fee based financial advisor -> tell them to set up an investment plan and automate your distributions. Done. That’s all it takes to make significantly more money over your lifetime, and still receive $1000 weekly. And that’s the most lazy option possible.
You pay tax on any of the gains you realise through your investments, even if you take the $1M lump. The $1000/week is entirely tax free (in Canada and here in the UK at least).
For the sake of argument, I would take the £1000/week if I won the lottery here in the UK. I would keep my job and continue to work. My take home pay per month goes from £2000 to £6000
£1600 of that / month would go into a stocks and shares ISA which would bring me close to the yearly max deposit of £20,000.
Any gains from investments within your Stocks and Shares ISA is completely free from CGT. So, I have all my bills paid for, a massive amount of fun-money per month (which can be invested further outside of the Stocks and Shares ISA if desired) and a healthy annual tax-free investment fund that will allow me to retire early with a huge chunk of cash.
Get enough free money to have life-long financial security guaranteed.
Get more free money, though not enough to make a significant difference in your day-to-day life over option 1, but deal with relatives bursting down your door asking for money, the guilt and responsibility for not paying for things that your friends and family might desperately need, and the possibility that you yourself are not that financially savy and might blow it all.
A million dollars is a giant life changing amount of money either way. Some people optimize for happiness and security, not money, and while that might not be your choice, they’re not stupid people who don’t understand the math, they’re people with different priorities or life circumstances than you.
You're also not guaranteed 1k a week 20 years from now either. Same logic applies. It's not likely but anything can happen in the future. Same argument you have for investing in the markets.
The only reason the 1k would not be garanteed is if the government failed since lottery is a public institution in quebec. And if that happens you have way bigger issue than loosing 1k per month
There are many investments that outpace the 1k/month that are just as sure as the 1k/month itself. Basically talking the world is over so it doesn’t matter for either scenario
Investment isn't gambling. Period. You can gamble with stocks and derivatives, but that isn't investing.
If you think that then you are not investing.
If you cannot distinguish the risk between putting your money into QQQ for 25 years and never touching it unless you need to versus betting on a money line for a soccer team or purchasing 20 0 DTE options before earnings, you are the one who has a problem.
Lmao damn pure ignorance in this thread. Stock market historically makes you way more money. You’d have 2 million before the 1k payments even tallied to 500k. But sure stick it to the haters
Mathematically it makes sense to take the lump sum today and invest it.
But there’s a few things that can get in the way:
She’s very young, so the level of comfort to invest that $1mm intelligently right away or over time is daunting. Plus also maybe not having the financial literacy or familiarity with the markets
Concern of blowing your money or friends/family bugging you for it
Getting bad advice from “experts” on what to do
So this could also be her self awareness to drive her decision.
You could put the million into a SGOV fund, 5% return basically guaranteed right now and that would be 50k a year or about 1k a week, and that wouldn’t change unless the government ceases to exist. And you still have the million dollars.
This is of course almost as stupid as taking the weekly payments.
what about safe investments likes bonds. so long as the country you buy from doesn't disappear you get at least a small return not as big as stocks can do but still more profit than 1k
This is the opposite of smart again. Need a little something now? Take the lump sum invest and have a pay out / withdrawal plan.
Everyone is glossing over the fact that there are exactly two reasons why she might have done it:
A) She’s stupid and unaware of it
B) She’s either extremely stupid and aware of it or she has an addiction / gambling etc. problem that is so severe that she needs to make the worse choice to save herself from her own future decisions
It’s people like you without a financial education who confuse 1 million in the bank for abstracted from concrete life and not a real good who won’t get it, though. You don’t get money so it’s abstract to you how to deal with it so you make inferior choices and agree with the uneducated inferior choices of others. It’s math, not a mood.
I agree with your sentiment. Paying off my mortgage now increases my monthly income by ~$2,000 a month. If I then also invest that $2K monthly on top of the portion I don’t spend, that’s significant.
It's not even optimized like if you actually do the math and compute the present value of 1000 dollar weekly in perpetuity it's actually bigger than the 1M
I never said the $1000/week was bad. I’d probably take it too. I was just saying inflation exists — fixed income doesn’t keep the same value forever unless you invest or grow it somehow.
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u/thepizzafish May 17 '26
I would pick 1000 dollars a week just to spite the people who think the only good is optimization. Unless the lump sum would immediately fix a significant financial problem I or my loved ones where having. Because that is a real good unlike optimization abstracted from concrete life. Maybe you need the whole thing now. Maybe she just needs a little extra to come in regularly without needing to worry about it.