The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Strange out of the blue scenario...

The choice is...
1.) Take a job,with the opportunity to make 1 million dollars in 2014 (working from January through December).The job is your to keep,if you can handle it...

 Clarification- It's not a Porn Job, Photo shoot naked,a job in your current field (or a field of interest to you),just ramped up to make it worth paying you the high salary.It's not your current job paying you 1 mil dollar salary,it's like your bosses,boss type stress,long hours,etc,etc.You still have have to pay all your normal income taxes,SSI,Federal,and state or local taxes...

2.) A check of 1 million dollars will be paid to you on Jan 1 2017...you still have to pay all the taxes on the money...

Do you take the Job, or wait out the money?

I guess I'm a bit confused.  Am I to assume that I get paid 0 until January 2017?  Or do I keep working as current?  And is the 2017 payment a one-time payment?  And what do I have to do for the 1 time payment?

Yep, you live your life just as normal,but you have to wait 3 years to get the 1 million dollar check...1 time payment...

I hear you asking if I would rather work to earn something now or be given it free in 3.5 years.  I would wait 3.5 years to be given it free.

If I had to crank up my current work by 8x in order to earn this, it would probably result in me getting a divorced and definitely being absent for my children.  Aren't they who I really work for anyway?  What would be the point? 

Free is for me.

So basically, I can quit my current job for a year-long extremely stressful job (after which I will be unemployed?), or I can wait 3 years and get a million dollars for free?

I feel like the punchline is missing.

I think you missed read that portion (unless you are admitting you would have no plans of keeping the job).

I would really have to judge the hours/ stress thing accurately. I am all for giving some extra time on ocassion but there are many people who just put too much time at work and put that on themselves. The additional work hours actually cut your level of performance. If I stayed in my current job and just switched into the role of boss, I think I may actually take the job. I enjoy it and I know my boss takes a few vacations a year so while she works hard, she doesn't kill herself in order to do so.

Its:

a) work a stressful job for a million a year for as long as you want starting today

or

b) work your current job for your current salary and get a one-time payment of 1 million in 3 years.

I don't know why anyone wouldn't choose B.  There's no repercussions.

Tough question.

I think I'd wait and take the money later.  My parents are older and they live right across the street.  If I had big money now, I'd be tempted to move into a house or something, which would take me away from them and I'd see them less.

I'd also like to force myself to live small for a few years, knowing that help was on the way.

To Brian's questions...
Opportunity to make more than 1 million dollars.You're not going to be able to spend that 1 million dollars for 3 yrs,so time.....

How important is the money,as Beefstewart mentioned...You're going to sacrifice a lot for that opportunity.

My take...
I joked, I could wait out the 3 years,but I'd stress myself out thinking about it......I would be more than happy with $150,000 to $200,000 (buy a couple newer used vehicles,and a house,hopefully have a little emergency money, I'd be tickled pink)...I'd try to see if I could make it 3-4 Months.I don't like the field I'm in,I think I could find a way to make it work for a few months....My initial instincts are to work for every dollar,earn everything I get...

Never mind I asked...

The time value of money, Brian.  If you have a mil to spend now, you can earn Interest on that that that probably equates to around $50,000.

Fine, but you might die of a heart attack in the next three years after working 90 hours per week for the next 170+ weeks.

There is no option to get the million now without the job.

I compartmentalize work stress extremely well. If I had a good chance of continuing that million-a-year job, I'd take the job. To me, the equation becomes "Relax, and get $1 million three years from now," or "Work hard, deal with the stress and potentially make $1 million every year for the next three years."

I'll take the job...stress be damned.

^ You may.  I am not saying it's the better choice.  I was just disputing that there was no upside to taking the money immediately.

^^^ There is no option where you get the money immediately as I understand it. Taking the job meant paychecks totally $1M. The free option meant waiting years for it.

That's not what I said.  I said there's no DOWNSIDE to waiting 3 years and taking the payment, except that you have to wait three years.  Like if someone told me "you're going to win the lottery in three years" why would I say "no thanks?"  Just because I'd rather win it today?  With the other scenario, the downside is another 10 years of stressful living, no free time, no family time, live to work until you save enough to retire.

Not sure how you got the "ten years" into the equation, because it was originally one year of the stressful job for paychecks equaling one million bucks...and the chance to keep the job. That would mean a million per year, as long as you can hack it. If I'm planning a family, I take the job, bust my ass for 5-6 years, and set my family up to be comfortable the rest of our lives.

10 years comes from my perception that 5-6 million (minus living expenses during those 5-6 years) isn't enough to retire in today's market, and live another 30 years on it.  So I went with 10 years, expecting that I take home about 700k after taxes and I give myself 100k in living costs to support my family for a year.  So I get about 600k x 10 years = $6 million in savings. Even that might not be enough...

If I'm going to do this, I want to never have to work again.

^^^ using your current example (I think $100K a year is overestimated because you expect at some point you are going to drop your home and car payments but let's stay there). $600K for 6 years is $3.6M. If you divide that by your 30 year life expectancy and you get $120K which is still $20K over your annual estimation (which I for one think is high). You also have to account for the fact that this money isn't just sitting dormant, you would expect some sort of return but if we do that, we also have to expect the possibility of loss due to bad investment.

Right.  There is a downside called opportunity cost.  It's not just that you have to wait to spend it, it's that you are foregoing its potential earning power.  $1 now has more value than $1 in 3.5 years.

I understand what opportunity cost is, Dave, but you're misinterpreting my statement.

There's nothing bad about getting a million dollars.  Regardless of when.

The other scenario requires you to basically give the next year of your life away to get the same million dollars.

When comparing the two scenarios, you may say that a year of your life is worth the opportunity cost.

However, consider the first statement on its own, and tell me what's bad about getting a million dollars for free without consequence.  If your statement is that you have to wait for it, then I say you are being too fickle.  If you give me 800k 3 years from now, there's still no repercussions.  You don't have to sacrifice/give away anything for it.

Nah.  Give me the million dollar a year job.