When I first heard this story, I thought the guy was crazy for taking the $800k payout (before taxes), rather than the $50k over 30 years, pretaxed. But then I started to think about it. Their payout is ~$575k after taxes. If I were given a check for $575k, I could pay off my house, both of my trucks, buy new trucks (paid in full with cash), pay off all of my other debts, fix my house up a bit, and still put $200-300k into investments.
We’d still work. But that’s ok. We’re still watching the youngest grow, and wouldn’t be ready for ‘retirement’ until he’s close to high school graduation. But, with all of our debts paid off, we could easily stick one of our paychecks in a high-yield savings account and live off of just one paycheck. Even with only one paycheck, we’d have more spending money than we do now with all of our monthly bills and debts. We’re not extravagant.
This would make one HELL of a retirement fund in just a few years.
*sigh*
Of course, I don’t even buy lottery tickets, so I don’t know why I bother fantasizing about winning the lotto. Guess its just nice to dream.