Here are my thoughts on this question https://twitter.com/stealthy_wealth/status/1272463327927697408

If there were no inflation and no investing (i.e. you just wanna spend the cash, and R15k keeps it's buying power), this is a pretty simply play.

At what point does R15k/month become more than the R2 Million?

11y2m.

If you gonna live longer than that, take the R15k/month

In the real world, there is inflation though.

At 5% inflation, the buying power of the R15k/month decreases with each passing year.

By the 15th year, that R15,000 gets you only half the stuff it used to. And after 20 years you can only get what R6,000 buys you today

Things get interesting when you throw some investing into the mix. Let's check how an investment of R15k/month compares to an upfront investment of R2Mil over time for various investment returns.

At low investment returns (say from cash which is normally around equal to inflation say ~5%) the R15k/month catches up and passes the R2 Million upfront investment in around 16 years.

Venturing into something more risky (say a mix of bonds at around inflation+3 = 8%). It now takes 25 years before the R15k/month investment catches up.

And if you can get double digit returns (say from a balanced portfolio of inflation+5=10%), the R15k/month won't ever catch the R2Mil upfront investment.

But of course now there's some risk - that 12% may not materialize and you could end up with much lower returns...

BTW the above investment outcome is the same as living off a guaranteed R15k/month vs generating R15k/month from investments.

In the above, when R15k/month passes R2Mil upfront, it means if you were living off the R2Mil investment drawing 15k/month you would've run out of money!

So to summarise:

If you expect low inflation, and you are risk adverse - R15k/month probably works best

If you expect current inflation to remain as it is now, or increase, and don't mind some risk, the R2 Million has your name on it.

For me personally, I would put myself into the second category.

Give me the R2 Million!

Thanks to everyone who commented and shared the post!

I never got the time to respond to you all, but it made for some great reading!

Please send me your banking details so I can arrange for the R2Mil or R15k/month payment as you requested