[elated to Solved Problem 8A.1 on page 311] Before the start of the 2000 baseball season, the New York Mets decided they didn’t want Bobby Bonilla playing for them any longer. But Bonilla had a contract with the Mets for the 2000 season that would have obliged the Mets to pay him $5.9 million. When the Mets released Bonilla, he agreed to take the following payments in lieu of the

$5.9 million the Mets would have paid him in the year 2000: He would receive 25 equal payments of

$1,193,248.20 each July 1 from 2011 to 2035. If you were Bobby Bonilla, which would you rather have had, the lump-sum $5.9 million in 2000 or the 25 payments beginning in 2011? Explain the basis for your decision.

Source: Mike Sielski, “There’s No Accounting for This,” Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2010.