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Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

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Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#51

Post by koolba »

apparent wrote: post #11
zck wrote: post #10

> “I do not believe that financial insecurity should stop our nation’s elite athletes from breaking through to new frontiers of excellence,” Stevens said upon the announcement of his gift. So his goal is to prevent money issues from being a thing getting in the way of athletes achieving. But he has structured it in a way that prevents the money from helping this goal. > Per the Wall Street Journal, “Half will come 20…

It allows them to "income smooth". They will know they're getting $100k down the road, so they can count on having that money to use for their kids' college or part of their nest egg. In the meantime, they can spend more freely. As for the gift to their heirs, that also allows them to consume somewhat more freely, instead of purchasing (as much) life insurance. Most young people don't, but people who compete in dange…

$100K in 20 years is worth about $37K today (20 year STRIPS pay about 5%). Nobody is making long term or short term financial plans based on this. It’s just a nice bonus to honor dedication to a sport.

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#52

Post by hsbauauvhabzb »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #8
hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is the figure is after interest, that way because of compounding interest, 100k ~20 years after debut and another 100k which occurs let’s assume 50 years later on average would be substantially less than it sounds on paper. And for me at least, a smaller amount in my 20’s that I could use for a house deposit or similar would be worth farm more than 100k in my 40s and another 100k on my death This seems like…

> seems like some billionaire trying to inflate their donation amount My reading is Ross made a $100mm donation to the USOPC. > I’m sure some are just intentional land mines You’re sure based on zero evidence.

Weird aggresssion. You trust billionaires?

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#53

Post by godelski »

Kinda of a side note but a way I try to talk to people about how much a billion dollars is is "how many people can you hire each day at X dollars before you start losing money".

Here's the setup: you have a billion dollars invested in some account earning some interest, let's say 5% because that's like bond rates (lower than S&P500). Day 1 you generate interest and don't hire. All following weekdays you hire a new employee and day then daily at a yearly rate of Y, say $250k/yr. Most people are going to be surprised that you can basically go an entire year before your account has less than a billion dollars.

I do this because it's so much money the daily interest is not negligible. I mean 1000000000*0.05/365~=$137k. Is back of the envelope and estimating, but it gets the point across. (So you can hire people daily at $100k indefinitely...)

Anyways, googling suggests there's ~600 American Olympians that participated in 2024 and another ~250 paraolympians. So what, we need on the order of $10bn to solve this? I can think of a lot worse ways we currently spend that kind of money and about 15 Americans where this would be less than 10% their total wealth and 11 of those people made more than twice that just last year... I'm not saying anyone should but hey, Elon could solve issues like these without blinking an eye. Probably better PR than anything else he could do

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#54

Post by zck »

skylurk wrote: post #37
zck wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is your argument that, if she knew she was going to get $100,000 in 2010, she would have been number 1 in the world in doubles in 1990? That's how I understand the stated goal of this gift.

People absolutely do give up their athletic career to start a normal career for better financial security.

How many of these normal careers pay a single paycheck of $100k that can't be cashed for twenty years? That's what this offer is.

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#55

Post by nunez »

> Billionaire financier Ross Stevens is changing that. Starting with the upcoming Milan Cortina Olympics, he will give $200,000 to every U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athlete—even if they don’t win a medal. Per the Wall Street Journal, “Half will come 20 years after their first qualifying Olympic appearance or at age 45, whichever comes later. Another $100,000 will be in the form of a guaranteed benefit for their families after they pass away.”

> His entire donation to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), announced last March, is $100 million—a record breaking gift to the organization.

Just...lol.

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#56

Post by dataflow »

godelski wrote: post #53

Kinda of a side note but a way I try to talk to people about how much a billion dollars is is "how many people can you hire each day at X dollars before you start losing money". Here's the setup: you have a billion dollars invested in some account earning some interest, let's say 5% because that's like bond rates (lower than S&P500). Day 1 you generate interest and don't hire. All following weekdays you hire a new em…

You'd need to account for inflation right?

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#57

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

lmm wrote: post #49
zck wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think a 21-year old fencer will be more competitive because of this money? A 17-year old swimmer? A 16-year old gymnast?

If that money is what makes them feel comfortable e.g. dropping out of college to focus on their sport, absolutely.

Then they are likely fools in more than one way. They might be awesome athletes, and dropping out to pursue their sport might be absolutely the right thing for them to do. But a promise of $100k after age 45 is not the reason.

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#58

Post by readthenotes1 »

lmm wrote: post #49
zck wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think a 21-year old fencer will be more competitive because of this money? A 17-year old swimmer? A 16-year old gymnast?

If that money is what makes them feel comfortable e.g. dropping out of college to focus on their sport, absolutely.

Not in the amount promised unless they have non positive financial acumen

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#59

Post by lovich »

irishcoffee wrote: post #47
Carrok wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“You only get this money if you submit yourself to Christ and living a conservative lifestyle” Still not worth questioning?

That isn’t a donation. Also, $donator is making, as far as I know, zero demands. These people would be competing if they had to pay. Actually, most of them do have to pay. Your analogy is comparing apples-to-sqrt(-1)

If there are stipulations for receiving the money then it is a demand.

If you think the above example isn’t a donation then I don’t see the logic behind seeing this as a donation.

And to be clear, I view it as a donation that is still probably net good, but it’s not a selfless donation. The timeline as well also means it can be clawed back at some point in time.

I’d probably rate it a 2/10 for “goodness” where anything greater than 0 is still good.

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#60

Post by underwater »

godelski wrote: post #53

Kinda of a side note but a way I try to talk to people about how much a billion dollars is is "how many people can you hire each day at X dollars before you start losing money". Here's the setup: you have a billion dollars invested in some account earning some interest, let's say 5% because that's like bond rates (lower than S&P500). Day 1 you generate interest and don't hire. All following weekdays you hire a new em…

Your illustration is really long winded.

If you invested a billion dollars at a conservative 5% interest rate, you could employ 200 people at 250k a year on the interest alone.

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