£500 today or £1,000 in two years? 27 January 2011 at 5:17PM edited 27 January 2011 at 5:31PM in Martin's blogs & appearances & MoneySavingExpert in the news 60 replies 5.7K views

Former_MSE_Helen

This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.

Read Martin's "£500 today or £1,000 in two years?" Blog.

Please click 'post reply' to discuss below.

Lokolo

Wow I am surprised that so many people chose £500 now!

£1k in 2 years for me please!

weebrian1

It's a no brainer. Got to be the £1000

Gordon_the_Moron

Unless you desperately need the money its a no brainer to wait, surprised at the results.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

I'm amazed at the number who would take £500 now. Things are fairly tight for me at times but I could manage to wait a couple of years to double the money.
Mind you, if I had somewhere free and legal to store it, buying £500 worth of diesel with the money now could be better than waiting two years for a grand.

Seriously though, I can see situations where £500 now would be better - though not in mid range financial terms e.g. if unable to pay the rent/mortgage this month and £500 would plug the gap.

charlie792

In all honesty Id take the £500 today - I think with the likes of Matched Betting you could very easily double your money within a year - let alone 2 years.
Im certainly no expert on MB but even I managed to make myself over £100 in about 2 months and that was with very little time spent on it - £500 in a year is incredibly realistic in the great scheme of things....

misskaytee

£500 today and would also take the £5000 today over the £1000 or £10,000 in two years.

£500 isn't a massive amount of money and using my savvy i know i could double that within a year.

The £5,000 over £10,000 took a little longer to decide, but i'd still rather have it now.

It really does depend on circumstances, some people are already sat on £1000s so having more wouldn't really matter that much to them, but others struggle from one payday to the next and are dragged down in debt.

snowqueen555

I would take the £500 now, not worth waiting for £500 more. The problem is that £500 is more useful now than £1000 will be in two years time.

and the £10000 in two years time. I would not spend £5k I'd probably lock it away for two years, n that case just wait two years and get the 10k

kezbabybabe

And what if I’d asked about £5,000 and £10,000 rather than £500 and £1,000, would that change things?

Sorry Martin, my response would still be the same, I would take the £5000.

ViolaLass

I'm not in debt but I am nervous about my financial position so I'd take £500. If you'd asked me at any other time in my life than in the last four months, I would have said £1k. I know logically that I am unlikely to fail in my current enterprise for want of £500 but that's what nerves does for you.

misskaytee

Also the timing of this post my affect peoples responses, just after christmas and still waiting on jans payday!!