At retirement age of 62, should my wife take a $190K lump sum payment or $1700 monthly payments for life?

You should be able to calculate your wife's life expectancy given that she is 62. I don't know if there are websites which include relevant information about her health that would give her a more accurate projection. Than use excel or a financial calculator to determine the net present value of a $1700 annuity payment out to her projected lifespan - is this figure higher or lower than the $190K. I'm not sure what interest rate would be appropriate for discounting the cash flow - above prime rate but below Fortune 500 equities last 10 years 6% or 8% is probably reasonable

OP,

(Nice handle by the way)

No one that I’ve seen on this thread has asked you this yet but, do you and your wife need the additional monthly payments to live off right now in addition to her other sources of income?

You mentioned that your wife is also collecting SS and disability and you also mentioned that you plan to continue working for quite some time at $150k a year. Can you and your wife minimally live comfortably off $150k a year plus SSDI with your mortgage and student loan debt?

If the answer is yes, my money is on rolling over her lump sum to an IRA and keep it invested to your risk tolerance so that it potentially grows at a much faster compounded annual rate than the 2-3% annuity payment option (if the pension even has a COLA adjustment).

That way if your wife (hopefully) lives a long life or even requires LTC at some point, you have another potential source of investment to draw from if she requires extended care for her health.

That’s just me. Like others have suggested, determine the exact annuity type (is it period certain?), but I would strongly encourage you to determine if you both actually need the monthly payments at this time.

99% of the people on here are wrong. Take the lump sum. Then INVEST it in the IRA. Conservatively, money doubles every 8 years.

Even if you have to nibble at the edges of this lump sum, you will still be better off.

the real question wrote:

99% of the people on here are wrong. Take the lump sum. Then INVEST it in the IRA. Conservatively, money doubles every 8 years.

Even if you have to nibble at the edges of this lump sum, you will still be better off.

dude no.

1700 * 12 months= $20,400

Lump sum: $190,000

20,400/190,000 = 10.7% payout.

Without investment risk. But with inflation risk, sure.

Presumably for the rest of her life.

No stock and bond portfolio will return that much safely.

A 4% payout is industry standard from a regular portfolio.

That's why I think OP is not giving us a true picture. No annuity I've ever heard of recently pays 10.7%.

The monthly payments are great deal, although there are many other concerns, which I have laid out in previous posts.

1700/month