The lump sum is not a bonus, but it feels like a bonus.

I think many people end up taking buyout offers quickly because $100,000 (or some other lump-sum payment) can seem like a great deal of money, only to end up realizing after the fact that it wasn't enough to justify leaving. People need to avoid the wide-eyed feeling of I'm winning the lottery and make sure they think about if I am 50 I still got decades ahead of me.

It's the one time of year that people have a lump sum, a bunch of extra cash they can spend on that big-ticket item.

If you are stepping down a tax bracket when you retire, then making single lump sum payments into your pension really can be money for nothing.

It's not a zero-sum game.

It's not a zero sum game.