It’s Bobby Bonilla Day And You, Too, Could Get A Paycheck For Decades

If you feel the same as an estimated half of Americans — that you’re behind on your retirement savings — try not to be jealous today. It’s Bobby Bonilla Day, also known as July 1. Today, retired New York Mets baseball player Bobby Bonilla gets paid his annual deferred compensation: $1,193,248.20. 

But don’t let envy stop you from getting some green of your own. This yearly sports holiday of sorts could inspire you to create a similar, though modest, income stream with an annuity, CD or other low-risk investments.

How (and why) Bobby Bonilla gets paid every year

Bonilla’s compensation deal was signed in 2000, when the Mets had $5.9 million left in his previously inked contract. Payments started in 2011 and will continue through 2035. 

Nearly $30 million over 25 years in exchange for one $5.9 million paycheck may seem like a rotten deal for the Mets. But the team made its calculation using the time value of money.

Here’s the logic behind the math.

• A dollar in 2000 could be expected to be worth more than a dollar earned later on (and so far that’s certainly true) because of inflation.
• Yet beyond that, the Mets agreed to an 8 percent interest rate on Bonilla’s deferred income because the team’s owners, Fred Wilpon, expected to earn 12 percent or more on that same cash by investing it with a then-renowned investor named … Bernie Madoff. He, of course, was later revealed as the architect of history’s largest Ponzi scheme.

Nonqualified deferred compensation plans: not just for Bonilla

Bonilla’s situation isn’t as unique as you may think. Prior to its deal with Bonilla, the Mets agreed to defer part of pitcher Bret Saberhagen’s compensation in 1993. The franchise continues to pay Saberhagen $250,000 each year, and his final payment will be made in 2029.

And the Mets aren’t the only team planning to fund players’ lifestyles after they’ve exited the field. Baseball all-star Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers inked a $700 million contract in 2024, with $680 million of that compensation to be paid out over a decade starting in 2034.

You don’t have to be an athlete to hit a nonqualified deferred compensation home run. Employees, particularly highly paid corporate executives, may agree to a nonqualified deferred compensation plan to help delay part of their income tax bill.

3 investments that can pay you like Bobby Bonilla

While you might not get an all-star compensation package anytime soon, there are ways to generate reliable Bonilla-style payments (albeit smaller) from your investment portfolio.

1. Annuities

Granted, you’re not going to find an annuity that would pay $100,000 a month, which is about what Bobby Bonilla makes from the Mets. Still, annuities — sometimes marketed as a “paycheck replacement” — offer regular income in retirement. Sold by an insurance company,  you pay into an annuity all at once or by installment, then you receive payments within the first year or in the future.

Fixed annuities offer a minimum rate of return on your investment, while variable and indexed annuities don’t hold such a guarantee. But either way, annuities are designed to give policyholders a reliable income stream, usually paid out monthly. Annuities often provide tax benefits too, potentially giving you a relative edge compared to Bonilla’s income stream.

However, annuities can have considerable drawbacks. Insurance agents typically earn commissions for selling policies — a cost often borne by you as the policyholder. There are also fees if you want to surrender your annuity to get back part of what you paid into it. More complex annuities, like those that include riders and other benefits, are even more expensive.

2. CD ladders

Through a CD ladder, your cash could be used to generate regular income like Bonilla’s. Under this strategy, you would buy certificates of deposit (CDs) with staggered term lengths. As each CD matures (and pays out your guaranteed interest rate), you could open another long-term CD designed to mature after your existing CDs.

Some CD issuers let investors claim their interest early without incurring an early withdrawal penalty, since the principal would remain untouched. This could be another way to create a predictable cash flow similar to Bonilla’s paychecks.

So long as the issuing bank is covered by the FDIC (or NCUA, the equivalent deposit insurance for qualifying credit unions), CDs are nearly risk-free. Even if the issuing financial firm goes bankrupt, you’ll get your cash back, at least up to the legal minimum of $250,000 per depositor, per FDIC-insured bank, per ownership category. When Silicon Valley Bank failed, for example, CD holders nonetheless received their principal and interest as promised.

3. Retirement income funds

A retirement income fund, or RIF, is an investment vehicle that aims to give near or current retirees steadier returns while retaining (or possibly growing) the principal. Other names for RIFs are monthly income funds, income replacement funds and managed payout funds. RIFs attempt to generate conservative yields and can include a combination of equities, bonds and other assets. Although more conservative, you are exposed to market risk with a retirement income fund and there’s no guaranteed income.

Additionally, some RIFs combine annuities with traditional target-date funds — i.e., a type of mutual fund designed to gradually adjust its portfolio to more conservative holdings as investors get closer to retirement age.

Bottom line

Bonilla isn’t only getting baseball paychecks from the Mets. The Baltimore Orioles are dishing out half a million a year to the retired baseball star, too. In a way, this shows the beauty of diversifying your income. If you want to take that lesson to your finances, perhaps that means more than one of the above strategies could be worth pursuing.

Editorial Disclaimer: All investors are advised to conduct their own independent research into investment strategies before making an investment decision. In addition, investors are advised that past investment product performance is no guarantee of future price appreciation.