Game Theory: How to WIN the Mr Beast $100,000 Challenge! - YouTube

MR BEAST: Alright guys, I have $100,000 here

They're gonna have one hour to spend it.

You have one hour to spend it, it's a hundred grand, go! MATPAT: Oh my gosh

Uh, thank you! This is-this is so much money!

I-I don't know what to do with it...

I-I-I got to make sure that I spend it smartly, right? I don't want to waste a penny of this.

What should I buy? Should I buy a...

Computer? Should I buy an iPhone?

Should I buy a Lambo? Can I buy a Lambo?

I should look up whether I can buy a Lambo.

*gasp*

I COULD BUY SO MUCH DIET COKE!

Let's see. We got fifty dollars for food and expenses.

We've got twenty for an additional tip.

We can even give a little bit more for a tip to incentivize people.

Twenty-five dollars for the cab to get there.

Carry the one which happens about-

MR BEAST: TIMES UP!

MATPAT: What, no?!

No, it can't be, I haven't even gotten to sales tax yet!

*The most awesome theme song ever plays*

Hello Internet! Welcome to Game Theory,

where we aren't afraid to make it rain.

One dollar bills, apparently since that's all we can afford.

Oh, and apparently a five Euro,

because we're internationally friendly.

And speaking of money, today

we're covering a different sort of game.

Now, you may know Mr. Beast

as someone who really, really

REALLY wants you to subscribe to PewDiePie and isn't afraid to plaster that message on

billboards, buses or, heck, in the middle of the Super Bowl.

Now, if you're not familiar with his work, a quick crash course in his

content includes videos of him trying to complete mundane tasks,

like trying to keep a fidget spinner going for twenty-four consecutive

hours, or watching paint dry, to outlandish stunts

like trying to catch a bullet in midair with magnets

(I got a knocking on that one, buddy

that one was a little bit click-baity)

and filling a house with 10,000,000 legos.

Or, if you're me, you might know him as the Youtuber your wife keeps reminding you is from North Carolina,

since that's the state she's from.

STEPH: Oh my gosh, do you know that Mr. Beast is from North Carolina?

MATPAT: Wait, really?

STEPH: YAAS!

MATPAT: That's so cool!

STEPH: I know!

MATPAT: Huh.

MAPAT: Hey, did you see the new Mr. Beast video?

STEPH: No, he's from North Carolina, you know?

MATPAT: Yeah, I do know. You've told me

STEPH: It's awesome! Heh.

MATPAT: $100,000 to streamers.

STEPH: Mr. Beast? MATPAT: Mmhmm

STEPH: He's from North Carolina, you know.

He is.

...I'm from North Carolina

MATPAT: *slap* I can't, I can't!

And while there's TONS of people who do interesting stunts

here on YouTube,

what I find so fascinating about Mr. Beast

is his brilliant strategy of giving back.

One of the things he's most known for is taking brand deals,

his merch or some other kind of donation,

and instead of pocketing it or doing something silly, like

oh, I don't know, paying a lot of editors to make unbelievably intricate edits for your voice over format.

He instead uses the money to give back to people in the community:

pull off his stunts, or perform interesting social experiments.

Most admirably he does these giveaway videos,

which have included donating to everyone from twitch streamers, to waiters, and delivery people to

Thousands of dollars for the homeless. Generally it's about philanthropy, which is AWESOME!

But there are other times it's more about seeing ridiculous sums of money put to use,

and that finally brings us to the topic for today's episode, which is about one of these

Mr. Beast videos where he divides a $100,000

among some friends of his and gives them one hour to spend it,

saying that they don't get to keep any of the money that they don't spend.

Now they cheat a little bit on these rules,

spending a bit more time due to traffic and other logistical issues,

but it is fun to see the first things that pop into people's heads

when they know that they've got cash to burn

and a very limited time to do it!

It's mostly electronics, which honestly same,

a smattering of Gucci-garbage, purses for moms and girlfriends,

which is really adorable,

some payments to car loans, and some REALLY

blatant cheating where one of them banks a few thousand dollars

towards a future down payment on a house.

And all of that got me thinking:

If Mr. Beast did somehow appear out of nowhere and suddenly hand me a huge sack of cash

(Hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, Mr. Beast.)

What would I do with it?

What would I spend it on, and more specifically,

how could I optimally spend that money to get the most value out of it?

Now before you put in your guesses

let's agree to some terms.

One: You aren't restricted by age or location.

So if it's legal somewhere to someone it is legal and available to you.

Two: You have to be able to complete the purchase within the hour.

And three: You have to use the money on something that is publicly avaliable

So you can't, I don't know, buy the rights to the Beatles music for example.

Not that they'd sell that away for a hundred grand anyway.

All clear on the rules?

Okay! Place your bets now, and then lose those bets because,

spoiler alert, betting is not the best way to spend all that cash.

But we're gonna test it all anyway!

I'm guessing that for a lot of you, among the first couple of ideas that come to mind are to buy a car.

And that makes total sense because you can pick it out,

you can spend the money all in one place,

and know exactly what you got for it!

I understand the temptation to pick up that Lambo off the lot-

wait, Lambos retail for what?!

$250,000?! WHAT!

That's how much Youtubers are spending on this sort of stuff?!

So with a $100,000 budget,

um, you can get yourself a Corvette, a Porsche, a Jaguar, a Hummer.

You're just gonna have to leave the Lamborghinis for Jake Paul

and all the Youtubers who get that fake investment money.

But all those other cars are great options!

Or at least, you think they're great options

until you realize how much a fancy car like that costs to own...

Let's say that you wanted to buy a Supercharged 2018 Jaguar XJL

with a sticker price of a little over $92,000.

Estimates show that the first five years of owning that car really

costs you closer to a $115,000,

largely due to the depreciation of the car over time.

According to CARFAX, cars can be worth only forty percent of their purchase price after the first five years.

And surprisingly luxury cars actually

depreciate faster than regular cars.

Some of the fastest depreciating cars of 2018 include two BMW models, Mercedes, Audi, and Cadillacs.

So buying high-end cars is not gonna help you here.

Luxury cars also have incredibly high maintenance costs.

So while you may look cool driving around in your muscle car.

you're paying almost 10,000 extra dollars in insurance,

$6,000 in repairs, and $16,000 on the premium gas that it requires!

Sure, it may burn rubber, but buying an expensive car is also gonna be burning a hole in your pocket.

How 'bout real estate then?

Everybody knows that buying a house or some land is one of the most reliable and stable

investments that a person can make,

unless of course It's the mid-2000s and the banks have been handing out mortgages

like their flyers to a free improv show.

Historically speaking, though, home prices tend to increase

between three and five percent every year,

and it's a huge deal to go from paying rent,

which is basically like throwin' half your paycheck into a black void, and investing in a home that you own

and that's increasing in value year over year.

It seems like a great deal, but then logistics become a problem.

I recognize how lucky I've been to be in a position to buy a home,

but let me tell you from that

experience that the process is a long and grueling one.

If you want to buy a house,

you're probably gonna want to look at dozens of properties.

You're gonna have to spend a lot of time researching the neighborhoods that you're gonna want to live in,

the ones that are also gonna be appreciating in value rather than depreciating in value,

and finally doing inspections on the house to make sure it's not filled with raccoons or mold.

And then the inspection probably won't find the mold,

but then you'll have some rain storms in California and suddenly realize,

"Oh wait, let's actually see what's going on behind the walls."

"Oh, they've been leaking this entire time!"

"Our house is filled with mold that wasn't disclosed to us when we first bought the damn house,"

and then your kitchen ends up looking LIKE MINE DOES RIGHT NOW!

Sorry, I'm going through a lot right now.

Anyway the long and short of it is that even if you have

$100,000 in your pocket right now, and you have the house that you wanna buy,

there's no chance that you're gonna still be able to do it in an hour!

You're gonna need to sign about 3,000 different pieces of paper,

it's not even something that you can describe in an hour!

Much less execute.

And even if you somehow managed to backdoor deal your way into it

with a house that you had already picked out and a seller that you knew

and the cash in your hand and whatever,

it's just not something the average person can do without weeks and weeks of lead-up time.

And so we're gonna have to let this one go.

And yes, I know that Mr. Beast

Let this one slide in his video where one of his friends put money away for a down payment,

but they were friends and Mr. Beast is nice.

STEPH (SHOUTING FROM THE SHADOWS LIKE A NINJA): And he's also from North Carolina!

MATPAT: Yes, I know!! >:c

Stephanie, I know he's from North Carolina! I get it! I celebrate that! Good for him! Great state!

Beautiful beaches, wonderful schools, but you know what?

This is a cold heartless theory and so there's no rule bending here!

What about a transaction that's a little simpler and a little bit more............

...sparkly? Jewelry, and especially diamonds,

are one medium of investment for a lot of the world's crazy rich people.

So our diamonds not only just a girl's best friend (awww),

but also potentially a girl's best investment opportunity...?

Well, the initial outlook is good if you're gonna buy

$100,000 worth of diamonds and pearls they're unlikely to depreciate as rapidly as a car, and don't require

nearly as much market research as buying a house.

Also, no gas devised! So just don't drop them down the sink and you're good to go!

Except, it's not our optimal purchase here.

Because if you're buying diamonds now, you're dealing with the harsh realities of consumer capitalism,

specifically markup.

Historically, retailers who sell diamonds have a markup of up to 200%.

Meaning that they charge up to three times the price of what those diamonds are actually valued at!

And even though modern, online commerce has brought that down to twenty percent in some cases,

you're still losing a lot of value just by making the purchase.

In fact, gemstone markups are some of the worst of ALL products out there!

Alongside designer jeans at 350% markup,

movie theater popcorn with a markup of 1,200%,

and bottled water with an all-time 2000% MARKUP.

I mean if you needed another reason to carry around your own water bottle.

Jeez! To make matters worse on the diamond front, unless you're buying especially rare diamonds,

such as ones of different colo(u)rs,

they're unlikely to appreciate value all that much...

So then why does super rich people put their money into them then?

Well, because if you're already crazy rich,

some of your investments can go to things that are guaranteed to grow and get you more value,

and others could just go towards stuff that holds its value.

Having a variety of stuff is called "diversifying",

and it's one of the best ways to prevent going completely broke in the event of a disaster.

In theory, this is also the way that some of that Gucci stuff, or those handbags or watches

that the guys bought, would also work,

but for them to hold their value, those guys would never be able to wear any of that stuff or use the handbags

because everything has to stay mint condition.

So it seems like a no-go for a little hypothetical situation here.

For all of us looking for some real Investment potential,

or those of us who are still paying those crazy editing costs,

I want to make sure that that $100,000 goes a bit further.

So there's got to be some other way to put this money to good use. Let's rapid-fire some ideas.

How about all the tech stuff that the guys in the video bought?

Super tempting, but actually the worst idea yet.

Tech prices drop drastically year-over-year.

So even coming back six months from now, a lot of those TVs and sound systems are gonna be worth a fraction

of what they retail for now.

What about rare collectibles?

Nope!

There's no guarantee that classic toys or baseball cards are gonna go up in value,

and the demand of those markets tends to fluctuate pretty wildly.

So you're gonna have to get lucky with the exact window in which you purchase them.

If you're old enough to remember the Beanie Baby craze,

everybody had them, everybody expected them to be worth something for some reason,

and no one ended up with anything. Next!

Is there a way to gamble away that hundred thousand dollars

that gives you a really solid chance of return?

Nope! It's almost impossible.

Sure, if you're already an established poker player,

there's a chance that it might pay off.

But the vast majority of us would throw the stack down on the roulette table,

throw the dice like we're in a James Bond movie, and then walk out so broke that we couldn't get an Uber!

You know how they say the house always wins in Vegas?

Well, that's because it does. NEXT.

What about something completely off the wall,

like buying exotic reptiles, or, better yet, illegal drugs?

Sure, that sounds exciting!

If not an express train to the local lockup, but hey, bonus points for thinking outside the box, but would it work?

Nope, it's just way too risky and also logistically really difficult!

You'd already have to be someone who's well versed in rare or illegal stuff and where to get it

(which is definitely not something you can just pick up after an hour of research)

and not only that, you have to turn around and resell anything that you just bought illegally.

I don't know if you've seen every cop drama ever,

but people who sell stuff illegally are spending a lot of time

on street corners and dark alleys, which doesn't look fun.

Reconverting things that are illegal back into legal cash isn't exactly simple...

You can't just put out a notice on twitter that you're selling endangered

salamanders without getting the attention of people that you don't want

to know you have endangered salamanders for sale.

And then, if you ever get caught you have to forfeit over everything!

Not to mention spend a lot of quality time in unflattering orange jumpsuits (OH THE HORROR!).

So what is it? Nothing sounds good anymore?

It's not even fun to spend this stuff, but have no fear, Internet.

I have the solution and it's gonna be great.

If you have $100,000 that you need to spend within one hour,

and you're bounded by the laws of time and space and you're looking to get the

maximum value out of that $100,000 that you possibly can,

the best option for you is:

Diversified investments.

Like an index fund.

And then you shovel that money into an independent retirement account or IRA.

Y E A H

Awesome! Here I am overthinking something to death

and completely killing the fun of it.

The subtitle of this channel.

But before you pass judgment of my solution, Internet, hear me out.

It's a bit more exciting than it sounds, trust me.

This is something that is quick and really simple to do, it doesn't require much

expertise or pre-planning, and it's available to everyone;

so it checks off all the boxes of our little game.

The really terrible thing about this plan is that it's gonna require you to be patient.

You can't start taking money out of a traditional IRA with incurring a penalty until you're sixty years old.

So if you're getting a hundred G's at the age of thirty,

you've got a whole 'nother thirty years before you can do anything with it;

and that's assuming that we're not living in a waterworld-esque post-apocalypse

due to global warming in thirty years,

as I'm not sure investment banks are super helpful when they house coral reefs.

But that's the con side. Here are the pros:

In the short term you get to write off about $6,000 from your tax return.

the year you make the investment. So that's gonna be a little bit of immediate cash in your pocket.

But the real pearl is gonna come once you can start taking funds out of that IRA,

thanks to the power of compound interest.

We all know that the stock market is volatile, and in the short term that's 100% true.

A stock that shoots up today might crash tomorrow and vice-versa.

Sorry Elon Musk,

I know you're going through a hard time right now.

But when you're investing in hundreds of stocks over years and years,

like you would in a diversified investment portfolio,

now the historical data shows us a solid upward trend. Just how solid are we talking here?

Well, from 1973 to 2016, the Standard & Poor 500 index had an annual return of about 11.7%.

So if you invest that $100,000 in an index fund like this,

at the end of the year, you would have yourself $111,700.

An additional $11,700 in addition to the $100,000

that Mr. Beast just gave you out of his pocket.

Now consider again putting that $100,000 into an IRA

that's investing in index funds with an average return of this for thirty years.

In that period of time you'll run your $100,000 into

$2,764,363.77!

So you wait a long time,

but the money is working like the dickens in the background,

earning you millions of dollars without you even trying!

All you had to do was spend an hour on some website purchasing some stocks.

The moral of the story here is that Gucci wallets or Jaguar XJLs or diamond-encrusted grills

might look nice in the short term,

but if you're truly optimizing money, it's all about diversification and patience.

Isn't that exciting guys?!

Fiscal responsibility and forbearance are the optimal ways to spend a boatload of cash

that someone online just gives you.

Though let's be honest,

I know that that IRA might be the best thing to do with your money from a value standpoint,

but you can bet your life that I'm taking a couple thousand dollars

out of that thing and spending it on an infinite Coke machine.

Converting that grain into gold! LIQUID GOLD BABY :D!!

But hey, that's just a theory! A GAME THEORY!

THANKS FOR sticking around, because you know how

Mr. Beast uses sponsorship dollars to give away the millions in prizes that he has in all his videos?

Well, it may not be quite as sexy or exciting,

but that sponsorship money doesn't go to waste here either.

It goes to pay the massive team of editors who are constantly

working around the clock to make sure these videos go up each and every week

It goes to pay our team of researchers,

who are out there making sure that the information we're giving back to you

is as accurate and professionally sourced as possible.

We're not spending this money on Lambos.

We're spending out on the 401k plans of all the people who work around us!

We don't get to brag about it all that much in the titling these videos,

and you don't get to see me walking around the office shelling out cash IRL,

but these videos cost a lot to make.

Is it as fun as giving away to all these people who pick the right solo cup?

No, but it is really important to us.

As people who care about our employees,

and as people who care about delivering you really high quality work.

And that is why it really means a lot to us when you support all of our sponsors.

Sponsors like the one for today's episode:

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a VPN is actually gonna be a lot more important than it ever has before!

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Now, we'll have to see if they wind up doing that,

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So I thank Nord for being a sponsor on this show.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go divvy up

this sponsorship money in a much less fun, much less sexy way.

PAYROLL! Wonder if the editors would be okay with me paying them on a double-or-nothing basis....?

Thank you for watching and checking out the subtitles!

Have a good day and make sure to like and subscribe for more of Matpat's cringey content and humo(u)r.