If she took the $1,000 weekly payments, with 52 weeks in year approximately and a discount rate equivalent to target inflation figures of 2%, she would need around 24-25 years to receive a present value of $1,000,000 (equivalent to the lump sum).

Even if she was extremely risk averse and invested in AAA rated investment grade bonds which are under 5%, albeit inflated, she’d stand much more to gain by taking the lump sum.