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What Would You Do With $1.5 Billion?

I posted this in the Show Ideas thread, but I'd like to hear what kinds of things everybody comes up with.

As we all know, the lottery is stupid. You don't have a chance at winning; you just won't. Imagine 4 rows of baseballs that stretch from New York to Los Angeles. Winning the lottery is less likely then finding one single baseball signed by Babe Ruth among all of those.

But that doesn't mean it isn't fun to speculate.

If you suddenly and legally came into $1.5 billion dollars (or replace with your currency of choice), how would you spend your money and live your life?

I imagine that a lot of the same answers will come up, like charity or beach houses, but I'm interested in the more personalized aspects. If you say charity, which ones? If you say beach house, where? And what would your house/property contain?

Let's fantasize about lives we'll never get to lead.
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Comments

  • I'd keep $300 million for myself and use the rest to fund political campaigns and/or donate it to charitable institutions.
  • Buy a better car
    Pay off my credit cards, student loans, and set an account aside to finish my education.
    Set up an account to live off the interest
    Funnel whatever was left into my business venture ideas
  • edited January 2016
    If I were to win any amount of money in a competition/lottery/whatever that wouldn't really change my plans only potentially increase their scope.

    I'd build a cool house from shipping containers/hangers/old industrial space, I'd have a bitchin' personal workshop/laboratory, and I'd invest in making part of that a business that allows me to make whatever I want and profit from it by selling those things to other crazy people who like that stuff. So for now it means little single-seat airplanes using DIY CNC equipment and if I had 1.5 Billion dollars it'd be more like little jets and CNC equipment that can make parts for the space shuttle, and building Tiger tanks and maybe fund a video game dev project. I would probably also hire someone to manage properties and do some real-estate moves and call on friends of mine to design/build cool-ass houses and then sell/rent them out.

    I think all of those are do-able without a massive win lottery ticket, but instead of being things I would undertake tomorrow they would be things I undertake in the next 10-20-50 years.

    Oh, and I'd hire a full-time health team to keep me in top form because fuck dying.

    If I were to donate any considerable money it would be to art/design schools and/or scholarships for such. I would not give a red cent to any political machines, I wouldn't donate to any charities unless it was a cause I was personally involved in and had a good sense that the people are spending the funds responsibly.
    Post edited by SWATrous on
  • I don't know what I'd do with all of it, but I'd start by giving many millions to Boston Latin School on two conditions: One is that they use some subset of the money to refurbish, insure, and display the Parthenon casts they have' Two is that in the auditorium, there's a whole list of names of awesome people who went to Latin like Adams and Kennedy, and I want them to add the name of my friend David. David was the biggest troublemaker in my time there to not be arrested, and was so legendary that I met people who didn't believe he was real. I would require Latin to add his name to this list in the auditorium right next to Franklin (who also dropped out but under very different circumstances).
  • I'd make myself, my immediate family, and my closest friends independently wealthy, and then donate the rest. A significant sum would go to Barnard College, the women's college across the street from Columbia University, because fuck Columbia.
  • Id take care of my friends and family, get a nice but not over the top home, (Id want a nice game room, an amazing kitchen and inground pool) and do a lot of traveling. Obviously id quit my job, im sure I could find a better use of my time, but id give them notice, they've been good to me no sense being a jerk to them.
  • I'd purchase an abandoned building, then turn it into a restaurant. I'd also use extra funds to take care of my family and donate to charity.
  • My priorities would be: Make sure I have the money I need for life > Spend money on friends and family as appropriate for each situation (I feel like just dumping a million dollars on everyone would ruin a lot of relationships) > Use the rest for charity and potentially dabbling in angel investing. Obviously with the money I would spend most of my time traveling, probably to the point where I don't actually own a house anymore. I would just go to a new country and live there for 6-12 months, then move to the next one.
  • I'd do similar to Link, and make a few of my various groups independently wealthy (which includes a number of people on these forums), Invest a large portion of what remained from that(which would be the vast majority of it, let's be honest) into making a shitload more money essentially in perpetuity, and then set about doing things that improve the world. Not on a massive scale, like Musk or Gates, but smaller, lower level stuff, like trying to help improve things in Detroit(one of my favorite US cities), scholarships, so on. Likely split my own time between traveling, making things, and using my money for machiavellian political games because everybody needs a hobby.
  • All Machiavellian Political games ALL the time.

    That and the only truly successful arcade/video game/comic book store/playing area built in some abandoned K-mart :-p
  • Cremlian said:

    All Machiavellian Political games ALL the time.

    That and the only truly successful arcade/video game/comic book store/playing area built in some abandoned K-mart :-p

    "Truly successful" meaning backed by an endless supply of money so you never have to worry about being in the red?
  • Oh, forgot to mention - I'd also sort myself out with a few nice, very comprehensive workshops. After all, can't build without tools.
  • edited January 2016
    I would buy Comcast Spectacor, support some research (Cancer, space exploration) and charities (I would probably sponsor the entirety of Desert Bus for Hope for the rest of eternity by providing them funds for catering, location, etc.) and put the rest into some good assets.
    Post edited by chaosof99 on
  • Cremlian said:

    All Machiavellian Political games ALL the time.

    That and the only truly successful arcade/video game/comic book store/playing area built in some abandoned K-mart :-p

    "Truly successful" meaning backed by an endless supply of money so you never have to worry about being in the red?
    exactly :-p
  • I forgot to add that I would pay Rym and Scott to do whatever the fuck I wanted, since they seem to be totally okay with that idea.
  • I forgot to add that I would pay Rym and Scott to do whatever the fuck I wanted, since they seem to be totally okay with that idea.

    Just do a reverse version of Idiot Abroad, and send Scott to all these really weird places. "Hey man want to go to this weird camel race in the middle of the fuck-nowhere desert?" "Shit no that's stupid" "Great! Here's your tickets, see you in a week!"
  • edited January 2016
    Churba said:

    I forgot to add that I would pay Rym and Scott to do whatever the fuck I wanted, since they seem to be totally okay with that idea.

    Just do a reverse version of Idiot Abroad, and send Scott to all these really weird places. "Hey man want to go to this weird camel race in the middle of the fuck-nowhere desert?" "Shit no that's stupid" "Great! Here's your tickets, see you in a week!"
    That would be amazing:
    Rym: "I got to see this crazy awesome camel race and spent a bunch of time exploring this city, it was great"
    Scott: "Oh my god that was so dumb who even cares about camels"
    Post edited by Linkigi(Link-ee-jee) on
  • edited January 2016
    I think you'd struggle to call Alice springs a city, but the countryside is quite nice. It's a hell of a big horizon.

    You could follow it up by sending them to the Henley-on-Todd Regatta.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • I'd buy and refurbish one of those old missile silos out in the boonies, stock it up with a lifetime of provisions, and seal the blast doors behind me.
  • edited January 2016
    I mean besides just generally being able to live independently wealthy and to help people, both through charities and just people I know that could use a few million, I really want to be that rich so I can pay some people millions of dollars to build me some Mech Suits.
    Post edited by ninjarabbi on
  • Can we make A Scott Abroad a patreon goal?
  • Pegu said:

    Can we make A Scott Abroad a patreon goal?

    Yes. Please give me money to travel and look at castles and beaches.
  • Obviously the first thing to come to mind is remove personal and familial monetary burdens. Probably buy a few more properties / apartments in Sydney and Perth. Probably just buy good 2nd hand cars for those who still need them. Set up investments split between liquid and long term put my brother in charge of investment fund management.

    Mess with domestic and international politics, make the fastest possible Internet access a public service.
    e.g.
    Require computer science as a core subject from primary to tertiary education.
    Work out a way to fuck over managers of health professionals and require licensing plus review yearly.
    Way higher requirements to become a politician or police officer with annual review, particularly maths and science.
  • Pegu said:

    Can we make A Scott Abroad a patreon goal?

    He's got the right attitude and head shape.

  • edited January 2016
    sK0pe said:

    Probably buy a few properties / apartments in Sydney

    With sydney house prices? Shit man don't use it up all at once.

    But, idea - Buy a well appointed House or apartment in every single PAX city. Take care of accommodation for yourself and a few friends every PAX.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • I'd buy an aircraft hangar and turn it into my residence/production studio. I'd also hire interns.
  • Pay off my student loan, that should leave me with a tenner for a slap up pie.
  • edited January 2016
    A $1.5 billion jackpot is more like $750 million after taxes and lump sum and such. So that's the number I'd work with.

    1) Hire a lawyer.

    2) Figure out what percentage I will give to friends and family. Do not deviate from this number. Tell my lawyer.

    3) Change my number and my address. Give out the new information only to those who absolutely need to know.

    4) Quit my job.

    5) Claim my winnings - anonymously if that's an option.

    6) Set up trust funds for friends and family up to said percentage (let's say 20% of the winnings). So $150 million to friends and family, in trust funds.

    7) Put about half ($300 million) of the remaining winnings into stable long-term diversified funds to beat inflation and profit gradually. Preservation is more important than earning at that level of money. Live off of the interest alone.

    8) Possibly hire a fund manager for all of those, but maybe not if they're sufficiently common, stable, low-risk investments.

    9) Blow the other half on candy and bubblegum and a fucking castle on an island and whatever other toys I want. Pay off debts, of course, but that will barely cost anything. Maybe donate to a charity or set up a scholarship fund or buy a senator or 6.

    EDIT:

    Step 0) Tell the wife. Have a crazy-ass celebration. Go over the plan with her.
    Post edited by TheWhaleShark on
  • I would take a very direct hand in the money management (through a legal team and a money manager, of course). But, that's because I have some useful domain knowledge and a Babe Ruth record in terms of my personal investments.

    I wouldn't bother with the address changing or hiding myself. I don't have relatives or acquaintances who are shitty enough to come out of the woodwork and present a problem, and the rest I'd help out reasonably.

    But more to the point, I live in New York. If you have money and live in New York, the wall you can put up between rando plebs and your personal life is significant. I'd just move into one of those luxury towers, and the doormen and security staff would keep the rabble from bothering me. I wouldn't change much else about my day-to-day living arrangements. I wouldn't even change my phone number.

    As for the Peoria press, I'd milk it to grow my personal fame. Most people who step into money like that fail and lose it all, but I have the experience and capabilities to hone it into a media machine. I also have an existing brand, so I'm not just "that shithead who won the powerball": I'm "that shithead podcaster guy who won the powerball. " GeekNights Lounge at PAX. Makeup/Camera teams for panels. Just fund a good gaming con and hire smart people to run it. Fucking buy my way back into NYCC.

  • edited January 2016
    The winning ticket was purchased in a place in California where every house is a mansion.

    I won $2 by not playing.
    Post edited by Apreche on
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