Not the Barenaked Ladies song but an actual million dollars.
It’s won thing to win the lottery, an incredibly unlikely thing, but let’s say you were a million dollars, net. That is, taxes have already been paid.
What would you do with it? How would it change your life? Would you move? What would you buy?
This seems much more likely then winning the Powerball. It’s also incredibly money but not go off and buy an island money.
So what would you do?
Two chicks at the same time, man.
But seriously, I’d splurge on a few minor luxuries and put the rest in my existing investment accounts (primarily index funds.) Then knock a decade or so off my planned retirement. And I would give some to charity.
Pay off the mortgage and all debt, split the rest with the wife, divorce, skedaddle.
Honestly? I’d probably just pay off our mortgage and invest the rest, in a mix of investments targeted towards retirement and some safer, shorter term choices aimed at upgrading from our current condo to a nicer place in a 3-5 year kid/family time frame. It probably puts us in a nicer house than we’d get otherwise and steps up retirement by a few years, but it’s not life-changing on a day to day basis, since my wife and I are both pretty conservative spenders and current cash flow isn’t an issue.
Invest half for retirement. Parsel out the rest as a kind of bonus stipend to myself for each year between now and retirement age. That would work out perfectly for a nicer car every 5 years or so. A great vacation or two each year. Or whatever various incidentals may arise to make life a little more pleasant to live.
All mortgage and debt gone, and most of the rest pumped into savings. We’d have some fun but the primary drive would be making it so we could retire earlier and sleep better at night.
Without a mortgage our cash flow would be such that we could afford a really nice vacation every year and such things.
I wouldn’t pay off my mortgage, because I have a low fixed rate and I can earn a higher return using the money as investment capital. So I’d keep making the regular payment on my mortgage every month and stash the cash.
Replace the roof on my house, plus a few other minor renovations? After that, I’d give a lot away to worthy causes and travel with the rest!
Pay off the mortgage, buy new cars, everybody in the family gets $10K to splurge with, invest the rest.
Change the message on my answering machine to “If I already know you, leave a message. If you want money from me, it’s all gone. Have a nice day.”
Regards,
Shodan
Ask my partner what he wants, then find something that makes us both happy.
Buy more AAPL stock.
I’m close enough to retirement and have enough retirement savings that an extra million would let me retire today without worries. No debts already except low interest mortgage. We’d probably give some to our kids who need it more than we do. But not a big change, since I could retire today anyhow with only minor worries if I wanted to.
Buy a million worth of tickets…let’s double down!
In all seriousness I’m gonna be boring like everyone else. Pay off all my debts, pay off all my girlfriends debts…get married to said girlfriend, and then probably third the rest. Third to me for my liking, third to her for her liking, third to us for our life together
Buy a new car and my own house instead of renting, but invest enuff of the original amount to insure that for the rest of my years I have double what Social Security now gives me.
This. I’d invest it, and bump my retirement date up by maybe 10 years. Might splurge a little - maybe fly first class from now on.
Finish the house and pay off the mortgage. Without that monkey on our backs, life suddenly gets a lot sweeter.
It is just not that much. 10M is lifechanging. 1M - meh.
Is this a million dollars over and above my own investments and capital? I project, based on a conservative 5% return that I should cross over to a million or so sometime in the next 10 years, assuming the bottom doesn’t fall out of the market. I plan on using the money to augment my retirement and whatever social security I actually get. 
Now, if I won a million dollars over and above my own funds I’d probably invest most of the money and when I retire I’d be able to have a slightly better lifestyle (perhaps I could retire early, maybe when I turn 60 which would be very nice). Other than that, nothing much. A million dollars really isn’t all that much these days, IMHO anyway.
This. After taxes and inflation in the current low-yielding investment climate you’ve got maybe 30K / year free cash flow.
For somebody used to living paycheck to paycheck that’s huge; it catapults them into the so-called middle class. For somebody middle class it’s a darn nice pay raise. For a fat-cat it’s a rounding error.
But I wouldn’t turn it down if offered.
Cruise to and around Europe. Probably buy a home. Stick the remainder in savings and know that we’ll be able to enjoy some nice vacations over the next several years.