If money were no object, what would you spend your life doing?

[ExcitedIdiot]

@Mornac

I’d pay off the national debt on the condition that Barrack Obama takes an early retirement and that the Supreme Court restores the Constitution to its original state.

You mean without those pesky amendments? Like the second one?

[Brynda]

I would do what I am doing (psychologist) but I would do it as part of a wholistic program for those with serious and life-threatening illnesses. I would love to have a retreat for these patients and their families where they could learn about coping, nutrition, self-care, etc. There would be lots of interaction and learning and supporting each other.

Why not? Money is a factor, and this is a several million dollar dream.

[RickJay]

@msmith537

Not to hijack, but I was watching a show about people who win lotteries, receive inheretances or other massive windfalls and the various problems they have.

Interestingly, one of the problems is that they now have the money to do all the stuff they say they would do if money wasn’t an issue, except they still don’t do any of that stuff. But now they get all depressed because they don’t have “no money” as an excuse.

I don’t find that at all surprising.

I mean, how many people have said they’re gonna write a book but never write one? There you have something that pretty much costs nothing at all if you already own a computer, which most people do, and yet the ratio of people who says they’re going to write books to those who actually do is about fifty to one. And of those fifty, 47 or so still find time to watch hours and hours of TV every week.

If people cannot drag themselves away from “Downton Abbey” and “Game of Thrones” and other mind-numbing shit to accomplish something awesome that costs nothing and doesn’t even require you to leave the house, why on earth would anyone expect them to get around to scuba diving?

[AtomicDog]

1. I’d finance my own space program and use it to personally go to the moon.
2. Guess.

[kaylasdad99]

1. Retiring, and buying anything that took my fancy.

2. Because money is an object.

[denquixote]

1. I would buy one of those houses on the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach and spend my life playing golf there. (Unless Mornac is a member)
2. Standard answer, money is an object.

[Doggo]

@Moonlitherial

1. traveling the world
2. I am doing as much as I can afford to but, you know, money.

Ditto.
I wouldn’t have any posessions that I couldn’t carry, wouldn’t own property. Just travel and live in hotels.

[Krouget]

@Oedipus

1.) If money were no object, what would you spend your life doing?
and
2.) Why aren’t you doing that?

1. Various engineering projects
2. I am, but not to the extent that I’d like to (mainly because of other priorities).

[Amateur_Barbarian]

@msmith537

Not to hijack, but I was watching a show about people who win lotteries, receive inheretances or other massive windfalls and the various problems they have.

Interestingly, one of the problems is that they now have the money to do all the stuff they say they would do if money wasn’t an issue, except they still don’t do any of that stuff. But now they get all depressed because they don’t have “no money” as an excuse.

Which, in a nutshell, demonstrates what’s wrong with the traditional approach to retirement.

[elbows]

Traveling and painting water colours at the beach!

The only reason I’m not doing so - is money!

[Czarcasm]

Con runner for non-profit science fiction, fantasy, gaming and mystery fiction conventions, but no corporate cons. I love to travel, most hotel food is decent, and having groups of friends in different cities would be great. I’d mostly run hospitality suites, but I wouldn’t mind chairing a con every once in a while.

[Polerius]

@msmith537

Interestingly, one of the problems is that they now have the money to do all the stuff they say they would do if money wasn’t an issue, except they still don’t do any of that stuff. But now they get all depressed because they don’t have “no money” as an excuse.

Relevant poem
Excerpt:

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

The barbarians are to arrive today.

Why such inaction in the Senate?
Why do the Senators sit and pass no laws?

Because the barbarians are to arrive today.
What laws can the Senators pass any more?
…
night is here but the barbarians have not come.
And some people arrived from the borders,
and said that there are no longer any barbarians.

And now what shall become of us without any barbarians?
Those people were some kind of solution.

[DJ_Motorbike]

I’d spare no expense in hiring a massive team of engineers, researchers, theoreticians, programmers, etc. to create artificial intelligence. I’d make them start with some ideas of my own just to see if they had the potential to go anywhere.

I would build medieval style castle, the bedrooms would have modern appointments, but everything else would be old fashioned. In it I would throw big renaissance themed parties with everyone in period correct clothing and with period correct entertainment. No cell phones!

I would own a luxurious dirigible. It would be large enough to accommodate a hanger with several small fixed-wing craft that could be both launched and landed while the dirigible was in flight. It’s cabin would include a number of berths as well as several luxury suites.

I’d build a pirate ship and live in it when not at my castle or traveling via luxury dirigible. Also, pirate themed parties!

[nogwart]

1. Working no more than 2 nights per week, no more than 3 weeks per month in a band with other musicians who are at least as equally talented as myself, at least equally friendly, easy-going, and ego-free as myself, and at least equally willing to constantly learn new, challenging material as myself in no-more-than-once-per-week practice sessions.

2. Very sadly, the area in which I live has no such individuals.

[Misnomer]

1. Being a musician.

2. I am, just not to the desired extent.

[YogSothoth]

I would learn an instrument.

I would learn how to draw well.

I would travel to England, China, and Japan.

I would play lots of video games.

I would write and read.

I would quest for exotic foods and ingredients.

[Missy2U]

1. I really, really don’t know. Honestly - I just don’t know. Every scenario I can dream up has pros, yet some real cons too.

2. Irrelevant because of answer 1.

[Cat_Whisperer]

@Wesley_Clark

Are we doing impossible dreams? If so I want to change mine to explorer of modes of consciousness in a post singularity society.

Cool!

@Doggo

Ditto.
I wouldn’t have any posessions that I couldn’t carry, wouldn’t own property. Just travel and live in hotels.

That’s interesting - all of my $50 million lottery win fantasies always involve buying my dream house; I’ve never considered a hotel as my dream house, but that has some attraction.

@DJ_Motorbike

I’d spare no expense in hiring a massive team of engineers, researchers, theoreticians, programmers, etc. to create artificial intelligence. I’d make them start with some ideas of my own just to see if they had the potential to go anywhere.<snip>

Isn’t Google already doing that?

I think I would buy and renovate houses, then sell them to people without making a profit. I hate to see good old houses in bad shape.

I would also build a massive Straight Dope clubhouse, where you can all come and stay for as long as you like. The catch is that I’d build it here.

[April_R]

@Oedipus

1.) If money were no object, what would you spend your life doing?
and
2.) Why aren’t you doing that?

1. Traveling the world
2. I have children :rolleyes:

[Suburban_Plankton]

1. Traveling. I’d like to go everywhere.
2. I can’t afford it. Traveling and work are (for me at the moment, anyway) mutually exclusive.