Assume that an inheritance from a long lost great-grandpa or a lottery nets you about $1 million after you paid all taxes and or other liabilities. Assume also that there’s not a huge probability of this ever falling into your lap again- this has to last.
So, $1 million is a lot of money, but nowhere near as much as it used to be obviously; unless you make a once in a lifetime style investment the income from it’s not going to support you lavishly (though invested wisely it should support you in middle class style anyway).
How would you spend it?
Would you quit your job to take something less high paying but more emotionally/intellectually rewarding?
Would you buy a house? Or pay off your mortgage? Or put it in the bank and keep renting if you don’t currently own?
How would you make it go the furthest?
What that’s frivolous would you buy “off the top”?
Myself, I’d probably buy and furnish a small but comfortable place (condo or bungalow) in the $250K range in a college town or small city where that still goes a long way. I’d use perhaps $50K that I’d use to take one helluva vacation or 6, and bank/invest the rest. I’d use the income from the money to subsidize myself as I either downgraded to another job that I’d like better than the one I have or else go to grad school.
I’d blow a huge chunk of it travelling…everywhere. I’d think that by the time I spent a couple hundred-thousand I’d be eminently sick of travelling, at which point I’d come back, pay off my apartment mortgage and try to figure out what to do with the $600k or so remaining.
I suppose I’d either upgrade to a nicer condo in Vancouver itself (probably about $700k) or invest it and use the interest to supplement my own income.
Anyone saying they’d still rent after getting a $1mill windfall gets a pre-emptive smack in the head from me.
House first. Look around and take advantage of the unbelievably depressed market. Remodel and furnish - call it $500,000. Use the rest to retire any outstanding debts, get a new car, stick $200,000 into an account to handle household emergencies and a few years property taxes. Use the rest for a bit of R&R, and some cat food.
Well, first I’d buy the house I’m currently in back from the bank (foreclosure, 30 days to get out, no money to move on, blah blah blah). I’d fix it up a little bit, then buy myself a nice little house in the country - spend maybe $150k - , move into it, and put the town house on the market, or maybe rent it out. I’d probably keep my job, just for the health benefits and retirement, but my husband could quit fretting about his lack of employment and be my househusband, once I teach him how to clean.
I’d buy a nice car and then go on a mad shopping spree on Amazon and KnitPicks, put some money in a college fund for the mini-Marli, put the rest in savings and some conservative investments, and generally just live a much more relaxed life than I’m living now.
Give another third to charities and worthy causes (Cleveland Food Bank, Planetary Society, Brady Center for Gun Violence, Democratic National Committee, United Negro College Fund, Civil War Preservation Trust, my college and law school alumni funds, etc.)
Take a luxury round-the-world cruise with my wife and sons, and put the rest in our checking account.
We own our house, and I like my car already. And I’d keep working. I like my job too much to quit.
I’d pay off all my student loans, and set aside however much I’d need to pay off the rest of my graduate school loans. Then I’d set apart some for my Sister’s College funds as well.
Then with the remaining amount, I’d split it in half, and keep half for myself, and give the other half to my parents/Sibling, and ask them then to spread the wealth around the rest of the family.
I’d then take my half-take, and buy some bonds and such, and try to put it away for 5 years or so at least 2/3 of my half. Then I’d keep the other 1/3 and set some to put aside for charity, some for a rainy day, and then the rest would ensure that next year I’m not living in a crappy hole of an apt. for grad school, and that I could afford to pay bills, gas, etc for hopefully a good amount of time.
Also, when I finish Gradschool, if I get a job, I’m buying a 350Z Convertible. Or Ford Mustang- hell, if I have quite a bit of left over... I'm thinking the Shelby. Might as well Live A LITTLE, right? And then I go back to work, and pretend like I never had this much to begin with- as it’ll (whatever left after all that of my take) become my retirement funds. Or my kids college funds if I ever Have kids. But only I’d know about it really.
Put the bulk of it investments, use the rest to pay off debts, relocate to a better climate, and find me an extremely hot, but cheap, floozy to shack up with.
Pay off all of the bills, including the mortgage. Buy three cars - one for me, one for hubby, one for our daughter. Put an equivalent amount in a bank account for our son to use in a few years. Bills and transportation taken care of, I would help out some of our family. My SIL would get a new car - hers has about had it. My sister and brothers would each get a chunk of money to help make life easier.
I would keep my job (I like it) and stay in school. Live on the money until I graduate and find a job in my field. Set college money aside for the kids, and travel. A lot.
Now all I need is the money. If each of you reading this would be willing to send $1,000, I should be all set.
Shriek and run around and flail for a few minutes.
Pay off my remaining tuition, and my brother’s. Right now, that should be roughly $15,000.
Buy a house for my dad, if he wants one, and help my mum get the basement in our house properly finished. Let’s say that’s $450,000-500,000.
Put about $300,000 of the remaining money into savings / investments–that should leave around $185,000. At that point I finally indulge myself in a new computer, and decide whether I should invest in a car or go travel for a while,
but definitely, first things first, have a nice long bath in a stack of money. While smoking a cigar.
First thing, is dump my credit cards, about 24k worth, most of it debt from starting a business(with a partner).
Then I would buy the house I want for a whopping $160k around the corner from the shop, not cash, but 20-25% down(a good chunk of which I already have saved).
Then I would hand my business partner the $$$ he has in the business, about the same as I do, around 20k. Free and clear, no conditions.
Then I would pay off that last bit of home equity loan my folks have, leaving them debt free and hopefully it would add up to what they paid for me to go to college.
I would also make god damn good and sure my grandmother was OK on her money. I donate occasionally to her insurance fund, but I think I would at least pay her property taxes, which at this point are over double per year what they paid for the entire house.
That leaves better than $850k, with little debt.
I surely wouldn’t stop working, I may take weekends off since getting rid of my debt and my partners debt would allow us to take weekends off and maybe even 3 day weekends.
I may take it and re invest it back into our company, having the capital at hand would allow us to reach our goals in 2-3 years instead of 10 years, so that would be worthwhile.
I certainly wouldn’t waste it, and I would tell pretty much nobody. I wouldn’t buy a new car, I wouldn’t buy a big house. I’d sit on it.
Pay everything off, buy me a Sig P210 and a year’s worth of ammunition for my guns, and put the rest away in long-term safe investments with modest return (CDs at 3% are just fine with me) for my son’s future education.
Ducati 916 (yellow, monoposto), Subaru WRX (blue, the “special” version with a 6-speed), 10 4-plexes behind the local Smith’s or up off the Interstate (small down on each, purchases spread out over a couple years) a can of Escargot and a couple of trimmed Tri-tips. And some chicken wire for a new chicken coop for the wife. Her chickens, that is.
Assume 1.675 inch ball radius
Assume 64% packing efficiency
Assume $.19 per ball
…
I could afford almost 94,000 cubic feet of ball pit balls. That’s 40 shipping containers.
Purchase outright a house in San Francisco - an average house, say $600,000.
Spend $50,000 furnishing it.
Invest the remainder. If I could get a 10% return (dunno if that’s possible, I’m no investment planner), I could quit my job, and even with a lesser return, I would at least go back to school for something I’d enjoy.
Tithe to the church ($100,000), buy a decent ranch house lined with book shelves and a major entertainment center ($100,000?), pay off my credit card debts ($20,000), pay off the debts of three friends (maybe $100,000), and see if I have enough to retire. Any chance I can do that with $650,000?
I’d invest every cent in bonds, CD’s, money market accounts and the like, spreading it around to stay under the insurance limits at any individual institution. I’d take about $20,000 a year out for extra living money, which would about double my income. If it’s producing way more income than that, I might take more. I don’t have any debts to pay off: I don’t own very much, but it’s all paid for.
Buy a house with a basement, buy a new but economical car. Invest in a couple more suits, and start investing in higher-quality shirts, pants, and shoes. Quit my retail job and go to school full-time for one semester to finish off my math undergrad degree. After that, try to get an internship out-of-state for a few semesters, then see about going to grad school for math while finishing my philosophy undergraduate degree. If I don’t go nuts, I should still have a sizeable portion of that million when I’m done, which could keep me going until I figure out the career portion of my life.
Oh, and I’d finally start taking yearly vacations. And, I’d like to fit some dance lessons in there somewhere.
I would pay off my house and invest most of the rest of it. I would not quit my job (if I had one) because usually I like what I do. If I don’t like what I do, I usually start looking for another job.
