# Thought experiment: What if you had a billion dollars? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 19, 2019, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761 "2019-06-19T18:03:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/61 "2019-06-20T22:28:25Z")
What would I do with a billion dollars? Whatever I want. And I’m not being facetious. There’s no need to overthink it. I have, at the very most, 50 years left on this planet. So I could structure an account that caps my annual withdrawals at 20 million and thus never worry about running out of cash. I could get by on that. I don’t need a giant mansion; I’d probably buy a few nice condos in different cities, and spend a lot of time in hotels. I definitely wouldn’t wish to clutter my life with lots of stuff. Rather, I’d collect experiences. I don’t really have a bucket list - I could just go wherever I want to, and do whatever I want to, whenever I want to. No grand plan needed. I would be generous with friends and family, but not just by handing them wads of money. I’d take them on trips with me and share my experiences with them. If someone asked me for money, I’d find out what it’s for and help with that particular expense. If anybody has a problem with me not being a never-ending gravy train, I won’t mourn the loss of them from my life. I have no kids, and thus nobody to leave my fortune to when I’m gone. At the end of each year, whatever portion of the 20 million I haven’t spent goes to charity. ---
**Author:** ![neutro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc8723/32.png) [@neutro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutro)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/62 "2019-06-20T22:34:23Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > That was me, and the two points you are missing are that > a) My close family are not like that > b) I would purposefully not retain the ability to give them a second 500k and they would know that. > > It can be hard to understand that some people aren’t motivated by money but hey…I’m not, my family is not. Hard to say unless it happens. It only takes one greedy family member to screw a family up though. I’ve seen it happen first hand. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/63 "2019-06-20T22:41:00Z")
> [@neutro](#): > > First off you wouldn’t be insured if you did that. Also, you would get a horrible rate of return. > > What would actually happen is you would be elevated to the private client division of the bank you are dealing with. They would offer to help you (e.g. sell you stuff) but you also get a higher level of service. > > In practice with a billion dollars though you would likely end up using a private office. This is an investment firm that you own that invests your money for you. Why would I care about the rate of return? _I have a billion dollars._ Given my stated spending plan it would probably take me several thousand years to run out of money even if it didn’t grow at all! Even _with_ inflation eroding it! Though I admit I wouldn’t be surprised if the local branch of my credit union paled and immediately directed me to their manager’s manager’s manager’s manager. In any case my goal would be unchanged: I want to have have a card with which I can buy any damn thing I want, should I need it. (And then I want another card which will have a more reasonable amount of money on it for daily use.) > [@neutro](#): > > It’s funny because when I read a lot of the answers people come up with I still feel like they really aren’t understanding how this money will change them and those around them. > > For example someone mentioned gifting their family members 500k quid or something. > > Well what happens when they come back for the second 500k? You still have a billion dollars because you didn’t even give away one years interest (you can easily spend $40M a year with a billion indefinitely). > > So when they come back to the well do you say no? Why? 500k is literally nothing to you? What if they get mad and the family starts to disown you because you are being an “asshole” or whatever? Remember, again 500 is nothing to you at that point. > > Or do you have the family who keeps begging talk to your “people” who will “take care of it” for you? The handlers will start to appear and shield you. > > Most people don’t have the exposure to this kind of money to see how much this is going to change their life and most importantly their thinking. Which is why I wasn’t going to give anybody anything. Also, why do they have to know how much money I have? Did they catch sight of me receiving it or something? How much money I have isn’t really any of their business. Which is not to say that my sudden early retirement and house purchase won’t raise eyebrows, but in the circles I run in a person’s money is their own business. > [@neutro](#): > > Ok here’s my challenge on this thought experiment. You’ve thought about what you would do immediately with the money. Now consider, what will it be like in 10 years? Consider now you’ve lived for 10 years as a billionaire. How would you change? How would that change what you do with the money? Well, under my stated plan I’m set until I die of old age, get reincarnated, die again, repeat a hundred more times. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/64 "2019-06-20T22:45:44Z")
> [@neutro](#): > > It’s funny because when I read a lot of the answers people come up with I still feel like they really aren’t understanding how this money will change them and those around them. > > For example someone mentioned gifting their family members 500k quid or something. > > Well what happens when they come back for the second 500k? You still have a billion dollars because you didn’t even give away one years interest (you can easily spend $40M a year with a billion indefinitely). > > So when they come back to the well do you say no? Why? 500k is literally nothing to you? What if they get mad and the family starts to disown you because you are being an “asshole” or whatever? Remember, again 500 is nothing to you at that point. > > Or do you have the family who keeps begging talk to your “people” who will “take care of it” for you? The handlers will start to appear and shield you. > > Most people don’t have the exposure to this kind of money to see how much this is going to change their life and most importantly their thinking. For me, I only have one family member I am planning on helping (Mom), and I know how she is going to act. (She’s also almost 80 - I don’t expect her to last that much longer anyway). My brother? I might start giving him $500 Amazon gift cards for presents instead of what I do now, but I already think he’s a jerk. If he gets mad at me for not making his life cushy, I won’t consider it a loss if he wants to cut ties. The only reason I don’t know is because of Mom. The rest of my family are much better off than I am currently, as well off as I am, or I don’t like them anyway. Again, the gift cards might be sweet, but I won’t be bankrolling their life to begin with, and if they are venal enough to be mad about it, I won’t consider it a loss. Come to think of it, I could hire a helper for my aunt, but if her very, very well off lawyer son hasn’t, maybe she doesn’t need it? And… I honestly don’t have many friends IRL - I have several facebook friends that I never interact with outside of the internet. There’s a couple of people at my work that I consider friends, but I’m prone to losing friends when I leave companies, so losing them would be almost expected. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/65 "2019-06-21T10:54:39Z")
> [@neutro](#): > > Now consider, what will it be like in 10 years? Consider now you’ve lived for 10 years as a billionaire. How would you change? How would that change what you do with the money? No worries, I’ll be dead in a decade. I’m 61. In ten years I’ll be 71 and that decade of extreme decadence will take its toll, but I’m cool with that. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/66 "2019-06-21T11:05:06Z")
Whenever my husband and I play the “What if we hit the lottery?” game, one thing that always comes up is scholarships. We’ve never figured out all the details, but we both agree on the value of education. So with a billion dollars, apart from making our lives as comfortable as we want and traveling as much as we want (first class, of course…) we’d establish a foundation to spread the wealth around for education. For now, the best we can do is set up a 529 plan for our granddaughter. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/67 "2019-06-21T14:42:25Z")
> [@neutro](#): > > I’m feeling like people aren’t really understanding how much money a billion is. Yeah, everyone seems to drastically under and over estimate how much a billion is. You aren’t going to solve poverty with a billion dollars. OTOH, I’m not sure how I would spend a billion dollars living even the most opulent life I can imagine. It’s like “no duh”, you’d pay off your mortgage and your children’s tuition. You could pay off a mortgage on the most expensive condo in Manhattan and have enough left over to donate an entire building to Harvard. > [@neutro](#): > > For example someone mentioned gifting their family members 500k quid or something. > > Well what happens when they come back for the second 500k? You still have a billion dollars because you didn’t even give away one years interest (you can easily spend $40M a year with a billion indefinitely). I don’t normally put a price on family…and yet here we are. The real problem is when every third cousin you’ve never met comes out of the woodwork. Although that’s not really a problem as they can just be told to fuck off and go back to not knowing they exist. > [@kayaker](#): > > No worries, I’ll be dead in a decade. I’m 61. In ten years I’ll be 71 and that decade of extreme decadence will take its toll, but I’m cool with that. With that sort of wealth, you could easily live another two, maybe three-hundred years.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/68 "2019-06-21T15:08:16Z")
I would split the pot five ways, pmr for the missus and myself, one each for the kids and their spouses and the fifth a trust fund for charity/the rest of the large extended family, some of whom need financial help that we can’t provide now. Since none of us are very interested in possessions or the trappings of wealth (of course, that hasn’t really been tested to date), a two or three percent return on the funds would make us ridiculously more comfortable and secure than we’ve ever imagined. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/69 "2019-06-21T15:43:40Z")
Nobody is going to inherit anything and family is getting minimal. Sit down with the accountants and figure out how much we can spend per year until I’m 100. Then establish lots and lots of scholarships. Maybe set up a few dozen “Magnificent Conspiracy” used car lots. Lots of businesses could be opened that are needed, and when you don’t need to show an instant profit or repay the capital investment it gets easier to do. Heck, give Detroit $10 million a year for 5 years to tear down buildings and create greenspaces out their abandoned neighborhoods. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/70 "2019-06-21T15:54:38Z")
A friend of mine’s plan for if he ever gets a hundred-million-dollar windfall is to buy politicians. No, not the President, or anything like that: That’s too expensive even for a billionaire. But that’ll still get you a lot of more local politicians, things like state legislators. Maybe he can’t single-handedly end poverty, but he can get a lot of people to vote for laws that he thinks will decrease poverty. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/71 "2019-06-21T18:46:13Z")
> [@neutro](#): > > Hard to say unless it happens. It only takes one greedy family member to screw a family up though. I’ve seen it happen first hand. If a family member turns into a dick now I would have no problem dumping them and I’m poor. That won’t change when I’m rich. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/72 "2019-06-22T22:36:27Z")
I pretty much wouldn’t do anything different other than quit my job and eat every meal at some expensive restaurant like I’m on a high-class cruise ship. Probably hire some top-rated chef and assistants to make all my meals so I wouldn’t have to bother with mingling with the peasants. I’d throw all the money into my Schwab account and manage it the same way I’m managing the funds of several magnitudes lower size, write up my will\* for what would happen to everything thing that’s left after I’m done with life, and continue being the lazy bum that I am when not at work, because that’s what I want to be. I can pretty much already afford everything I would actually want to stay entertained, with there being a large stack of video games that I’ve purchased and haven’t gotten to, having an extremely comfortable living space that I can’t imagine that spending money could actually improve, so other than the best food, there’s nothing I’d really want to change. Traveling in general is bad for the environment, so I only do so when economically necessary, thus in this hypothetical I would do much less of it. \*While I haven’t decided on what my will will look like quite yet, I have some ideas. I have no children (and highly doubt I ever will) and no siblings, so if I predecease my mother it all goes back to her, and otherwise goes to various charities that I find worthwhile. No one gets a cent until I’m dead though; you never know how much easing your suffering is going to cost you as you get older. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2019, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/73 "2019-06-22T22:41:24Z")
Oh, I guess the one thing I forgot would be to hire the best doctors and physical therapists to figure out what the hell is wrong with my back and what I could do to fix it with little risk. The fact that it didn’t occur to me initially is indicative of the fact that it’s not a huge deal, but it definitely is one of those things where if money was no longer a concern I’d try to get straightened out. I basically need to continually do some of the things I was taught in physical therapy to have it not bother me, and I’d rather have it fixed in some way so that I wouldn’t need to bother. And yes, it’s not just a normal back pain thing, there’s definitely some kind of pinched nerve, but I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole of trying to deal with it more than I already do unless I knew I could spare the money. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/74 "2019-08-21T11:49:31Z")
I came across a number of articles recently related to the concept of the “family office” at it made me think of this thread. Example: > **[Single-Family Offices And The Super-Rich Are Increasingly Using Retained...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/russalanprince/2018/05/21/single-family-office-and-the-super-rich-are-increasingly-using-retained-intermediates/#327db7964f00)** > > A substantially greater number of relatively less wealthy, single-family offices and rich families are now using retained intermediaries. While they add some cost to the process, they are proving to deliver superior results. Consequently, this trend... Basically, the concept is a number of families are so wealthy, they have what basically amounts to entire firms in areas such as law, accounting, private equity, etc solely dedicated to managing that family’s wealth as their only client. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/75 "2019-08-21T13:42:17Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > “Plaid Panty” is still an option, y’know. That should be the name of a Scottish lingerie store. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/76 "2019-08-21T15:07:51Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > That should be the name of a Scottish lingerie store. Gas station/Scottish lingerie store. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/77 "2019-08-21T17:02:49Z")
> [@Limmin](#): > > Turned out, I only “need” a much smaller figure, way less than a million, to make me comfortable and accomplish all these goals. You must not think very big; it’s EASY for me to imagine several million worth of expenditures- homes, cars, travel, vacations, etc… I suspect if I had a billion dollars, my first priority would be to set myself, my immediate family and my descendants up with trusts/college funds/etc… in case something catastrophic happened. That would probably leave something like 500-750 million left. I suspect at that point, I’d probably spend some relatively small amount like 10 million on “fun” stuff- houses, toys, etc… I don’t think I have the motivation or ambition to buy a company and try to run it (why would I? I already have a billion dollars!), so I imagine I’d hire an outfit to manage it for me, and I’d engage in my hobbies, volunteering and philanthropy. Somewhere in there, I’d probably engage the services of people to help me eat properly, exercise more and lose weight. I don’t imagine that would amount to more than a few hundred thousand a year though. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/78 "2019-08-21T18:04:14Z")
Normal Billionaire stuff. Nice properties in every place I would vacation a lot. Not super extravagant, maybe $1M properties (this would not buy much in a lot of prime vacation spots, e.g. [NYC](https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/what-does-a-million-dollar-apartment-in-nyc-look-like-233567)). A few nice cars at each of my nice houses. Extravagant house at home base. Nice yacht (we’ll say $2M), maybe a private jet (though chartering would likely be adequate). Decent houses and cars for any close relative that needed it. I could do all that for likely under $100M. Invest the rest, pull all returns of investment into charity. ---
**Author:** ![neutro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc8723/32.png) [@neutro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutro)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/79 "2019-09-12T17:50:03Z")
I’m struck by how many people would fund scholarships, that’s very laudable. I saw an article that Paul Allen’s yacht the Octopus is for sale for $325M USD. If you had a billion dollars this boat would actually be too much for you long term. With running costs likely in the $50-100M a year range as this boat has a lot of specialized equipment that requires maintenance for example a submarine, not to mention normal marine maintenance on what is basically a ship. Anyway, if I had like $10B I would totally buy that thing, it’s amazing. It’s not a normal sunshine yacht, the thing is built for adventure. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761/80 "2019-09-12T18:39:41Z")
> [@neutro](#): > > I’m struck by how many people would fund scholarships, that’s very laudable. > > I saw an article that Paul Allen’s yacht the Octopus is for sale for $325M USD. If you had a billion dollars this boat would actually be too much for you long term. > With running costs likely in the $50-100M a year range as this boat has a lot of specialized equipment that requires maintenance for example a submarine, not to mention normal marine maintenance on what is basically a ship. > > Anyway, if I had like $10B I would totally buy that thing, it’s amazing. It’s not a normal sunshine yacht, the thing is built for adventure. The two happiest days of a boat owner’s life - the day he buys the boat, and the day he sells it. But you are correct - buying anything high-maintenance like that is how you lose money. I would rather donate a lot to some scientific foundation to get them some cool new equipment, and then expect to be treated like royalty by them - guided tours of the new space telescopy base, or the particle accelerator, or whatever. A billion wouldn’t be enough, but one fantasy is to be so rich that I could call together a conference of aeronautical and space engineers, and walk out in front of them and say “We’re going to Mars. Who wants to come along?” Regards, Shodan [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-what-if-you-had-a-billion-dollars/835761.md?page=5)