# who wants to be a millionaire? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 4, 2000, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613 "2000-10-04T14:09:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/1 "2000-10-04T14:09:43Z")
SO what would _you_ do with a million dollars? ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/2 "2000-10-04T14:18:35Z")
The only thing I do know is my manager would be getting a phone call very shortly afterwards. No more button pressing 😃 Then I’d have to work stuff out. ---
**Author:** ![Skummet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Skummet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skummet)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/3 "2000-10-04T14:22:20Z")
Buy my mom a car. Buy my dad a new boat. Go to the states and marry my girl. Spend money on a good college. Maybe have a beer or two 😉 The rest i would just figure out along the way i think… ---
**Author:** ![Smasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@Smasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smasher)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/4 "2000-10-04T14:34:58Z")
Party, party, party and might buy my girlfriends a little trinket or two to keep um happy. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/5 "2000-10-04T14:58:18Z")
1. I would pay off my enormous debt. 2. I would pay off the mortgages on my moms and sisters houses. 3. I would buy an Izuzu Rodeo, 'cause the look cool. 4. I would buy season tickets to the Dodgers and Angels. 5. I would visit the “Houses of ill-repute” in Nevada. 6. I would buy a condo and finish college. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/6 "2000-10-04T14:59:11Z")
1. Set up a trust fund for my son so that his college education is taken care of. 2. Buy the house I’m renting. 3. Buy two new vehicles. 4. Pay off every bill I owe. 5. Go on vacation. 6. Save the rest. You know, to be perfectly honest, I don’t think I’d quit working. I really enjoy what I do (for the most part - there ARE days, though) and I’d get bored doing nothing all day. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/7 "2000-10-04T21:10:58Z")
Move to Paris, and spend most of my time painting (which I do here, but this ain’t Paris). ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/8 "2000-10-04T21:17:25Z")
Buy a lifeboat. I saw a TV program once about saving people at sea. They showed video footage shot from shore as a lifeboat tried to get the crew off a stricken trawler. The waves kept the trawler swaying wildly, and it was incredibly dangerous. The lifeboat just kept going till everyone was saved. Later they asked a lifeboatman what he would do if there was a distress call on a stormy night with 30 foot waves. “I’d go out.” he said. “We always answer a call for help.” Lifeboatmen are unpaid volunteers. Buy a lifeboat. ---
**Author:** ![tatertot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@tatertot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tatertot)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/9 "2000-10-04T21:42:22Z")
Well now that **Glee** mentioned it, I’d buy a lifeboat! This sounds boring, but I’d spend about half of the rest on for a house, new furniture, ect. and the rest I’d invest so that me and MisterTot can have a kick-ass retirement around the time the TinyTot(s) move out of the house. We’ll probably be only in our early fifties then, so we’ll have a good 15-20 years of living large! We’ll travel all over the world, doing cool old people things. Then again, I’m one of the few people I know who looks forward to being 55. 🙂 And once I hit 65, it’s senior discount time, so I’ll be able to live even larger! ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/10 "2000-10-04T23:28:02Z")
Probably something along the lines of a Ferrari 360 Modena. And given the recent developments, I’d probably need the other 800,000 for fuel! ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2000, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/11 "2000-10-05T01:42:52Z")
Invest it in a nice diversified portfolio so I can still have some left when I retire. You have _no_ idea how little money a million bucks is these days. ---
**Author:** ![hypergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/49beb7/32.png) [@hypergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hypergirl)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2000, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/12 "2000-10-05T02:52:54Z")
I would get myself a car, and pay the insurance on it. Move out of my parents house, buy some clothes and cheap fun stuff. And invest the rest. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2000, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/13 "2000-10-05T03:16:39Z")
Pay for college Buy a house Buy a car Save and invest the rest. ---
**Author:** ![Snark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Snark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snark)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2000, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/14 "2000-10-05T13:10:27Z")
Buy a house in the middle of nowhere. Soundproof this house so I can’t hear outside noises. Get a degree by Independent Study from BYU. Pay my parents back all the money I owe them. Share the rest with the sibs and friends. Oh, and pay back my credit card debts in full. Oh yeah, that’d be nice. ---
**Author:** ![Edwardina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Edwardina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edwardina)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2000, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/15 "2000-10-05T17:30:38Z")
I’d buy myself a condo, a car, a new computer, and sit on the rest like the most paranoid hen imaginable with a plutonium egg under her butt. ---
**Author:** ![Idnew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/278dde/32.png) [@Idnew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idnew)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2000, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/16 "2000-10-06T13:46:33Z")
I’d see just how miserable I could make my ex husband by buying him out anon and waiting till the deal was closed then let him know who the real buyer was. ---
**Author:** ![nadin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/46a35a/32.png) [@nadin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nadin)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2000, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/17 "2000-10-06T14:43:34Z")
But if you’tr offering I’m not going to say no to a million dollars either. I’d invest half of it in the stock market and use about $4000 to backpack around the world in my gap year, going to Paris, Prague, Venice, Amsterdam then going across to St Petersburg, Moscow and go across to Asia and travel around India, see where my father grew up in Pakistan then go on to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and China and get fat eating stir fry and other yummy foods. I’d also get clothes tailor made for me out there and enjoy a bit of R&R before going on to New Zealand and Austraila to do go diving off the Great Barrier Reef and chill in Sydney and then go trekking and see Ayer’s rock. Then I’d go off to Africa and work as a volunteer in a school or help build a hospital. I’d use some of my money to put in a clean water supply in the villages and I’d sponsor a child through school and university. I’d go on safari and watch beautiful sunsets and animals roam across the savannah. I’d go to Cape Town and then I’d see if I could meet Nelson Mandela. Now I’d try America and see everyStates and go to Canada and learn how to snowboard. Hell I don’t wnat much - now can i get my money? ---
**Author:** ![Nimue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Nimue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nimue)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2000, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/18 "2000-10-06T19:11:04Z")
I would buy two houses, one in the US and one in the UK, and my husband and I would spend six months of the year in each. That way we’d never have to choose between countries. ---
**Author:** ![Gravity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gravity/32/14322_2.png) [@Gravity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gravity)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2000, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/19 "2000-10-06T19:25:39Z")
Oh, the usual. A small but nice house. A not-too-used car. An apartment building. and I’d save and invest the rest. K. ---
**Author:** ![wireless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@wireless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wireless)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2000, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/35613/20 "2000-10-06T22:20:05Z")
and figured out a $mil isn’t really enough to live on comfortably for the rest of one’s life without working. What with taxes and inflation and health insurance and everything. It would take about $3mil. If someone gave me $3MM, I’d 1. Invest the bulk of it 2. Take a year or so to travel and learn some new languages 3. Decide where I want to live, buy a smallish place and start a small _seasonal_ business - so I’d still have something to do (look forward to), but also have big chunks of free time to do other things 4. Start or contribute to a program to keep middle school-age girls involved in the sciences and math (which leads to good jobs which leads to self sufficiency, etc.) If someone gave me $1M, I’d 1. Invest it and keep working and try to turn it into $3M so I could do [see above].