Ask Lemmy

Obviously I'm gonna work out how much to set aside to live comfortably off the interest forever first. That should not require a big percentage of that much money. Get myself a house, make sure my loved ones are set and comfortable too.

Next I'm going to set aside a chunk of it to be completely irresponsible with. I'm gonna get on a train and see all the bits of Europe I want to see, stay in nice hotels, eat in fancy restaurants, and bring my friends and family along to various bits of it. There are a few things like videogames I would like to see developed but do not have the skills to make myself, so I'll throw a few tens of millions at those ideas. If they work out, awesome, they might even pay for themselves. I've always liked vehicle design so I will get a car coachbuilt. Not something flashy and loud, just something exactly how I decide it should be. A bunch of custom-built guitars.

So with needs and vices taken care of, and I cannot imagine I have even come close to getting through the first of five billions yet, it's time to actually try to do some good. I have a strong casual interest in history, so I think I'd enjoy funding work to be done by local institutions in places that are currently relatively under-explored. Ask universities in these places what they want, ask nothing in return other than that someone shows me whatever cool stuff they've learned every so often. You want to take the time to laser-scan a bunch of ancient buildings like the Zamani project is doing? Hell yeah, I'll pay everyone's wages for that. My thinking here is that if I'm not directing it I'm unlikely to unintentionally fuck something up through ignorance, and by paying for skilled work that is not extracting anything physical I am hopefully giving the local economies a boost in a way that should not result in me undercutting any local industries or anything

I'd set up an NAEC level 4 epilepsy center for low income families, both adults and kids on separate floors. I figure between the MRI, EEG, MEG, SPECT, PET, doctors, surgeons, nursing, land, building, etc I could burn through some of that money and possibly setup an endowment that would allow it to run perpetually. If successful I'd setup secondary and tertiary sites in rural areas, all free of cost for the patients if viable.

Investments, trust funds, paying off debt and my mortgage. Set up enough in investments that I'll always have a million or so in post-tax interest income.

Trust funds and investments for my family so they have money coming in.

Remodel my house.

Rent a condo in Wrigleyville during the Cubs season. Rent a condo in Mesa during spring training.

Open a bar or two.

Hire a dietician/personal cook.

Buy a handful of cars, the most extravagant would probably be a Catterham.

Open an automotive shop to restore cars. I know that'll be a loss but it will be a good hobby for something I like to do.

Travel a bunch. Follow the Cubs for a season and go to every game.

Buy dual citizenship somewhere.

Donate to AOCs campaign.

Club 33 membership.

Occasionally take private jets when I fly, but pick up families that are flying coach when I go and bring them along for free. It's no fun being alone.

Do a bunch of the traditional billionaire things like go fishing on a private yacht.

Finally not stress about going out to dinner.

I've got a nearby city that's been exploding in popularity. Creating my own suburb nearish to that should be sustainable, and reduce the inflation of COL.

I'd become a sponsor of the Trillion Tree Project to help mitigate the effects of climate change.

I'd organize a group to help clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and probably find some way to reuse all that plastic, to reduce the amount of new plastic that needs to be created.

Take a day off

buy/build a house at boat club, open a cafe and just deposit rest of the amount in bank. might buy some land too.

ps. boat club is a place in chennai that's known for its insane land price.

Well, my "if I won the lottery" fantasy only requires a few million. One by one, I'd tell my mates to come check out my new place, which turns out to be a condo at Circuit of the Americas. While we're overlooking my collection of mint-condition shitbox cars that have no reason to be preserved, I'd hand them a check for enough money to wipe out their debts and buy a house... along with a non-disclosure agreement.

Then I'd disappear for a while, taking a road trip around the country without any sort of financial or scheduling concerns. Just show up in a random city, spend a few weeks seeing all the sights at my own pace, then moving along whenever I feel like it.

Going from millions to billions, I doubt I'd deviate from that plan too much. Once I've got myself and my mates set for life, I guess I'd set the remaining 4.9 billion pounds aside for any impulse buys, like an F1 team or a couple hundred politicians.

Assuming 6 million after taxes, I’d immediately pay all my debts and then set myself up with interest bearing instruments giving me $100k income per year.

After that I’d just chill and start traveling, looking for something to get involved in.

After buying a home in a nice, non-HOA demon neighborhood, probably end up working on a company that makes mid-range phones with a headphone jack, slot for 2 SIM cards and a microSD, and have the system run on a 3rd party Linux OS capable of running APK files and other android apps. I'd definitely wanna have good R&D put into making sure it sandboxes android apps and makes it only allowed to see what's in the sandbox, though, so go*gle cannot see what you do.

That, or just straight up start up my idea for the Open Access Oasis community, where we believe open access to all scholarly articles found on databases like go*gle scholar and other such sites should be free in order to create a brighter tomorrow. Only exceptions to that being things like malware, viruses, worms, Trojans, etcetera, hidden behind a paywall not going open access because most people would just end up damaging their own devices. The idea I had/have for the logo is a playing card of the dual king in a lab coat being hung with an oasis in the background. That, and the card suit being a $, a king of $.

I may keep 1m, that's way more than what I need to live this life and donate the rest to hospitals and education institutions.