View Full Version : If you were a billionaire
flowerseverywhere
11-3-19, 4:41pm
So I was reading an article on Billionaires. If tomorrow you woke up and suddenly were on the billionaire list, what would you do with your money? Some buy gigantic homes, fancy cars, jewelry, yachts and so on. Some turn to political influence, some to funding pet projects (think Carnegie libraries) schools.
i know the members here are people who live close to the poverty line, to people living solely off investments while their capital continues to grow and everything in between. I’m thinking about what my priorities would be. I doubt any political. I doubt many more possessions, but DH would have a ton of fun getting a fancy sports car I bet. Of course help family members with school and house loans, and college accounts for the young ones. Not enough to take away the responsibility of good money management from them, but a nice boost. Maybe buy land to give to the nature conservancy or go to the local schools and see what they need.
What are your thought if you had a huge amount of unneeded to live on income?
I would retire, then assist family members and others I personally know, then support worthy nonprofits in my local community. With a billion I could also buy the horrible utility company and set up a cooperative one with more reliable infrastructure and green sources of power. They are a monopoly with zero concern for the lives, safety, and service of their customers.
iris lilies
11-3-19, 4:56pm
Ugh, a billion, no thanks.What a burden that would be as late as it is in my life. I would have to cut down on doing the fun things I like doing to manage The ( mf) Money.
Couldn’t I just get a straight 10 million instead of billions?
Quite frankly, I am with IL on this. I don't want the responsibility of managing a lot of money.
That said, I am an admirer of the micro-loan concept that is in operation in Africa especially helping women. Loan enough to buy a cow or some chickens or a sewing machine etc. and enable the women to support themselves. They pay back the loan with a small rate of interest and it gets loaned out again. I would fund education opportunities such as traveling libraries anywhere in the world that is significantly lacking such support.
Teacher Terry
11-3-19, 6:00pm
Help family and then build a tiny house or apartment community to get homeless people off the street and connected to services. The city of Columbus did this and it was hugely successful.
I am with IL. That is why I am not interested in the big lotteries. I start thinking about all the negatives and complexities and dont ever buy a ticket.
I'd keep $5-$10 million to live off of for the rest of my days, then deploy the rest for public good.
I am pretty satisfied with what I have. I have lived a simple but not hugely frugal lifestyle so long I've grown to like and am in the FI stage pretty much. All of my relatives are well set, too. I'd keep maybe a million for no special reason I can think of other than the unforeseen and start some sort of benevolent foundation. I would like to buy a Tesla pickup truck when they come out.
I'd be happy to accept the gift. After taxes, I would promptly give 90% to the local organizations I already give to monthly. (I mean, who doesn't want to donate to Planned Parenthood in Mike Pences' name (my husband laughs every time this occurs). I would take the remainder and build a small retirement community similar to what my Grandparents had in the Netherlands. One starts in an independent 1 bed/1 bath apartment. Visiting care can come in when the time comes. Full Care facility on site when the time comes-this one has to move into. Address never changes. Friends never leave. AND, plenty of grounds for raised bed gardens. Wheelchair accessible.
Teacher Terry
11-3-19, 8:41pm
Gard, I love your donation on behalf of pence:))
Gard, I love your donation on behalf of pence:))
https://www.weareplannedparenthood.org/onlineactions/pDx935xrFUyL1_-6u12vCQ2
I also agree with IL. That just sounds like a huge amount of work. I'd probably buy a nice fee simple home in palm springs for myself and SO and then spend some time figuring out where the money could do the most good for the most people. But ugggh, honestly I'd rather not have to feel the responsibility of doing something productive with all that money. So much easier to just win a million bucks, retire comfortably and be done with it.
flowerseverywhere
11-4-19, 6:16am
It would be a lot of work, but the lives you could change would make up for it.
In a nearby town, there is a lot of poverty and school performance is poor, many way below grade level. What if you could hire a staff that could do things like :
contact the schools in your area and find out what they need. New wing with a reading lab staffed by reading specialists? A band teacher and instruments? School provided uniforms to take the stigma out of being poor. Laundry facilities so kids can get their clothes washed if need be. Who knows what the needs are.
What if you could pay the tuition of medical school students? Or help with their massive loans?
what about a boys and girls club type center, staffed with well paid professionals and a nice facility with basketball courts, soccer fields and all?
A community garden with a paid onsite gardener with a well equipped tool shed.
Scholarships for nursing students, engineering students, and trades like plumbing and electricians.
Obviously what I think is needed and what is actually needed could be very different, so a hired staff to explore and implement some of these things would give many people enormous skills and resources. Way more than giving actual cash.
Even donations to really good causes. Planned parenthood was mentioned. Let’s try to reduce abortions by having lots of clinics where women can get education reliable birth control. Nature conservancy. Numerous environmental and educational groups.
Could it be a hassle? Of course but everything that is worthwhile is a hassle.
Let’s try to reduce abortions by having lots of clinics where women can get education reliable birth control.
Men can use birth control too. That kind of money could probably bring a pill for men to market.
I agree with the "burden" of owning a billion dollars, but if I were in that position, I'd make sure my family was taken care of in terms of housing, education and health, and then my philanthropic enterprises would probably skew toward local needs.
I've always thought that if I could start a non-profit, I would do something like a "Grandma's purse" type of charity where poor/at risk kids in school would have a way to get small amounts of money to fund back lunch money, new school clothes for start of year, and field trips. Stuff like that. Things that I had a hard time doing for my kids when we were cash-strapped. I never wanted my kids to suffer for it in terms of peer pressure or shame and sometimes that was hard to avoid. My thought was that the kid or the parent could ask "Grandma" for a few bucks for X, Y and Z, and they could get it without a lot of bureaucracy and red tape.
Aside from that I'd fund land restoration and regeneration projects and lobby Washington for food subsidy programs that benefit SMALL farmers and set up an NGO to educate regular people on permaculture.
flowerseverywhere
11-4-19, 7:19am
Men can use birth control too. That kind of money could probably bring a pill for men to market.
Absolutely. I thought of women first as many are left to fend for themselves and raise children alone. A common recipe for lifelong struggles and poverty.
flowerseverywhere
11-4-19, 7:23am
Aside from that I'd fund land restoration and regeneration projects and lobby Washington for food subsidy programs that benefit SMALL farmers and set up an NGO to educate regular people on permaculture.
nice ideas but I don’t know enough about how subsidies work and who they really benefit. Helping small farmers would be great around me. Lots of farms and the more local you can get your food, the better for the environment. A huge permaculture farm is being constructed near me now. I hope it is truly successful.
I would happily deal with the burden, haha. After setting up trusts for my family and meeting our needs down to the grandchildren's generation,I would love to spend time as a force of good in the world. I would go for scholarships for all the students I teach and restoration of farms as my mission. And I would spend a lot of time teaching my children and grandchildren about their responsibilities to be stewards and work for good. I'm sure they will have many more ideas than I do right now.
I will be honest and admit I would not spent it all on dogoodery. Whatever President Warren allows me to keep will be divided into four portions. One will be used to endow the little nonprofit I run. One will go to my political action committee aimed at promoting my traditional conservative views. One will go to an income trust for me and my lucky descendants.
The last quarter I will spend on selfish pleasures. I would gild my throne of skulls. Perhaps purchase a minor league baseball team. Hardcover books, fast cars and a bunker in the Northwoods where I would withdraw for meditation and day drinking.
I would spend more on myself if I thought I could do it effectively.
iris lilies
11-4-19, 8:44am
It would be a lot of work, but the lives you could change would make up for it.
In a nearby town, there is a lot of poverty and school performance is poor, many way below grade level. What if you could hire a staff that could do things like :
contact the schools in your area and find out what they need. New wing with a reading lab staffed by reading specialists? A band teacher and instruments? School provided uniforms to take the stigma out of being poor. Laundry facilities so kids can get their clothes washed if need be. Who knows what the needs are.
What if you could pay the tuition of medical school students? Or help with their massive loans?
what about a boys and girls club type center, staffed with well paid professionals and a nice facility with basketball courts, soccer fields and all?
A community garden with a paid onsite gardener with a well equipped tool shed.
Scholarships for nursing students, engineering students, and trades like plumbing and electricians.
Obviously what I think is needed and what is actually needed could be very different, so a hired staff to explore and implement some of these things would give many people enormous skills and resources. Way more than giving actual cash.
Even donations to really good causes. Planned parenthood was mentioned. Let’s try to reduce abortions by having lots of clinics where women can get education reliable birth control. Nature conservancy. Numerous environmental and educational groups.
Could it be a hassle? Of course but everything that is worthwhile is a hassle.
ok, several points.
First if all, the bold parts of your message are arrogant. If we truly are talking about me spending the rest of my life, all of my life energy, managing a stupid amount of money I didnt ask for, that is placing a burden on me. I get only one life. It is like someone telling me to go back to work for the good of society and hang my personal goals. No.
Now, before I am accused of a paucity of imagination for spending a billion dollars or am further accused of selfishness for not wanting to spend my last few years on earth fussing with stuff I dont care about, let me speak to my main reason for not wanting one billion dollars.
I have responsibility for what I do on earth. Throwing around $1 billion mindlessly would, I guarantee, result in some unintended consequences that I would not like. It might result in MANY unintended consequences. $1 billion is a shit ton of money.
I dont think throwing money at human services necessarily makes things better. For instance from examples above, for dr and nurses schooling is fine, but that doesn't put more docs on the ground—the medical schools control that. So why not start up a medical school with much of the tuition paid to add more drs to the fleet? Maybe, but I can see all kinds of social problems with that.
I wouldn't touch, in another for instance, funding a birth control drug that works for men.I don't know the health consequences.
I realize that great societal changes do not come without bold moves and unintended consequences. I just DO NOT want to be a social engineer.
Turning to a microcosmic social world I know best, bulldog rescue, all the money in the world does not buy dogs good homes. A few million coild be well spent but would overwhelm any single Rescue organization unless structured for payout over the years, and that kind of foundation brings its own problems (Ladies Who Lunch building palaces of Rescue, for instance.)
I will probably have more on this to say later, but I iterate, give me $10 million please, and thank you. i know what to do with that small amount.
iris lilies
11-4-19, 8:55am
Well, I will say that I could spend a billion pretty quickly shoring up architectural gems worldwide. Yeah, that’s the ticket. I might work with UNESCO World Heritage sites if I found those people pleasant and not annoying.
None of my money would go to social do-gooding for humans, old buildings would get the lion’s share. But, I suspect saving a bunch of crumbling castles in Scotland would lead to the same problem as Rescue bulldogs—is there a cadre of humans to adopt and maintain them?
If I only got $10 million that money already in my mind funds the replacement of the Victorian fence around our neighborhood Park. That project is $2 -$3 million.
iris lilies
11-4-19, 9:00am
Oh, and I would donate a lot to Senator Rand Paul’s campaign in the name of all of the liberals on this board.
It's fun to read inspirational and aspirational stories of the good you'd all like to do, but have any of you realized that the political machine most of you pay homage to intends to take your billion dollars from you in short order? Does that change your plans?
I meant to say earlier that most of my students are nursing students, and getting scholarships would change trajectories for so many families, and provide economic stability to so many. Plus it would mean we would have more wonderful nurses in the world!
I have already donated for textbooks, and it brings me great satisfaction. Scholarships would be the next step for me. And I obviously would not need a billion dollars to do it--it would just get there a lot faster and farther!
Barn preservation would be another area where I would find great happiness in rural heritage preservation.
Both of these things are things we have already been doing, so it would just mean I could do as much of it as I wanted, which would be an amazing thing.
It's fun to read inspirational and aspirational stories of the good you'd all like to do, but have any of you realized that the political machine most of you pay homage to intends to take your billion dollars from you in short order? Does that change your plans?
I am confused, Alan. Has the debt at all levels not risen exorbitantly over the past couple of years with diverse politicians in power? What political machinery will avoid this?
It's fun to read inspirational and aspirational stories of the good you'd all like to do, but have any of you realized that the political machine most of you pay homage to intends to take your billion dollars from you in short order? Does that change your plans?
I think it’s a given you’d need to spend a good amount on lawyers, accountants and assorted fixers to protect your nut from the government and private sector grifters. Not only would you be targeted for vilification and confiscation by the you-didn’t-build-that school of Democrats, but you would need to fend off the various lawsuits, swindles and physical threats of th criminal community.
iris lilies
11-4-19, 11:03am
I am confused, Alan. Has the debt at all levels not risen exorbitantly over the past couple of years with diverse politicians in power? What political machinery will avoid this?
why is it “confusing” to you that this new proposed tax is not welcome? Your comment begs the question: is the only solution to our country’s deficit spending a wealth tax?
I dont think so.
I am confused, Alan. Has the debt at all levels not risen exorbitantly over the past couple of years with diverse politicians in power? What political machinery will avoid this?
I took his point to be that a government that robs Alan to pay Rob can always count on the support of Rob. Thus, the prudent billionaire must take what steps he can to limit the damage. And not just for himself. If Warren gets her 6% wealth tax, all those wicked rich people would need to sell securities to pay it. This will depress their value for everyone foolish enough to have prioritized saving and investment, even if they didn’t qualify as class enemies.
I am confused, Alan. Has the debt at all levels not risen exorbitantly over the past couple of years with diverse politicians in power? What political machinery will avoid this?
National debt and individual wealth are two different things. Popular promises to impound and eliminate the latter in support of new spending will have no impact on the former. But that's a side issue, I'm more interested in whether people realize their favorite politicians intend to take away their ability to follow their benevolent dreams should they ever be lucky enough to be in a position to make a difference.
That was intended as more of a thought experiment than a thread disruption, everyone please carry on.
flowerseverywhere
11-4-19, 12:40pm
National debt and individual wealth are two different things. Popular promises to impound and eliminate the latter in support of new spending will have no impact on the former. But that's a side issue, I'm more interested in whether people realize their favorite politicians intend to take away their ability to follow their benevolent dreams should they ever be lucky enough to be in a position to make a difference.
That was intended as more of a thought experiment than a thread disruption, everyone please carry on.
actually it is an important consideration. And everyone can make an individual choice if the would choose to take the money, refuse it, give it all t the government or shield as much as possible, and I had not even thought about taxes. All things to consider.
I actually posted in the healthcare thread my apologies to IL about sounding judgemental and arrogant. I worded that incorrectly.
Teacher Terry
11-4-19, 12:54pm
Of course you would pay taxes on the windfall and need to hire professional accountants, etc. We already donate to animal/people causes so that would just happen at a much larger scale. Although I love old buildings I wouldn’t put my money towards them.
I mean, who doesn't want to donate to Planned Parenthood in Mike Pences' name (my husband laughs every time this occurs).
Gard, I love your donation on behalf of pence:))
That's funny isn't it? I get giggly just thinking about all the abortions funded this way, the more the merrier, right?
Thank you for the clarification on the difference between national debt and wealth tax proposed. I should know better by now than to post when I am not understanding the issues in the US.
Teacher Terry
11-4-19, 1:49pm
Alan, PP spends most of the money on providing health care and birth control to low income women which prevents unplanned pregnancy. That makes me happy. Unwanted kids are often abused and raised in poverty.
Alan, PP spends most of the money on providing health care and birth control to low income women which prevents unplanned pregnancy. That makes me happy. Unwanted kids are often abused and raised in poverty.
But it relies on donations only for abortions since it's illegal to spend government money for that purpose. Plus, as far as I know VP Pence does not disapprove of health care for women, it's only funny when abortions are involved. Right?
ApatheticNoMore
11-4-19, 2:14pm
I don't need a billion, noone does. Now with a smaller amount (millions not billions), I'd buy a house, i'd help my mom fix up her house (have the urge to help now but shouldn't probably, but tired of the situation). I probably wouldn't do this job. I don't much care about charity and have little urge to give to it, although maybe I would give money to a nature preserve. If I could preserve nature I would. I would not donate to the kind of candidate that would accept that kind of donation.
It's pretty arrogant to think that if only I was a billionaire I could fix everything that isn't fixed now.
Teacher Terry
11-4-19, 2:49pm
Abortion is legal. I wish we would get to a place where they are unnecessary. But as long as women get raped or BC failed there will be a need. Plus most late term abortions occur when the birth defects are so severe that the baby will die shortly after birth and suffer greatly. Many were planned pregnancies and the stories are heartbreaking to read.
That's funny isn't it? I get giggly just thinking about all the abortions funded this way, the more the merrier, right?
Such a smart-ass. Go ahead, giggle your head off. That tells me how little you choose to understand Planned Parenthood and what it provides to communities of women. This data is from the 2017/18 report:
4,712,985STI Testing and Treatment
741,352 HIV tests conducted
240,489 STIs diagnosed
2,620,867Birth Control Informationand Services
1,870,664 Reversible contraception clients
631,510 Emergency contraception kitsApproximately
402,000Unintended pregnancies averted byPlanned Parenthood’s contraceptiveservices
2570,444Breast Exams and Pap Tests
296,310 Breast exams provided
274,145 Pap tests performed
70,193 Women whose cancer was detectedearly or whose abnormalities were identified
1.2 millionPeople reached througheducation & outreach
Yes, they do offer abortion services. It is 3.4% of what they do. They provide a great deal of education and healthcare to women. I would have been 22 before I had any healthcare after age 18 were it not for PP. And free birth control until I made more than minimum wage. (because of course, it wasn't covered by insurance because pregnancy and birth are cheaper????) sigh.........
I don't need a billion, noone does.
I do!
With $1 billion, with the IRS' reasonable-ish mandatory minimum distribution requirement of 5% for family foundations, I'd have about $50 million/year I could devote to philanthropy, and I think I could do a lot of good with that. And probably more efficiently and effectively than the federal, state, or local governments could.
Abortion is legal. I wish we would get to a place where they are unnecessary. But as long as women get raped or BC failed there will be a need. Plus most late term abortions occur when the birth defects are so severe that the baby will die shortly after birth and suffer greatly. Many were planned pregnancies and the stories are heartbreaking to read.
It's tiresome that this truth needs to be restated over and over and over. "Abortion on demand" and "partial-birth abortions" only exist in the minds of the forced-birth crowd. Abortion always represents a failure of some kind, so in a perfect world it wouldn't be necessary. But this is far from a perfect world.
Charity is the only reason I can think of for wanting a fortune of that size, but distributing the monies involved among all the need in the world would be a huge responsibility. Buying corrupt politicians isn't my cup of tea.
I can think of a lot of reasons for wanting a fortune that size, ranging from generosity to virtue signaling to power to freedom to security to whims both savory and unsavory. Maybe even the pure spiteful pleasure of irritating the people who resent the existence of fortunes and their owners.
I suspect it’s a lot easier to put imaginary money where one’s mouth is than the genuine article.
Reportedly, many past winners of lotteries have been unhappy and broke in a short time. Not sure if that is still true as more experience and knowledge about how to protect oneself has become more readily available. That is not the point of this thread but I suspect handling large sums of money require expertise beyond the average person's knowledge. I am including this post to ask if any of us can realistically answer the original question the OP posed?
Fun considering this possibility though.
If all the money I've spent (and mostly continue to spend) foolishly were miraculously restored to me, I'd buy a small house or condo outright and move in at my leisure, while rehabbing this place to sell.
This is an interesting thread, although the last entry is 3 months ago! Well in reality if I were to receive a billion ($1,000,000,000) dollars, I would call up the most reputable trust company I could find for help! If one makes 2% per year interest on the money, that's $20,000,000 per year income! IRS tends to become very chummy at that point, not to mention your state and local governments. You might be surprised at how busy they can keep you. Then, there are all of those people who want to make money with your money. It wouldn't be simple living anymore! Bicyclist (I'll stick to bicycling)
IRS audits of rich taxpayers is ridiculously small, and has become smaller the last few years (something like from 6% to 3%). Just in case you come into money...:~)
happystuff
2-16-20, 9:45am
While reality may differ, I don't feel right now that it would be a burden, but would actually be fun and joyous to spend and share. My hope would be that I eventually use it all up in positive ways (MY definitely of positive!), helping both myself and others. As it would be an unexpected "windfall", I don't feel the need to use it to make "more", but instead use it, again, in ways I believe to be positive and helpful to myself and others.
I admit that I buy a lottery ticket on rare occasions. Doing so always leads to just this sort of thought exercise, and I usually come around to more of a sense of dread at winning than I do a sense of hope (greed, fantasy, whatever it is).
I always have a list of things I would like to do with money, if I were given a chunk and ordered to spend, rather than save or invest it. Those amounts, however, are always in the three to three-hundred thousand dollar range. A passive solar rebuild of our house, ground source heat pump - actually, that's about all I have on my personal fantasy list right now. I also often think of opening a shop that sells and services things I love, but which I don't think I can make a profit selling and servicing - 3-speed bicycles, typewriters, rotary phones, mechanical alarm clocks, etc. All things I use, but which I can't find a good shop for in town. I'd also love to manufacture those things. I have a baby ben series 6 alarm clock I love. It ticks quietly. It looks nice. Why can't I go to the store and buy one? Why do I have to get them on Ebay? Whenever I think about starting my own business, those are the types of things I want to manufacture-sell-service. To me, it represents a huge gap in the market, but then I think people just don't want to buy those things anymore. But if I had a billion dollars, I could go into business making and selling things I love without worrying too much about whether there was widespread demand for them.
My biggest concern, when I go through that particular thought experiment, is privacy. I love my house. I love where we're located. With the lottery, particularly, where your name gets published, I wonder if people would be stopping by and knocking on the door with various requests and calling us on the phone - eventually, my imagination runs to kidnappings and ransoms! Would we have to change the way we live and the way we feel about the people around us?
No thank you. It's good that I'm not ever likely to win even five dollars in the lottery.
happystuff
2-21-20, 6:23pm
My biggest concern, when I go through that particular thought experiment, is privacy. I love my house. I love where we're located. With the lottery, particularly, where your name gets published, I wonder if people would be stopping by and knocking on the door with various requests and calling us on the phone - eventually, my imagination runs to kidnappings and ransoms! Would we have to change the way we live and the way we feel about the people around us?
More and more states are slowly coming around to privacy/safety issues often associated with winning the lottery and are allowing anonymity for winners.
I got an interesting insight from my boss about buying lottery tickets. When she was asked if she bought lottery tickets, she said she didn't because she "works too hard." I think her point was her work has the real value, and winning the lottery would cheapen it. I've always kept that in the back of my mind (even as I'm scratching off letters in the crossword ticket DH buys for me now and then :)
I have always thought I would rue the day I won a big lottery.
happystuff
2-21-20, 6:38pm
I got an interesting insight from my boss about buying lottery tickets. When she was asked if she bought lottery tickets, she said she didn't because she "works too hard." I think her point was her work has the real value, and winning the lottery would cheapen it. I've always kept that in the back of my mind (even as I'm scratching off letters in the crossword ticket DH buys for me now and then :)
I have always thought I would rue the day I won a big lottery.
Okay, my good friend, catherine! - so if you win big on one of your crossword scratch-offs, you can contact me and I shall ease your burden - LOL. ;)
I got an interesting insight from my boss about buying lottery tickets. When she was asked if she bought lottery tickets, she said she didn't because she "works too hard." I think her point was her work has the real value, and winning the lottery would cheapen it. I've always kept that in the back of my mind (even as I'm scratching off letters in the crossword ticket DH buys for me now and then :)
I have always thought I would rue the day I won a big lottery.
I say the some thing as your boss. I work too hard for my money to waste it on a ticket. For all the lottery tickets that are bought, how much money is wasted? Lotteries administration make the huge salaries; a few people win prizes - just enough to keep people enticed to keep throwing money away.
I was at a local store to pick up some items held at the customer service. A woman with a worn out winter coat and shabby toque and purse was buying lottery tickets - $25 worth. Does she do this every week? She had brought her older tickets in for verification and won just a few dollars. 25x52+$1300/yr possibly being spent? Lotteries are a lousy form of addiction that seems to target the most vulnerable. Keep the price low to attract those with limited means and handing out minimal amounts in winnings. So many tickets are sold. Sometimes the lineup to buy lottery tickets is quite long and aggravating when you are waiting to make a purchase.
I confess that I bought one ticket with a group once to help complete the required number for that group but declined to ever repeat. I work too hard to waste my money.
Quit my job, and adopt a bunch of elderly dogs. And hire someone to look after them when I'm travelling.
iris lilies
2-24-20, 1:21am
Quit my job, and adopt a bunch of elderly dogs. And hire someone to look after them when I'm travelling.
Are used to think I would if Rich run a home for elderly bulldogs.
Then one day I looked around my house and found – a bunch of elderly bulldogs. So I guess I ended up here anyway without winning a lottery.
Are used to think I would if Rich run a home for elderly bulldogs.
Then one day I looked around my house and found – a bunch of elderly bulldogs. So I guess I ended up here anyway without winning a lottery.
The bulldogs sure won the lottery though!
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