Let's pretend you won $1,000,000, and you get to keep it all, and Uncle Sam isn't taxing the shit out of it. So, your bank account now has one million dollars more than it had before.

What would you do? How would you spend or use that money?

I always think this is an interesting question because $1,000,000, while it is a lot of money and certainly would be life changing, isn't enough to really retire on (unless you're already nearing that age). But for someone in their teens, twenties or even in their thirties (hello) it might not be enough to really set you up for life, unless you spend/invest and use it wisely.

Me?

I think about 1/8th would go to family, to pay off any remainder owed on vehicles or house to reduce the financial burden on them and make retirement sooner/easier.

I'd probably spend $100,000 or less for as much off-the-beaten-path acreage that I could find, mostly wooded, preferably hilly. Probably cost another $50,000 or so to have a driveway made and paved. I'm not sure how much it'd cost to do some basic low-end fencing around the property (low fencing, namely to keep ATV riders out and to make it obvious for anyone trespassing that they're trespassing. It'd be open for animals to pass through the bottom and deer can jump high so not worried about that). Then I'd want a small, modest cabin. 800 - 1,000 sq/ft, nothing major. My piece of shit vehicles are paid for, but I wouldn't mind maybe spending enough to pay off a nice pre-owned Toyota truck or maybe even a new one.

Then, the rest would go into the bank or invested. I'd continue to work and put money away for retirement, but with a house/land/and a vehicle that'd last me 20-30 years paid for, I'd be very 'well off' and be able to live modestly and within my means and retire by 50 or so, with plenty of time life to enjoy hobbies and life, assuming what I saved/invested continued to grow.

Might leave work and society for a year to go kick the dirt around along the Appalachian Trail or bagging 14'er peaks out in Colorado or something, but other than a modest house, a practical truck, and taking care of things like that I think I'd continue to do what I'm doing now.

What about you?

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Wahaha wrote on April 3, 2021 at 9:23 PM

That little amount of money isn't even enough to make me dream. I'd likely just put it in my account and not care much about it either way. It's something nice to have, but not life changing. You'd have to add at least four zeroes. With ten billion in paper money I could do some basic dreaming. Still not enough for big dreams, but it would be a start.

I'd invest in the creation of an anime studio in Japan that would churn out all the anime I want that nobody makes. It would likely cost a couple of million per series and I'd want hundreds of them.

But yeah, with just some pocket change, I wouldn't do anything.

DeusExMachina wrote on April 4, 2021 at 1:07 PM

I think i would buy $1,000,000 dogecoin and then buy GME actions with it !

MilkyPastel wrote on April 4, 2021 at 6:32 PM

Year One& Two: First, I would undoubtably go out for the single most expensive meal of my life at a michelain star restaurant. I'll say that would cost $500. I still have 2 years of college left, and Ideally I would want to invest it all during that time, but realistically I am only human so I would take out $30K to live on for a year, and an additional $20k for tuition for both semesters that year. I absolutely could survive on less than 30K for a year, but knowing my own foolish spending habits when I have money I'm accounting for stupid spending. I would invest my remaining $949,500. Good hedge funds report 15% annual returns, so going by that metric after a year I would have $1,091,925. Take out another $50K for living and tuition, then reinvest and I have $1,198,213.75 by the time I finish college.

Year Three: From here I would accelerate my 10 year plan. Looking at landwatch.com I can see there is an 80 acre property available for $250,000 in Montana already with power and septic hook up, I'd buy that. Until the property is ready I would move out and rent a hypothetical house nearby. Idk what rent actually costs out there but for simplicity I'll stick to 30K a year living expenses, a factor a medium uhaul into that since SO and I dont have too many belongings. Once we get to MT I wouldn't do much with the property for the rest of the year, but I would take $2K to upgrade equipment for my soap making business. After these expenses, I am left with $916,213.75, which never left my hedge fund investment account so by the end of the year it has accumulated to $1,053,645.81.

Year Four-Seven: I just googled how much it costs to build a house, and and results vary wildly. SO and I want a house that isn't too big, but also want a conservatory and a fully functional laboratory so we can both work from home so I'm just going to guess this would be a $1 million home. Obvi we can't pay for this all outright or we would go broke immediately, so I'll say we take 4 years to build it, and split the cost over that time. By now we should both have careers, and no longer need to live off of the passive income from interest so I'll no longer be taking out 30K for living expenses. 250K out of our savings, with the remainder compounded annually at 15% for 4 years:

Year Four: $1,053,645.81- 250,000= 803,645.81 x 1.15= $924,192.68

Year Five: $924,192.68- 250,000= 674,192.68 x 1.15= $775,321.58

Year Six: $775,321.58- 250,000= 525,321.58 x 1.15= $604,119.83

Year Seven: $604,119.83- 250,000= 354,119.83 x 1.15= $407.237

Year 8: Alright, my dream house is built, I've had 5 years since college to perfect the art of perfumery and introduce perfumes to my soap business, and now I have a fully operational chemistry lab to start refining my own ingredients. I imagine SO and I are making enough to live comfortably on by this point, so I invest the entire remaining $407.237 into my perfume ingredient refinery. Greenhouses, aromatic plants, trade agreements with farms overseas where rare aromatic plants grow, that I wouldn't be able to grow in the U.S. (cinnamon, myrrh, etc.) Through wise investing I stretched the 1 million and used it to establish my dream, in only 8 years.

BasedPatriot wrote on April 4, 2021 at 9:51 PM

I'd be frugal, have a small cabin built ontop of an underground bunker. It'd be hidden, accessible through only a false floor or wall to access. I'd fill it with supplies. I'd build a cool backyard shooting range, too. Then probably save the other $500,000.

takeheart wrote on April 6, 2021 at 10:01 PM (edited on April 6, 2021 at 10:04 PM)

federal reserve notes

Uncle Sam isn't taxing the shit out of it

Wake up, sheep. I'd probably burn that trash, that would be unclean of course but still better than spending the filth.

txt wrote on November 2, 2021 at 2:26 AM

Pay off all of the stuff (mortgages, car, etc.), put 20k into my regular account, spend about 10-15k on luxury items, put the rest into an index fund.