What could you do with $100million?

CuddleDuncanCuddleDuncan Mod
edited January 20 in General

Inspired by a recent thread I am curious to know what you would do with £/$/€ 100 million?

Cash in the bank, tax paid, free and clear. Your debts have been satisfied, the relatives paid off, a new car bought, holiday of a lifetime had, boss told where to shove it, new principal and holiday homes bought and furnished, kids' college fund overflowing, annuity purchased guaranteeing a decent income for life, healthcare plan assured, favourite charities humbled with gratitude, etc, etc. The whole nine yards, all done. (Which would cost $2m-$10m depending on circumstances.)

This would put you well into the top 1% for wealth so you could just play at being rich. Or give it all to charity and focus on your painting. Or .......

Given the opportunity, what could you do with $100 million?

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Comments

  • HaaaveyoumetsamHaaaveyoumetsam

    I sure as hell can’t take that money with me when I die, why not save as many people in this planet as possible?

    Also I would like a home with many different hidden rooms and secret passageways. But that’s it 🙏

  • [Deleted User]diegosensible (deleted user)

    I think I'd do a Mackenzie Scott, and try to spend the rest of my life giving it away to deserving people and charities, after lots of vetting. Or maybe pour it all into a single cause that's simple and saves lives, like clean water projects or malaria prevention. Although I guess nothing is simple when that much money is around, someone will inevitably try and take a chunk for themselves. I feel like holding on to it for too long is just a recipe for disaster, give it away asap!

  • SoftnSmileySoftnSmiley

    Oooooh, yay! $100 mil 👏👏👏 super fun! I’ll play -

    1. I have about 5-7 art inventions that I’d love to prefect and get out into the world. I need a mechanical engineer to help me bring them to reality, and keep meaning to find one and start creating better prototypes - most are just sketches for now, but I just know they would work! All told, this will only be $1-2 mill, it’s really just the time to do it.

    2. I have an idea for a win-win-win social experiment in towns all over the world that want to attract chill low-key low-impact tourists and bring in fresh dollars. It’s a combo of voluntourism, summer camp for adults, and involves mazes made out of logs 🪵 need maybe $5 mill to get it up and running, let’s call it $10.

    3. Next I would love to sponsor my idea for a “visual orchestra” project in a few different towns. I don’t think it’s a great name, but the idea is solid. I’ve seen some group art shows where the medium is set and a bunch of artists participate, using that medium to create. My idea is that the subject matter is set, and artists of all kinds give their take on communicating one single message. So we have poetry, painting, sculpture, fabric arts, songwriting, musicians, interpretive dance, etc. all sharing the same message through their own “instrument”, but the song is the same.
      I’d need to do this in maybe 5 major cities (after a smaller scale test run or two) and I’d love to pay the artists handsomely. That’s gotta be probably $25 million, let’s call it $35.

    4. I need to finish my fiction novel, and I have 1 more in the wings, plus 2 non-fictions as well. Need the time, and the experts around me to help. Let’s call this $3 mill with all the marketing needed to sell the books well.

    5. Ok, now we are ready for the Nature Church campus - a place for those of us who say “nature is my church” to gather for non-traditional “services” that include both the natural aspects that speak to us AND the community network of old school spiritual gatherings as well. It’s wont have a traditional building, though it may have some structures like giant caves or kiva-like rooms, or even a planetarium. Buying enough land in the right spot for the hikers and the river peeps and the tree huggers and those who like to be way up high… plus amenities and operation costs… that’s gonna eat up the other $50 mill soon enough.

    Would love to know your answer too @CuddleDuncan, and if you’re asking because you came into some serious funds lately, do tell! 😃

  • SqueezeBuddySqueezeBuddy

    Invest it in stock exchange and duplicate it

  • CuddleDuncanCuddleDuncan Mod
    edited January 21

    @SoftnSmiley you may be interested in the tree cathedrals here in the UK.

    https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/essex-bedfordshire-hertfordshire/whipsnade-tree-cathedral#getting-there-map

    https://www.theparkstrust.com/find-a-park/tree-cathedral/

    I love all of your ideas, they're all wonderful. I think you're being quite cautions on the costings though, I think you'll still have some change from your ton. (ton = British slang for ... well normally £100.)

    I'll post my own ideas in due course. And no, I'm catastrophically broke, hence the fantasising.

    @SqueezeBuddy ok so now you have $200m. Then what?

  • tacpmurgtacpmurg
    edited January 21

    Give 99 million away. Then pay off my farm/everything else.

    Then just.. enjoy every morning watching the crops grow without worrying.

    Edit

    Covid change so much of my lifestyle lol.

  • TxTomTxTom

    Regardless of the amount of the winnings, my percentages remain the same:

    75% - investments/passive income
    25% - donations/charity

  • CuddleDuncanCuddleDuncan Mod

    @TxTom yes, but how will you spend your $3m a year? And what will happen to the capital when your time is up? What charity will receive $25m in one pop?

  • TxTomTxTom

    @CuddleDuncan , I don't need $3M/yr, so most will be reinvested. Once my time is up, my daughter would be the trustee. No one charity will receive 25%, it would be split between children's hospitals, cancer, genetic/regenerative, & dementia research, and disaster relief organizations.

  • SoftnSmileySoftnSmiley

    @CuddleDuncan - you think I may have some change left?? Well that’s great, because I have two more ideas that need funding! I’ve never been accused of not dreaming big enough or running low on ideas 😆 lol.

    And Thank You for appreciating the ones above 🙏🫶🙏

    Ok, two more if change left over:
    1. I would set up several more chapters of the group I’m currently piloting. It’s called Craftivism, and it’s a monthly meetup where we make meaningful art-with-a-purpose, and we do it in community, together. The benefits are exponential - it’s a shallow entry point to get sensitive souls involved in activism who may normally be overwhelmed by the stereotypical vision of a hardcore protestor situation, plus it bonds people together quickly when they accomplish something together, so it builds one’s safety net of genuine connections. This is what helps most in a crisis, in my (n)ever humble opinion. Maybe $5-10mill, including renting or buying perfect spaces in each city, and hosting the evens weekly instead of monthly.
    Our current group is gaining momentum here in northern Colorado, and we just got asked to bring it to Chicago for a test event!! Maybe they’ll start the first satellite chapter 🤗🎨

    And 2. Obviously, a well-funded youth-led theater program where all the elements are taught and generated by young adults, teens and twenties is needed! From writing scripts and lyrics, to composing the songs, to costumes, sets, A/V, special effects, acting and directing. I’ve been involved in shows where there was time to teach the How for 1-2 of the elements, but this would be a rolling program where all the departments would be self-generated by the students. The scripts written and honed last year by the writers would then become this year’s play or musical for the production crew, etc. This one is $10-20 mill due to having to buy and renovate a building or two.

    It’d be so fun to fully pull off even one or two of these in this lifetime. Great prompt - it’s fun to get to share them here 😄

  • 123Cuddles321123Cuddles321
    edited January 21

    I would find homes for unwanted pitties. (Sounds silly to me saying the phrase "unwanted pitties"... Like who in the world wouldn't want one!?!?)

  • SunsetSnugglesSunsetSnuggles

    Open a sanctuary and rescue for both wildlife and domestic animals that rehabilitates and releases, adopts, or provides a lifelong home, depending on what is appropriate, attainable, and best for each individual.

    🦌🦨🦉🦝🦬🦊🐿🦇
    🐕🐈🦜🐇🐍🐀🐠🐢
    🐎🐄🐖🐓🐑🐐🦆🫏
    🐝🐌🕷🐛🐜🦋🦗🪱

    Sadly, we've already lost the chance to help these ones...

    🦣🦤🦕

    ~ Sunset Snuggles

    🫂 Enthusiast 🏞 Travel Junkie 📷 Shutter Bug

  • Sunrise_SnuggleSunrise_Snuggle
    edited January 21

    The first thing I would do with what essentially amounts to unlimited money is find a way to fix my health, and no longer suffer from chronic physical and mental disease. I'm sure, with unlimited money, fixing my health would be quite achievable (though still challenging). The second thing I would do is use that money to help other people restore their health.

  • CuddleDuncanCuddleDuncan Mod
    edited January 21

    As for me ...... well I would be quite tempted to put the whole shebang into research for curing stage 4 colon cancer, on account of that's what I've got. But on the assumption I was magically fit and well, in no particular order, I might

    a) Spend a month in Canada and invite (at my expense) all my North American cuddle friends to visit me there.

    =

    b) Buy a big house in the Scottish Highlands, where I was born and brought up. Somewhere like Carbisdale Castle which was recently taken off the market, unsold. (I think it was on for £3.5m, which is still more than it would be worth once somebody had spent £3.5m filling in the money-pit.) That particular house once had a fine collection of sculpture. I wouldn't attempt to recreate the collection, but I would put some effort into commissioning new works of art.

    Once established I would buy several estates with a view to restoring the landscape. This involves rewilding, which a number of people are already doing and I would join in with their efforts. If circumstances required I would reintroduce wolves without telling anybody. The difference between me and the pure rewilders is that I would also reintroduce people in appropriate places. Think Yosemite with awesome internet. (In many areas the people were cleared from the land in the 19th century.) The Highlands desperately needs non-seasonal jobs outside Inverness, which is the local metropolis.

    The Highlands is my first love, and there are a bunch of smaller projects I'd like to do there. For example there's a particular castle that's falling down I'd like to save, and plenty of archaelogy that needs doing. Land and art tend to hold their value, so after I'm gone the money would go into a trust to support these and my other projects.

    =

    c) It's little more than petty cash in this context, but I would book either the Usher Hall in Edinburgh or the Barbican in London, hire an orchestra, and conduct a concert of the pieces which had some signficance or other when I was playing a lot of percussion. Beethoven 4, Mozart 41, Carmina Burana and Pictures at an Exhibition are all on the shortlist.

    I'd also ensure the future of my favourite choirs, and create a new edition of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, which is missed not just by me.

    =

    d) Similarly I'd create a small team of researchers based in London. The internet does not provide answers to many of the questions that pop into my head, and I could do with people who know their way around the National Archive, the British Library and so on.

    =

    e) I would establish an institute in Edinburgh to revolutionise global education. Many of the problems in the developed world can be laid at the door of inadequate public education, and it's not just a case of this country is better than that one. I've taught kids from all over the world and some of the fundamental precepts of education are wrong. One example is an adult complaining that they had to learn, say, Pythagoras' theorem in school but have never had to use it in adult life. That anybody says such a thing is an indictment of the entire construct.

    Historically, about 30% of any given population may be considered 'poor', and done right a recasting of education could make a permenent structural dent in that figure. It would need seed capital of ten or twenty million, not all upfront, and would have to have a money-raising arm because the final total cost of persuading 200+ governments to change their school systems is going to be more than $100m.

    =

    f) In the unlikely event that there was any money left, I would launch a number of essentially identical space probes to orbit the unexplored major satellites of the solar system. The Galilean moons of Jupiter, Titan of Saturn, Triton of Neptune and perhaps a few others. Just the basics - cameras, radar mapping, magnetometer, gravitometer, that sort of thing. Cheap and cheerful.

    I'd love to put half a dozen connected telescope complexes on the dark side of the Moon, to make a giant Moon-sized telescope covering the whole range of frequences we look at, but that would be beyond the meagre budget proposed here. The prettiest of the telescope locations would have a little holiday home for me, which of course I would let friends use.

    =

    g) I used to want to map the seabed but somebody is doing that now.

    =

    It's nice to dream! That's been a lovely way to spend an hour, thank you for indulging me.

  • CSnMUS87CSnMUS87

    Buy myself a house (doesn't need to be big or extravagant) paid in full, go on a cuddle tour starting with every local and visiting pro (host and guest), then start traveling or paying for pro trips to come to my area, donate to various charities including but not limited to all my previous colleges, high school, and elementary school, sweet relief for musician's, some animal charities, local classical radio station, and more. I would give a certain amount to my parents (each one an equal amount), an amount to other family couples (or single person if they aren't married/are widowed) such as all 3 of my remaining grandparents, Uncles, Aunts (basically the ones who watched or help raise me).

    I'd then get some savings bonds and CD Investments for my 3 siblings since they're younger than me and I'd like them to get a little older before accessing the money so they don't waste it or use it as a reason to not work or finish their schooling.

    I would also be very generous with gift giving when it comes to birthdays and holidays. I may even attempt to empty some wish lists of friends or family members (that aren't like 100+ items long).

    I'm not sure what else I'd do but just try to live and enjoy life. Maybe as I said before do more schooling/lessons in various subjects such as guitar, singing, martial arts, computer science related topics, etc.

    If the money were in the billions perhaps I'd make some sort of non-profit that offers people a job to learn certain topics/skills. I have thought this one out in detail many times when daydreaming. I definitely would not be gaining anything from it other than the satisfaction of giving people who really want to try and be paid to learn a chance. I'd customize a curriculum per person and hopefully would be getting people that actually want this and aren't looking just for a quick buck. Perhaps people that couldn't go to college but wanted to or some similar situation.

  • consciousseekerconsciousseeker
    edited January 21

    Very interesting responses... :)

    With 100 million..

    20%/20M : Start my dream company. Circle of LIFE. A community for Tiny affordable homes. Especially for students, low-incomes, veterans and some homes for vacations. Use profits/earnings to build homes for homeless.

    15%/15M : Retire 40-50 people in my life who have done so much for others and truly deserves to stop working. I'm sure they will only do more with more free time.

    15%/15M : To 100 genuine charitable organizations (Animal welfare, Child/Orphan Care, Senior care etcetera).

    15%/15M : To those who are in constant pain and desperately needs medical help. Pain is evil. Robs everything from you.

    10%/10M : To Struggling Artists whose degrees are not getting them anywhere for their absolute commitment to arts.

    7%/7M : To Single young mothers who needs support to navigate the motherhood and their babies who deserves a fair/healthy childhood.

    5%/5M : Build a free digital/online library. Books of all genres especially History, Finance, Health & Self Help.

    5%/5M : To maintain a team and sanctuary for animals.

    5%/5M : Funds for anybody who are seeking to get therapy.

    1%/1M : Half goes to my 2 nieces. A trust for their education, welfare. Half to my parents & my sister's family.

    1%/1M : High yield savings.

    1%/1M : 500K Stocks & Indexes
    250k Pay my mortgage. Rent my place. Use it to live within means.
    150k Emergency Fund
    50k Invest in Financial Education/Planning/Tools for overall wellbeing.
    50k Immediate vacation for 6 months or until I drain this 50k ;)

    Besides the selfish part to keep some of this 100M to ourselves..I can only imagine the power of billionaires and how they can easily change the world.

  • MommaGIGiMommaGIGi

    If all those other concerns are done, I would set up Family with Generational strategies, Then every Year find a worthy cause, promote, donate and work for them and make sure my donation builds a generational endowment. In that year, I would go to 1-2 once in life time places. EVERY year, until I am No More.

  • SoftnSmileySoftnSmiley

    @CuddleDuncan - thanks for sharing your wide array of ideas 🤗 I’d pitch in some of my extra change for those “cheap and cheerful” space probes and telescopes 🔭

  • TxTomTxTom

    Start my dream company... Tiny affordable homes... for students, low-incomes, veterans... homeless.

    @consciousseeker , be sure to team up with a 3D printing company. There are a couple of these around the country.

    Icon is based here in Austin. Printing homes is fast and getting faster; low cost and getting lower; energy efficient and getting efficiency-er.

    Icon even has a contract to develop a "special concrete" made of moon dust to print buildings on the lunar surface. Much cheaper than transporting all the building materials nearly a quarter of a million miles.

  • pmvinespmvines

    Beef jerky for life for all my friends

  • DirkSavageDirkSavage

    I would bet it all on the Washington Generals. The Globetrotters have to lose sometime!

  • jmdankjmdank
    edited January 23

    I'd put everything into real estate and stocks, I think I'd be able to get at least 6-7%, I'd take that money and travel, which is literally what I'm doing now, I'm 46 and will be semi retired in 2 years, fully retired by 52.

  • AXoshijuacAXoshijuac

    I would pay someone to cuddle with me

  • BearCraftBearCraft

    I'd pay off what bills I have then move to a someplace where no one knows me and buy a place with some land outside city limits. I'd give the house I moved from to my youngest brother, it will be a huge upgrade from what him and his kids are living in currently. I would set a side an adequate college fund for my youngest, who wants to pursues a degree in child psychology. Try to talk my eldest into taking some college classes to help her get by in life, she has a learning disability but I still encourage her to look at classes that will help her in life.
    My sibling have all set up college accounts for their kids so I would contribute a good amount to each of their accounts as well.
    Always wanted to open a drive in movie theatre, I would concentrate on employing people with disabilities like my eldest. I would also look into opening a country bar with a large dance floor, I'm tired of seeing tiny dance floors in country bars. Of course it would also have a decent size food menu to go with it.
    After all that, I would take around half of what's left and place put it in stocks, and live off the rest.

  • Goonie4lifeGoonie4life

    I'd help out some of my close friends for sure, yet I'm opposed to giving to charity, hospital research, etc.

  • CuddleDuncanCuddleDuncan Mod

    Some wonderful thoughts here, thank you. But it's depressing how many people just aren't getting it. $100m invested will produce an income of several million dollars a year. You can live very comfortably on a few miillion dollars invested, depending on things like your age and what 'comfortably' means for you.

    I'll put it another way. Your investments are done. Your charity donations are done. Your friends and family are impressed by your generosity. Your house is delightful. Your financial future is assured. You never have to work again. You still have $90m to spend.

    Or another way. Assuming you don't live in NYC or LA or somewhere like that, you live in the nicest house in town (for you). You eat in the best restaurant in town seven nights a week and tip 100% not just to your server but every server on the shift. You have eight Aston Martins and two full-time mechanics to look after them. You go to Vegas twice a year and spend/lose one million dollars each time. You light Cuban cigars with $100 bills and throw away the cigar without smoking it. You own the biggest homeless shelter for three counties in every direction, and offer free accommodation, meals and massages to all the guests. Your holidays are on a small island in the Caribbean which you own, flying there by private jet obviously. You operate a team of two dozen professional cuddlers, plus a manager to run the team, who cuddle hospital and hospice patients all day every day at your expense. You still have $80m to play with: what do you do with it?

  • TxTomTxTom

    it's depressing how many people just aren't getting it

  • disneysamuraidisneysamurai

    What’s my honest answer?

    Way more cuddling

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    you live in the nicest house in town

    Not my life’s goal.

  • HuggycatbearHuggycatbear
    edited January 25

    I'd invest in interstellar travel. We all got to get off this rock somehow. Or marvel at something novel as a human race so we can stop twiddling our thumbs and stop fighting each other over ideologies.

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