What would you do with $1,000,000,000?

[amadeus]

Short backstory: an old bearer bond washes up on the shore and it's been gone for so long that international maritime law stipulates finders, keepers. You're in the clear and the maturity date is tomorrow. Hooray! No monkey's paw or magic genie shenanigans.

What do you do with the money?

I ask this because I was thinking about what I would do, and more specifically, what I wouldn't. I couldn't see myself enjoying a mansion or an expensive sports car.

 

[Lexicus]

Pretty sure saying what I'd do with the money would violate forum rules

 

[Zardnaar]

Pay 33% tax on it for starters.

Set up a family trust, buy a small town or subdivision and rent it out for a nominal fee to beneficiary's and working poor.

Set up a charitable trust for scholarships for people coming from a welfare background.

My own personal island and donate it to the Department of Conservation. Or turn it into a camp for school camps. One for sale for $25 million.


Toys
Buy a new nice car not a super car.
Property investment portfolio.
Nice home.
Holiday home.
Probably travel the world full time. Avoid winter.
Throw a party for CFC all expenses paid. Popular vote for location, NZ, St Petersburg Russia, Aspen or national park in USA, or private chateau in Europe.

 

[amadeus]

@Zardnaar, oops! Forgot to mention the bond is in the value of $1 billion plus whatever your local tax liability would be.

 

[Birdjaguar]

@Zardnaar, oops! Forgot to mention the bond is in the value of $1 billion plus whatever your local tax liability would be.

So you can put it in tax free municipal bonds and have 3% as your annual income.

 

[Zardnaar]

@Zardnaar, oops! Forgot to mention the bond is in the value of $1 billion plus whatever your local tax liability would be.

It's to much money for me honest and if you gift a lot out you lose heaps on tax.

A few million would be nice beyond that eh.

Probably try and do a return if yesteryear. Cheap accomodation, great out door, free tertiary education for kids that grew up in similar conditions bro me.

 

[Cutlass]

Retire. Travel. Slowly spend the money on political attack ads. Eventually give most of it to charity.

 

[elmurcis]

Build Hughes H-4 Hercules and fly it around with non-rushers on-board

 

[The_J]

Buy a palace.
I am serious. There is one here in the middle of the city, it is amazing, and includes a museum.
Although I'd be unhappy to close it for the public, so I might need to pick another one.
And I want some temples in my garden. Like the one in the garden of Schönbrunn castle or in the middle of Madrid. Or both.
Then I'll fly in all my friends, and will have an amazing party in there. Will need to decide about which famous DJ I want, but hey, 1% problems.
I'll also want to have a light show, like they do every year in Eindhoven for the GLOW festival.


I'll obviously also distribute some money among my friends and family, and will give some to the charities I'm already supporting, but they, that's the usual.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Tropico 6: Belize

El Presidente Tim reaches the mainland.

 

[amadeus]

The reason I started this thread was when I was in the shower this morning I thought how I’d never really want a megamansion or luxury sports car even if I had the money for it and then some.

Spoiler Some stuff I would get :

I found this on a real estate website as a good example of the kind of house I would want. Kind of traditional but also outfitted with modern heating, cooling, etc. I'd prefer to keep the aesthetic of the time it was built, in this case here around the 1980's. I would prefer a location that's a little outside of a town, but not an insane distance. Looking at this particular house, I actually really like where it is, about a kilometer from the nearest convenience store, hardware store, and just a few km down the road from a large supermarket.

This is a kei-truck. "Kei" means light, and is a designated class of automobiles under 660 cubic centimeters. The advantages are basically that of tax, but I always found the lighter cars easier to drive on the narrow roads. I suppose I'd get an ordinary kei car too, but I just want a truck to drive around to have something to do.

 

[AmazonQueen]

End up giving most of it away.
Its too much money for me to realistically think about. I'd have trouble finding ways to spend 1% of it myself. I could tell you exactly what I'd do with £1,000.

 

[amadeus]

Tropico 6: Belize

El Presidente Tim reaches the mainland.

Belize attracts too many bizarro computer security software millionaires.

End up giving most of it away.
Its too much money for me to realistically think about. I'd have trouble finding ways to spend 1% of it myself. I could tell you exactly what I'd do with £1,000.

That's an okay answer too! I had to think for a while before I could come up with anything "extravagant," that is something I would do if I had the money to spare and needn't cared about its utility.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Belize attracts too many bizarro computer security software millionaires.

Making the attraction for a bizarro bond finding computer gaming billionaire self evident.

 

[amadeus]

I had to look up what a bearer bond was after I saw Die Hard. I thought "hey wait, don't bonds have their names on them?"

Well, no, bearer bonds don't. That's why Hans Gruber wanted them. But I guess they're not legal to issue or something anymore? Anyway, the plot makes a lot more sense now that you know all Hans has to do is clip the bearer coupon to get his stolen bond money.

 

[tjs282]

I'd buy a smallish island in the Indonesian archipelago, shut down any (palm-)plantations on it, and instead employ the locals to run the entire island in perpetuity as an orang-utan sanctuary.

Ship in rescued animals from zoos/other islands, vaccinate them against local nasties, release them, and let them get on with their lives.

Build a veterinary/ research facility, invite primate anthropologists to do research projects on orang behaviour.

Also build a small self-sustaining resort and charge eco-tourists pots of cash to come and do jungle tours, to help cover running costs and staff salaries.

Not sure how much I'd have left over after that.

 

[amadeus]

Just as long as it’s not some kind of secret lab to genetically engineer superstrong monkey soldiers I’m all for it.

 

[Synobun]

Sell my vote for another billion.

 

[amadeus]

Sell my vote for another billion.

This one and the other one came from mutually independent thoughts.

However, I will draw you a 16 color Windows palette picture to enjoy for your referencing my other thread. Hang on a few minutes.

 

[Hrothbern]

Bribe a couple of governments.