Pretend the $20 million is guaranteed, and if anything will increase slightly over time.
What problems could be significantly improved for $20 million?
(I am dreaming of winning the $1.55 billion Powerball drawling. Then taking the lumpsum, posting taxes, investing, and spending 4% each and every year. I understand that the actual may be more, or less than the started amount.)
$20 million is a lot, but not an infinite amount. As the cash flow is close to guaranteed, one could get into long term projects and hire staff.
Paying total compensation of $100K, one could hope ~200 people. No money left for offices though.
I would consider increasing the local standard of living by buying a few minimum wage type businesses and over paying a little, ~5%. I would hope that this causes an employee shortage and increases wages. Continue raising wages at a rate the other businesses can keep up with. My reasoning is that I can only hire so many people, but increasing the prevalent wages will benefit far more people.
I also think I could open a at-cost medical clinic. I don't know what that would cost, but I bet someone will tell me really quickly once I have the money.
I don't think I would have the money to:
- Set up a new bus system.
- Setup district heating for a town
I feel like I am playing "small ball" and not grasping the opportunities.
I'd donate a quarter for 4 years to my city to create a biking network, with some smaller portion donated after the 4 years for maintenance.
I'd almost certainly help the local schools get up to date teaching materials and try to supplement their income by literally just gifting them money. There's only around 1000 teachers in my city, so it wouldn't be too hard to do that.
Obviously myself a senator and representative.
Then idk. Get a personal chef and personal trainer?
Giving to the teachers is great. I had looked up my school system's budget and got discouraged, but a few 10's of thousands each as gifts to the teachers and staff is more affordable.
Pay off my debt, buy a modest home, go back to school, never work a shit job for minimum wage ever again.
But I don't need anywhere near 20,000,000 dollars a year to do that.
After some large donations to communist organizations, I'd put the remaining few million per year into buying commercial slots on every major TV network in the US. Then I'd create Jury Nullification PSAs and blast them over the airways continuously until the message sinks in universally that juries are under no obligation at all to respect the laws currently grinding marginalized people into dust.
It's honestly enough money to start a worker coop too. I would also love to have like 20 different companies all spinning around and changing names giving every employee crazy titles. Ah yes, you are a manager and if anyone asks you've been here 5 years and were amazing, sad to lose you.
That's such a great idea that I'm sure anyone who did this would end up charged with some type of fraud, unfortunately
I was gonna say, take my boyfriend to fine dining restaurants and fun shows every week, but even assuming we took a $400 each way flight and stayed at a $500 hotel and paid $200 a plate and $75 a show, that still comes out to just $150,000 a year.
Those are def rookie numbers for the flights, hotels, dinners, and shows. X20 those and you’re in millionaire spending territory.
Probably live on a million- maybe 2- and spend most of my time giving the rest away.
I would identify people in need that are renting a home and taking good care of it. Then I would buy the home and sell it to them for $1.
Where are you finding $25 sex workers in this economy? If you could supply names and phone numbers, it would help.
Probably give milion to someone that really needs it in person and to see how they react.
Money is just such an overrated thing to pursue. Sure you can try to drown your worries in it, try to escape but the happiness is always inside
Quit my job
Pay off and renovate my house.
Buy a new car, something nice but not over the top.
Set up services for my neighborhood to drag the people round me out of poverty and ensure every kid gets the chance to get a good education.
Ensure all housing in my neighborhood is up to code and in good shape/safe to be lived in.
Pay off the debt of every person in my neighborhood, prioritizing medical and student debt.
Buy the people I love the things they need, set up trusts for their kids, pay off their debt, help them financially without enabling them into their bad habits.
Feels like that should probably reach $20m fairly quickly.
Become a landlord that makes housing actually accessible driving down prices and providing safe places for people in my neighborhood to live.
Whilst I am very anti landlord, that last point is interesting.
Say, if someone had enough money to buy out thousands of houses and made them cheapest around, undercutting everyone, then sold them to the occupants if they wanted to buy... Would that somehow fix the renting crisis we're in today?
I’m also anti-landlord, because of how the system is built. But if someone was independently wealthy and approached it as a philanthropic endeavor it could be different and solve the housing crisis for at least some. I wouldn’t be in it to make money, I’d be in it to give people that need somewhere to live a place that they can afford. And yes, eventually buy if they want to, though not everyone with limited income can afford the up front costs associated with owning (like when an appliance breaks, or there’s another problem with the building) so I understand why some wouldn’t want to. But if I had the means to take a loss on it, and did, it feels very different than the capitalist landlord squeezing tenants to make their salary.
- Quit my job
- Buy a Porsche
- Give the rest to Cory Doctorow
One thing I'd love to do is eat out more, and tip just absurd amounts. $40 burgers and fries, and great service? Here's a $40k cash tip.
Yeah, one thing I'd love to do is throw cash around at the service industry.
Quit work and take lighter loads in school.
Buy a nice house in Maine right on the water.
Buy a supercar, and all the motorcycles I could ever want.
Go on crazy adventures like an Appalachian trail thru-hike.
All this would be less than 10% of my yearly income. The other 90% would go to charity, helping the homeless and bolstering free and open source software.
I’d first spend it on lawyers. Someone wanna copy paste that reddit post here so we can link lemmy going forward on this question in the future
After buying my fortress of solitude, and making sure my family is set for generations, I think it would be fun to donate money to random people who are struggling.
First, I would find out who I need to pay to find people for jobs I need done. I hate dealing with people. Also, I suck at knowing who to call.
Then, I would get someone to rebuild my house, better, stronger, faster. My house is nice, but it has some major issues. Mold problems I can't fix. Lousy insulation. Floors that let us hear everything going on between levels. A ridiculously small master bathroom.
More importantly, I would pay for a better education for my kids. I homeschool for various reasons (via videos and on a curriculum), and while their education is solid enough, my daughter could use someone better than myself for subjects where she struggles.
Once everything is set up with a lawyer, I would set aside money for close family members.
Oh, and I would hire a maid and a chef for my house. I like cooking, but I also like not needing to cook. And who enjoys cleaning?
My wife would surely either pay for landscaping for our yard, or she would buy a boatload of plants and do it herself. Probably somewhere in between; we've got a rocky yard that no amount of personal labor will make manageable, but I think she enjoys the planting.
