this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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Asklemmy

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was going to say a house by the sea… but it probably wouldn’t be my first purchase. Instead it would likely be:

  1. Pizzas
  2. A salad
  3. Booze
  4. A video game
  5. Clear my own debts, while also setting aside money for friends and family’s debt.
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yours is the one reply that actually answers the question. A house, debt, etc would not be the first thing you bought. I'd probably buy a ton of stuff from my (local equivalent to) Amazon wishlist as a first thing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I was trying to think about my immediate reaction. After the shock, denial, and a bucket load of swearing, I’d want to celebrate.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A new laptop and that's it. No need to make dramatic changes in my life, I'll keep the rest of the money stashed so I can live comfortably and not have to worry about financial troubles.

[–] bmovement 4 points 1 year ago

Username checks out

[–] CeruleanRuin 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

First I'd buy my own house from the bank. Next I'd buy each of my neighbor's houses going out three or four blocks and gift them to them, with the option to stay or move at any time in the future and sell them back to me at market rate. If they sell it back to me, take the cash and move, I put the property up for sale to the lowest bidder - ie, I would offer them to local families who needed it most, selling them for literally pennies.

I would then start gifting large amounts to local schools, with the rider that it has to go towards increasing salaries for all existing staff first, followed by creating a floating fund for supplies and meals so that no teacher or family in need ever had to buy them out of their own pocket.

After all that I'd start commissioning giant bronze statues of my favorite fictional characters and plopping them down on undeveloped land in the area, then building parks around them.

Near one of these parks I'd build a great big classically-styled movie theater that plays classic films for three bucks a ticket. Operating costs would be paid for from a fund set up to keep the place open and running indefinitely, with all ticket sales to go to local charities.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
  1. Surgery, fixing my phisical disability with the best doctor money can pay.
  2. Instruction, get the most forward education to be sure my future is safe even without money.
  3. Buying house, investing in a second as well.
  4. Hire someone to make that money a machine to keep earning more.
  5. Take a luxury trip around the world for some years.
[–] TheHighRoad 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A new house for my aging parents with no stairs.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just imagined a two story house with the stairs removed which is way funnier.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

They hate them.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

A house close to nature with a big garden for the kids and plane tickets to Europe to visit my parents with our 5 months old.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I'm enjoying this mostly because of how many people are reading it as $500,000.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Retirement accounts for myself and people close to me so we can live off the interest. Then probably a bigger house and a bunch of old cars

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well, I'd definitely get the lawyers and CPAs to make sure that bag is secure and protect my family's privacy as much as possible. After that...

  • I'd hire a high-end architect to renovate my home.
  • I'd hire a personal trainer to help my family get really fit.
  • I'd buy a big vacation for our extended families.
  • Buy a less family-friendly vacation for our friends.
  • ~~Hire a therapist so I don't go insane.~~
  • There's a small, vacant movie theater in my town. I'd buy it and get it up and running again.
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

200k in a high interest savings account. 100k in stocks and shares. 200k into a property

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What do you do with the remaining $499.5M

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

First Thing? Putting aside stuff that would come first by being a technicality such as food I would have ordered anyway: Probably a Server Rack. I already have a Server but I made the mistake of using a regular motherboard which is biting me in the ass rn as I don't have as much RAM available as I'd like to.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Let's see. Kinda lame, but I will go get me some hardware. I want to get into self hosting and woth that much money, I'm going to order a high-end Synology NAS, but first I'll buy a house for my parents to live in (so I will have that hpuse as the postage address, duh), and set aside enough money to cover all of my living expenses at University plus some extra. Look through my options for starting a business or investing them, and if a business seems like too much work, I'll get a relatively small investment portfolio of about 50 Million, to cover all of my living expenses for life, which at a stable 3% annual dividend would get me about 1.5 Million p/a or just over 100k monthly. Of the rest, I'm leaving 225 Million for myself to try creating some businesses, invest in companies, organisations and projects that require it (1 million to the GNOME Foundation, 1 Million to KDE, 1 Million to XFCE, 5 Million to the team behind Cinnamon and Linux Mint, 1 Million to the Elementary OS team, 1 Million to the Nix and NixOS Project(s), 5 Million to Debian and 5 Million to Arch).
That leaves me with 205 Million of which I would like to use 5 Million to try out some businesses, see if anything works out, 100 Million to invest in making the Best Linux distribution for New users under a Company, with these resources giving me the ability to make something truly great, and to market it, to rival Microsoft, and to get Linix on the desktop to where it really needs to be, both for home users and enterprise users. That leaves me with 100 Million which, after all of these projects, I should hopefully be aware how to use to become a Venture Capitalist, but not for some profit-driven companies, but rather companies which respect a user's privacy and right to repair. Now, If you did the Math, you might have realised I still have about 225 million left. Of these 25 Million to my parents, to do with them as they wish (likely invest them and retire immediately) and 200 million for various environmental causes, because we really are killing the planet.

To actually answer the question:

Actual Purchases:

Synology NAS

Other Hardware, such as:

An M2 Mac Mini for its power efficiency,

A Framework Laptop for its modularity,

A High End System76 Laptop, to support an awesome company

A bunch of Raspberry Pies (the SBC not the food)

Some actual servers

Non-Hardware:

A house

An investment portfolio

Maybe a company

A lot of donations

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Lots of different stock so I can be a proper capitalist living from passive income.

Then see how much of an income that is and adjust lifestyle.

A house or nice apartment in this town. Private school for kids. Great bicycles. Still no car. BahnCard 100 for every family member.

Reinvest and donate the rest.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Well, first of all, I'd throw half of it into that project trying to create open source insulin.

After that: co-ops, co-ops, co-ops, and more co-ops! And some random open source / decentralized projects as well.

[–] nei7jc 4 points 1 year ago

Don't. Tell. A soul. I can't deposit the money for obvious reasons, so there isn't much I can do. I could try money laundering.

Assuming it goes straight to a bank, and my security isn't an issue, I'm giving away 300m away to charity, environmental research, and family. I'll get someone to help me invest my money, because I know nothing, and use it to kick start a business or YouTube channel.

Sorry, can't really tell you 5 specific purchases I'd make with it.

[–] TheBananaKing 3 points 1 year ago

Half a billion? Put down a deposit on a house for my kid. He's turning 17, he might be able to pay it off in his lifetime.

:cries in Australian:

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Probably wouldn't change anything until I graduate.

I'd do a bomb-ass charity donation this winter for my local charity Christmas gift drive through. Probably dress up like Santa Claus to go turn them in too.

Edit: oh also I'd obviously pay off all my parents debts, (house, cars, etc) and set them up with 10-20M for retirement so they can just start now. And I'd pay for my siblings' college funds and set up trusts for them and any of their potential future kids so they have financial security for the rest of their lives. There's also some cool teachers and other folks I'd set up for life too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
  1. My own island
  2. Engine swap, lift kit and two sets of new wheels for my truck

I don't know what else. Tools, building supplies.. maybe a backhoe. I basically already own everything I want.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago
  1. I would go on vacation to Hawaii with my entire extended family
  2. I would establish a trust for my kids
  3. Buy a cabin on a lake
  4. Buy a nice boat
  5. Give a big chunk to charity, specifically to help people in Venezuela
[–] Biff 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

New car for the wife. Something flashy and fun that she would never buy for herself since the Toyota probably won't die for at least another 10 years.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Ok let's say you give her 7 Lamborghini Aventators so she can rotate throughout the week, what would you do with the other $494 million?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Fancy vacation, new clothes, an electric car, a big house and a warehouse for miscellaneous projects. Just a little celebration first and then get myself set up for the future.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I would buy a helicopter, and hire a back country pilot to fly me to every mountain peak and glacier in my area

[–] pinwurm 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Probably pay off the condo. Maybe do some upgrades.

Travel with my wife somewhere for a 2 week long vacation.

Throw the rest in savings.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Saving for what? You'd still live in a condo?

[–] pinwurm 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I mean, I won’t have much leftover after paying off my condo. I live in a very expensive city.

Plus, you never know what you need money for down the line. Maybe my heating will need replacement. Maybe I lose my job. Maybe a family member will need professional care, like a home attendant. Or maybe I’ll take another vacation next year. Who knows.

$500K is not a crazy amount of money. It’s certainly enough to dramatically improve my life. But not enough for me to stop working, or buy stupid things - or anything like that

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Friend, the question proposed $500 Million to play with, not $500 thousand. You have a lot more budget to play with.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The question was five hundred million...

[–] Citizen 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Buy Reddit and Remove the Powers of Mod.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Then rename brand to either XI or Y.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Houses for the kids, a new truck, annuities for the kids & grandkids, remodel kitchen, a new porch.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
  • A nice house (preferably just barely outside the range of a strict HOA neighborhood so I can break all their rules and not have any repercussions and also so I don't gotta live in an apartment or rental home no more)

  • Pay for the next quarter of college (so that I don't have to worry about financial aid and whether or not I have fucked up on that)

  • A ref sheet commission for my fursona from my absolute favorite furry artist (because I just want one)

  • Using the ref sheet, I'd commission a very expensive fursuit from a maker that does premium high quality fursuits (again, because I want one)

  • Upgrading my computer and laptop for both school and for every day use would also be nice as well since I'd finally be out of the macrohard ecosystem and into the Linux ecosystem (unless I need windows for something in which I'd have a sandboxed VM running a heavily pre-modified copy of win10)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

House for me, homes/gifts for close family, maybe a nice laptop as well for work and gaming, stash the rest of it on a safe investment to live off the yield without worries.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Hmm…a decent sized house, maybe 4 bedrooms. Electric car and corresponding electrical hookup. Solar power for the home with battery backup. I think all told that brings me to 5 things.

Between all those, I would have dramatically decreased my cost of living and I would have plenty left over to save back.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

i mean uhhh, id buy an island so all my friends can live together happily and whatever money is left id make non profits to fight global injustices

[–] GrimChaos 1 points 1 year ago

I would most likely fix my bad bite. The older I get I feel like it's causing more and more problems.

[–] AnalogyAddict 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

First five? I'd blow all I'd spend in one. A small farm. The rest would be saved.

I know I'll never realize that dream, but it's the only one I have left.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago
  1. Bitcoin

There is no second best

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