Easy. I'm building a low-income non-equity housing co-op. It'll have very small homes built from sustainable materials, distributed throughout a permaculture-based native plants food forest. In the middle there will be a big central space that functions as a community kitchen, storage space, and venue. The buildings will all be connected through a series of raised, fenced-in, roofed walkways that allow animal life to pass underneath, but also are accessibly designed for (provided) wheelchair/scooter use. We'll run all the wiring through these as well. It'll be powered by solar/etc and we'll have our own self-hosted municipal wifi with free email addresses and storage for residents. And etc, etc lol, obviously this is a very long standing pipe dream for me.
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An excess of single family housing is a major contributor to homelessness. We need denser housing. I'd rather work towards building something like a dense arcology. Somewhere for people to live that makes efficient use of the space to grow plants.
I knew about this problem, the whole issue with the tradeoffs/advantages/disadvantages between having denser housing vs having adequate green space. However, I didn't know there were any reasonably well developed potential solutions! Thank you for introducing me to the concept of Arcology, this is awesome.
What if my proposed setup was more like tall dense multifamily buildings instead? Maybe something like how Pueblo housing worked?
That's not a bad idea. Kinda combining the ideas. Smallish apartment buildings or multiplexes with lots of green space?
Yeah exactly. I feel like it might be more kind of "doable" on a smaller community-level scale, which appeals to me because anarchy. I don't know how well it actually threads that needle though, and whether it introduces its own problems
That makes a lot of sense.
My husband and I had a similar idea but for ourselves and friends versus your purpose-built need. With a billion dollars we can do both and then some so I'll build my commune and pay for yours to exist in multiple areas globally.
I could get behind that!
My first thought was reaching out to a property developer I know, and paying them to take care of the housing crisis in the state… housing first. I would then shame the absolute living fuck out of the people here that are more interested in children’s genitals, on behalf of some asshole god they worship.
Not quite as environmentally friendly- there would be efforts, but, then I would also use a substantial chunk of it to invest into things like solar or batteries, and energy grid development.
I would also buy myself the Lego venator kit. (Star Wars, Vader’s flagship from ESB).
probably a personal submarine
don’t forget to call safety regulations obscene
I buy myself a house, pay off my family’s home, pay off my best friend’s home, and pay off my and my siblings’ student loan debt.
And I’ll still have 998 million left over.
10 million goes into a trust, to pay my lawyers, financial advisers, and accountants.
15 million goes into whatever savings/trust/investment account my financial advisors recommend , with a maximum dispersement of $500,000 per year, for me to use as I see fit.
1 million for each of my 9 cousins, for education or housing.
964 million left.
I buy an apartment building. I advertise a reasonable rent, for the area. When I get a tenant that I like, I’ll decrease the rent to 20% of the person’s reported monthly income. I’ll apply that towards immediate bills, then take a small amount for long-term improvements, then put the rest in savings/investment accounts, one for each unit, split equally. Upon the end of the lease, the tenant can cash out this savings account. If the tenant has extenuating circumstances, their rent can be paid from this savings account, or the principal of this account can be pulled from at any time.
Some amount of money from the billion will be put in an investment/savings account, so that money can be pulled in perpetuity if necessary, to keep the apartment afloat during lean times. Something like 25 million, to allow for up to $1 million in disbursement per year for stuff that’s not covered by rent. Once this account doubles, I’ll buy another apartment, and so on.
$900 million left.
$100 million goes into a trust to be used for charitable ventures.
$800 million.
This is so much money. I literally couldn’t possibly spend it all in my lifetime.
Interestingly this was one of the first Reddit posts that I remember saving, a detailed guide on what to do after winning the lottery
It wasn't that I thought I'd win, but it was just so detailed
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vo34/comment/chb38xf
Get a lawyer or 10, probably gonna need em.
I'd be on high alert, because that sounds like a goddamn phishing e-mail!
Are there also hot singles in my area?
- Clear all my debts, pay for my kid to go to any college he wants.
- Renovate my house, or buy a new one. My house needs a lot of work but I've never had the funds to do much about it. There's electrical work and plumbing that needs to be done, roof needs to be replaced, hot water heater needs to be replaced, etc.
- Open a computer repair shop. It's something I've always wanted to do, but computer repair for end users isn't as profitable as it once was.
- Open a Retro Gaming & Computing museum. With every console you can imagine. And retro computers. And giant CRT televisions and monitors. With a giant collection of games. Everything is plugged in, with multiple controllers, ready to be played! I'd probably have a gallery of pinball tables attached as well.
- I don't know the details, but I'd try to start some sort of e-waste program that tries to preserve retro tech rather than see it go to a landfill, or even rather than seeing it get scrapped for copper, etc.
First, buy the services of a financial advisor. Run a very long list of ideas past them to see what's plausible, what would make a positive difference in the world, what would likely become a self sustaining positive thing after an initial investment that I can afford to go without a return on.
For myself, build a house. Pick the exact location I want. Customize and overbuild everything. Backup power and solar panels. But from the outside, make it look exactly like the majority of the houses in a 1 mile radius. Except mine is capable of withstanding nuclear war.
Also, health care to the max is high on my selfish list. I want a reputable doctor to show up at my house each month to check on things and answer all the odd questions about a cough I had one time or whatever.
For my family, buy them a few nice things, set up a trust fund that pays out an actual living wage to each person and include a standing appointment with a financial advisor as well as access to their own doctor who makes house calls.
A few US senators. Maybe a Supreme Court judge or two, just for good measure. And a super-yacht, obviously.
All the things. Like others have said it’s an insane amount of money.
But realistically, after debt, setting up family, I’d probably buy a (few?) of my dream cars, along with a “project car”. Along with some secured garage somewhere. Also fix up my basement, an/or get a new house (but not into anything crazy, I don’t want a mansion). Find a good charity (or 5) and donate.
But most importantly I’d pay my damn taxes! Not gonna be one of those fucker billionaires that wants to skirt on their basic social responsibility.
A media company, to influence the world according to my political agenda.
Hey, every bilionaire's doing it!
I'm paying a finical advisor to do all that thinking for me. Also, some fancy hookers.
- Pay off debts
- Sort family and friends out for life
- Build an utterly monstrous PC
- Park the rest in the highest interest account that'll have me and live off the interest without touching the principal as much as as I can, do whatever the fuck I want for the rest of my days.
I would try to found my own payment processor/credit card company that would be more NSFW-friendly. Apparently all the payment processors hate porn/nsfw which is why sites like to try to ban it so much. I want NSFW content creators to have a home too.
- A modest house.
- A second (functioning) vehicle for my family.
- Some apartments that I can turn into transitional housing for houseless and/or low income families, along with a staff of full time handymen, social workers, and counselors for facilities and transitional support.
- Create a healthcare fund/endowment investment managed by someone competent. It would be used to pay medical collections debts using the interest it draws.
- I dunno. A billion dollars goes a long way. Well above and beyond any amount I ever anticipate needing, let alone having. Maybe some Picassos to hang in my modest house.
Freedom.
First I clear all my debts.
Then I buy a Senator.
After setting up my family for life, I'd use the rest to start a micro-lending company for small businesses to get started or expand. I'd open them next to dollar stores and hire lots of bilingual people. We'd have free business plan advice, too. For fun I'd buy houses in lousy neighborhoods, fix them up and fit them out with solar and geothermal systems, then offer to trade the house with a neighbor and repeat the process. This would cost money but a billion can go a long way one house at a time and see step one.
A consultation with a team of attorneys on how to properly manage that kind of money. First fun thing would probably be a lavish vacation.
Mental health and some peace of mind.
Hello Vegas, give me 1 billion on red. D'oh, I'll mail you a cheque.
Dump it all in some low-risk diverse funds, live off only a portion of the returns, and otherwise try to forget about it.
One billion is an insane amount. You can literally buy everything you see and your bank account would still be increasing from the interest alone.
In order to spend one billion you need to think in extreme cases, like buying some kind of company that is hugely overvalued.
Personally I'd buy a lot of land and create a research facility of sorts.
Yeah even if you parked your billion in some account with super low interest, say 0.1%, it'd still generate a million dollars a year without you even doing a thing.
buying some company that is hugely overvalued
One Twitter, please!
FIRE. And maybe a pizza.