I have a cousin who is in a de facto marriage with a "rock star". They have enough money to buy a nice terraced house and drive a new VW. They're waiting on their second kid. When I visited them my cousin was embarrased about her oversized bath-tub. "It's more opulent than the catalogue suggested" she proclaimed. They live modestly, through choice. I'm not sure I would be comfortable splashing my wealth around either, knowing the poverty many others endure. My cousin is left wing politically, as am I. If I had $10 million I wouldn't have a clue what to do with 90% of it...give it to some cause I suppose, some charity...but which one? RDFRS? I'd have real difficulty spending it on myself, or my relatively wealthy circle.

I'm obviously lacking in "good, healthy greed" as Gordon Brown said. If only that had come from a conservative it would resonate, but from a socialist it just sounds duplicitous.

At this time, $10mill U.S is £6,174,881.99
In the great scheme of things thats fuck all.
Just put it in a bank.

I would certainly use some of it to help charitable causes. I guess I'd use the rest to live on so I could give up work and pursue my hobbies, especially travelling, writing and learning to play the piano.

If I had that money I would probably bank a couple million as investment, and live off the income from it, and give the rest away. Meanwhile I would not move, would not change my job. It's what I know, my clients are my friends.

Remember that Australian guy in the Outback who won the lottery and gave it all away as he didn't want to lose his friends. I am much more like that. Money doesn't motivate me. I understand the value of it, which means I don't need a lot. But I wouldn't give it ALL away.

Indeed, that's the point missed routinely by politicians who think that grand macroeconomic "solutions" constitute a panacea. Only a small minority of people share their obsession with money. For most of us, it's a necessary evil, and nothing else - the means by which we keep the lights on and food on the table. For those of us who don't have wet dreams about being in a position to afford tax-shelter accountants, what we actually want is enough to keep penury at bay.

Indeed. However that translates to a little short of R1 billion, which is a considerable sum of money. I would love my DH to win a large sum of money simply because he's spent his life saving just to be comfortable in his retirement, and now, 10 years later, is back to having to as Cali eloquently puts it "keep penury at bay." Not exactly broke, we at least own our home outright but it is a quarter of the size of the house we were able to buy 10 years ago before the economic "downturn" which sent house prices plummeting and forced us to sell our home at a loss so that we could move to something we could manage. 7 years ago we were offered three times what we paid for the other one, when we sold it last year, we merely broke even. So with R10 billion, he'd be able to replace our almost 20 years old car, and give the kids each a sum of money to help them get back on their feet after what the greed of the US banks did to our country's economy leaving all of them battling to keep jobs, let alone find new ones.

We'd have a little left to take another trip abroad and to give some money to a deserving charity but then with corruption so rife here, would I want to hand over money to people who would simply use it to spend on trips and buying cars for their friends and family members. I'd want to have the power to control how the charity spent the money, not just give it to them. Or I'd give it to the SPCA (or cancer charities) who really battle to keep going while other charities use donations to have lavish parties.

Right up front, after taxes are paid. Half would be split toward specific charities. The remainder would pay off my bills, give some to family, buy a plot of land and begin construction of a simple but specific home and vehicle, maybe take a trip. The rest would be used over time for normal expenses.

I'd keep just enough to be able to live reasonably comfortably, and donate the rest to fund research into regenerative medicine. We're all going to get sick one day, and personally I think money is better spent increasing the odds of the necessary technology existing when you need it. Health is much more valuable than money, and of course, many others would benefit should the research you are funding turn out to be successful.

I'd spend it in paying my bank loans on my house, that of my sister and my wife's brother.
For most people, that's a nice thing to have.

Then, keep some of it in a bank, as some personal safety net.
I'd certainly keep working, to some extent.
And the rest, which would probably be at least half of it, would be used to purchase real estate. Maybe six or seven nice houses that I would put in the market at a very low rent. Education/employing people is very important, as Fenrir said, but I'm not sure I can provide that to people, but providing them with affordable housing is a nice second best.

With that amount of money I could use a fresh tea bag every time.

These days when I am daydreaming I don't go for a dime less than 100 millions to play with so I am not sure I am prepared to answer the OP.

Nevertheless, in my fantasies I have always imagined myself buying a citizenship in one of those Caribbean tax havens on a priority basis. Baby jesus knows I have googled a lot of info on this. For example, though swiss tax rate is only 10 percent, their citizenship is not up for sale, unlike Australia or Austria. I better stop now.

We often talk about what we would do with obscene amounts of money. I'm not entrepreneurial at all, so I wouldn't have a clue about how to create a business and provide employment. It would be nice to have a family compound where we all could live, as a home base. This would then provide a lot of employment for "staff" to run it, take care of the grounds, perhaps some small farming to provide food for their families, with houses on the property where they and their families could live. I would be nice to provide a nice place to live, and employment for people who do not have jobs and do not have proper places in which to live.

Pay off my bills.
Pay off my mother's and both sisters' mortgages.
College for my nieces and nephew.
Go on vacation.
A car (or 2) that I like. Probably about a 1973 VW Microbus and/or a 1985 VW Rabbit GTI.
Buy a pair of shoes without price being the first and foremost concern.

Engineer the zombie apocalypse.

I agree about the shoes, I would love to buy shoes without looking at the price.

Fenrir wrote:

THWOTH wrote:With that amount of money I could use a fresh tea bag every time.

Or even lash out on some real tea.

Hmm. I think that would be somewhat profligate.

I would parcel the $10m into 20 packets of $500,000. I think 2 packets would be more than enough for myself and the rest I'd give away. I can't see how possessing more money could make me more happy, and I think giving $9m away would bring me greater joy and satisfaction than a garage full of Lamborghini or holidays in exclusive locations etc.

Having $1m would mean I'd never have to want for Marmite again. Christ, $100 would be a windfall at the moment.

THWOTH wrote:With that amount of money I could use a fresh tea bag every time.

Phew. Another problem solved. Can you make do with the ones you have until Christmas?

I might be tempted to blow $9 on turning an Iain M Banks novel into a movie. It's something he always wanted you know.