Recently I saw the movie "Brewster's Millions" which is a 1985 movie starring Richard Pryor and John Candy based on the 1902 book of the same name. Watching many movies made nearly 26 years later I have to say this movie is what I consider part of the pillow set collection (meaning a movie many people have slept on). The story is about Montgomery Brewster (played by Pryor) is a longtime little league player who never ascended to the major leagues. Nearly fifteen years he has been stuck with his town's little league team. With the number of attendees dropping as well as the revenue the owners of the team were generating, our hero finds himself at the crossroad of retirement. After being arrested in a bar fight the team's owners informed Brewster that no longer have the money to cover his mishaps. Brewster is scheduled to go to court the following weekend. During his trial Brewster is contacted by an attorney claiming to represent his late great-uncle. Brewster was apparently the only living relative alive of his great-uncle. During the time Brewster's uncle was alive he acquired a fortune that ranked him as one of the wealthiest men in the country. In a video will he informed Brewster that he left him the lump sum of 300 million dollars upon his death. Fearing that his nephew would be foolish and waste the money he set out to teach him a lesson. He informed his great-nephew of the time his father caught him smoking and sat there and required him to smoke a whole pack of cigarettes which made him hate cigarettes. Using this same tactic the conflict in the movie was created. Brewster was to be given a choice. His choice was he would inherit 1 million dollars on spot no questions asked tax free or he would be given 300 million dollars providing his completed a neccessary challenge. The challenge was that for a 30 day period Brewster was to be given 30 million dollar in which he had to spend before those days were up. Simple right? The rules however are not as simple. The rules of spending this money was that his nephew could not acquire any assets or anything of value when the 30 days were over. The only thing he could have was the clothes he walked into the Lawyer's office with, which were his little league jersey and some jeans and a baseball cap. To avoid making it to easy for him he was not allowed to give away or gamble but five percent of his money away and could not purchase gifts for other totaling more than five percent of his fortune making a total of 10 percent. Any money he earned using the original 30 million was added to the original amount. He also could not tell anyone about this ordeal or risk forefitting the contest and any shot at the money. The object was to make Brewster hate spending money at the end of the day and allow him to go from being poor to rich to poor again. If he followed these rules he would be given the 300 million at the end of the month. My question to you is if you were given the same challenge would you take the challenge or the million dollars. If you would take the challenge what would be your tactic? Post your response below remember the follow rules You cannot gambit or give money/assets away that total more that five percent (even if you make money gambling it just adds to the total) You cannot donate more than five percent You cannot own any asset (housing, clothes,cars, etc. pretty much anything other than the clothes you came in with) You cannot tell anyone about the money or the challenge Any money acquired using the money was adding to the total meaning he needed to spend more money. This wasn't a rule in the move but since the movie is nearly three decades old and the book more than a century, things have changed I find it fair to make this change to the rules. You are not able to hire celebrities at exorbent fees meang you cannot hire your favor bands to throw a thirty million dollar concert just for you. The prices maybe high but not unreasonable
Would participating in a charity raffle or auction or bake sale or what have you be considered donating? And if you do end up owning something (say you win the auction item), could you give the item away? If that was the case, I would spend the money like that. If I was about to get $300 mill, I would be fine with using my money for social purposes. Assuming that that is donation, I'd do the following: I would definitely donate five percent and give away five percent, leaving me with $27 mill. The rules say that you cant acquire any actual items at the end of the day, but it says nothing about services. So I suppose I would spend the money on a lot of services and non-tangible products. I would take out life / house / car insurance on myself and everyone I know. I'd pay my tuition for college and pay off all of my family's debts. I might buy myself an airline ticket and vacation somewhere for a while. I might hire a chef, a butler, a maid... hell, I've got money to spend --I'd hire chefs, butlers, and maids for everyone I knew. I guess I'd hope that that would make a significant dent! That would be hard! This really made me think.
Mercurial in the movie Brewster actually spends a ton of money renting things like luxurious cars and expensive suits so he would not have to buy clothing. After Cannibusy posted I forgot to mention the way they track if his spent the money was he was to gives reciepts to an accountant who would keep track of his money and made sure he spent it all. So that rules out just destroying the money.
Hmm would something like this work? I would hire a bunch of teens who are about to go to college. I would pay for their entire expenses for 4 years. In return however I would each have them do something for me. If they were to complete their assigned task then they don't have to worry much about money while at college. That should make a dent in the 30m right? This wouldn't be charity, it would be simply paying insanely over price for a service. There is a difference...(I think?) Tasks could be anywhere between cleaning my house, cleaning someone elses house or doing tasks that would be for charity. Whatever I think of. Though if something like that wouldn't work... I can higher celebrities and the likes if the price is reasonable right? Then I would higher actors and actresses and all the likes to go on a tour of sorts. To go around to small towns no one has ever heard of and convince the principal and such that they would be able to talk to kids who are interested in becoming actors and such. Maybe even get some directors to go around. All they would have to do is to talk and answer questions to help inspire the future kids(not like I care beyond that 300m...) Of course if my first scenario does count I have another brilliant idea. Sort of think of Make a Wish Foundation. But instead of out right giving them(hey it can't all be charity now) I would higher them. Oh yes thats right, I would indeed higher them to do something. But it would be simple. Very very simple. If the mother of a sick child can make an incredible home cooked meal then that would be the trade. My money to allow the kid to fullfil his dream and to help pay for medical expenses all for 1 single lovely cooked meal. But it could also be done through other means. Lets say the father is a mechanic. Then all he would have to do is teach me how to do some basic stuff. If the mother knows her way around photoshop, then I would pay for her services to teach me to make some awesome signatures. I take it food and knowledge is not considered an asset right? You know that actually reminds me of a short story idea I had. Some insanely rich guy goes around to people who are down on their luck and strike up a bargain like this. Then I am going to steal Mercurial's idea but instead of a personal butler(well I might higher some insanely huge bodyguard for the fun of it.) and chefs. I would higher these chefs and maids and such to help other people. Yes I figure I have 30m I need to spend, why not spread the wealth so to speak? Basicly I would higher that maid to help clean up a single mother who is sorta struggling. Wait does it still count as charity if I am not the one giving it? I am just paying some person to clean someone elses house at no charge to the owner. If so then I can always find a way to make it a trade. Clean house, help with taxes, help with fixing a leaky roof in exchange for some service that they could do for me. At the end of the day, I would just be a guy over paying for small services. Nothing about charity... Of course I would accept nothing in return. Every sort of service would just be used elsewhere. I would work it out so that nothing comes back to me. ... Ok I am done with this giant post. xD
Unit7 the idea of hiring people to do work for other would be acceptable since she is just your employee. The rule was set to keep Brewster from say buying like a thirty million dollar diamond for someone else. Personally I would donate 1.5 million to charity or a campaign contribution and probably gamble away another 1.5 million or something of the sort. I would rent tons of clothes such as suits, hotesl, and hire people like body guards, chefs, maids, and chauffeurs. I would also spend my money hiring these people for others to help them out. I would probably use the money to spread awarenss of a cause book comercials like the super bowl. I could even use my money to start a campaign of my own.
This kind of question will pique the interest of countless people obsessed with financial wealth and advancement. To me, it's as tired as a demoralised office junior fantasising about all the things they could do if they won the lottery and didn't have to work. I have been asked countless times what I would do with millions. It never gets new. People will travel, gamble, buy expensive cars, set up orphanages, burn out. It tells us nothing new about the human condition. I'm not sure why the question was asked. Are you planning to write about this topic? If so, I'm not sure how easy it would be to be original.
that's easy! i would use it all to promote the establishment of an international peace center i've been proposing be built on tinian... i'd have no problem using the entire $30 million for that within 30 days, with the price of tv and newspaper ads being what they are... and the $300 million 'prize' would go a long way toward building it...
At this moment, I haven't a clue. But give me the 30 mill. and a couple of days to think about it and I'm sure I'll come up with something.
Paying off all my husband's debts would make a huge dent in the money, no problem. I would probably set up a 'nylon' i.e. fake company with numerous highly-paid employees--that seem to be what most politicians do in Turkey. It easily gets rid of huge sums of money that somehow eventually find their way into bank accounts overseas owned by members of the guy's family.
*move to Scotland *Buy some huge mansion *Trip to the International Space Station *Hire some flash cars and clothes *Donate to a worthy charity *And keep the rest in a bank account for my next spree
I'd invest some for a few 'rainy days'. Go on a holiday. Pay my tuition/Brothers tuition. Wipe my close friends/families debts. Pay off my own debts. Donate the rest to charity and people who need it the most ( Kind of like in the show 'Secret Millionaire'... yeah, screw your rules).
Right, that's about £20m, then. OK, that's the three cars I want and the six-bedroomed house with adjoining golf course sorted. That'd probably set me back about £4m or so (£500,000 on the cars, £3.5m on the house). From then on, set up a bookshop in Huddersfield independent from Waterstones and what have you, specialising in difficult-to-find titles and secondhand books. And still have £15.75m left to accumulate interest in a Swiss bank account. Huzzah!
Easy, I would set up an F1 team. One season costs about 30 million and at the end I would sell it for 1.5 million (5% of 30 million) and then take that to Vegas and gamble it away.
Most probably, I'll hire a hit-man to kill a certain someone.....in fact, several people... I hate Of the remaining money I'll set up a chain of book stores and even a publishing house.
I´d fly to Czech Republic to finally be with the person I love and travel a lot with her Then, i´d buy a big home and i could finally be able to consider myself "a colector". I´d buy lots of cd´s, movies, books, african masks, asian stuff.................. Later, i´d invest on a Music Studio of my own, and give special offers to those who sound appealing, those who seem to be talented musicians, not those who have nothing but money. I
