What would you do with $1million? What about $10 billion?

I like your mentality there @John-Wayne . I can appreciate that way of thought.

In regards to the British royalty. I to believe that is a different situation them being royalty and all. Besides they mostly resided in the military as COs. (Commissioned Officer) unless I am mistaken.

 

There is, to put it politely, some discussion as to the exact nature and extent of their service, and @zoupskim specifically referenced "a change in circumstance." I'm sure that had the Queen passed away while Harry was in the Navy, they'd have granted him a 96 hour liberty to attend his own coronation. After that though, it's back to scrubbing the decks, your bloody Majesty, who do you think you are, the king of England!?!*

Spoiler: *

*Yes, I know officers, even junior ones, don't pull those duties. Just roll with it, okay?

 

I don't know about how British royalty handles this sort of thing, or rich political families in America for that matter, but the power structure of any military is always a consideration. I doubt those royal family members are going to enlist to drive a truck. They're going to commission, and command a garrison of truck drivers.

This doesn't just apply to money, it can apply to any improvement to lifestyle. When I finished my bachelors degree I had to report to my platoon commander to discuss the new opportunities offered by education. I'm enlisted, but with a degree I could become an officer if I wanted, so he counseled me to apply to Officer Candidate School. I told him I didn't want to, he asked to know why, and I had to write a little report detailing my reasons. Me and the platoon commander had to present the report to our company commander.

And the company commander denied my first request. I had to report back in a week with a new list of reasons, written in a more thorough format, including the complete career-path if I remained enlisted. That satisfied him and I was allowed to remain enlisted, but if I'd been unable to convince them I'd probably be honorably discharged or have to make my case even higher to the battalion commander, and after writing so many requests to stay enlisted they probably wouldn't want me as an officer. And now, every time my reporting senior changes (that's the officer who writes my fitness reports) I have to restate my intent to remain enlisted.

 

I read your original post as saying that rich people couldn't be in the military, period. But everyone else seems to have understood that you meant rich people couldn't be enlisted, so I guess there are understandings I'm not aware of. Is there an actual rule saying rich people can't be enlisted, or is it just an impression you have?

They'd kick you out for getting a degree? That's... a different mindset than I'm used to, for sure!

 

, why am I not surprised. He always seemed like a tool to me.

Just another example of why I like Harry, It's a shame, he could have been an great king.

 

I like him in this clip. He's doing an interview, he's polite enough, but then the alarm sounds and he's GONE. He has a real job to do!

 

A million dollars? That's £751,500. It's a life-changing amount if you don't go mad with it, but not enough to keep you afloat for the rest of your life, unless you're fairly old now. An ordinary UK new-built house (two to four bedrooms) on a new housing estate runs around £250-£400K. So if you buy a modest new house, that's nearly half your windfall gone.

However, £751,500 is certainly better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. You could help a lot of friends and relatives get over some rough spots—but you couldn't buy them all a new house, car, etc. You could set yourself up in a new part of the country, take time off to look for, or get qualified for, a job you really want, etc. It would provide a real boost and can buy opportunity. But it's not the kind of money that would mean you would never have to work again, etc. It would mean you are comfortable, but not rich by any means. (A 'million' certainly doesn't buy what it used to buy.) It could be VERY easily squandered, as many lottery winners have discovered over the years.

A billion? That's mega money. I'd have to think about it. I think I'd be inclined to put it into ethical investments, and wait till something comes up that I want to give money to.

Incidentally, lottery winners here in the UK are not obliged to reveal their identities! Many of them do, and many of them don't. I certainly wouldn't.

I think there's a lot of difference between people who inherit money and were raised with it, and people who 'win' it or get it by their own efforts. I think about the middle-aged singer, Susan Boyle, who came in second at Britain's Got Talent, and went on to have a meteoric singing career. She is now worth over a million pounds, but the only thing she's really done is buy the semi-detached council house that adjoins the one she grew up in, and expanded the two to make a bigger single dwelling. She still lives there, on a council estate.

Another middle-aged Scottish couple who won a huge amount of money in the Euro Millions (I think it was something like £320,000,000) still live in their old community on the Ayrshire coast. They did get themselves a new home, but they gave their old one to a homeless woman with a child, bought new cars for family and friends from a local car dealer who was struggling to make ends meet, and did (and are still doing) all sorts of charitable things with their money. They like to support individual people who need help, and give a lot of money to causes dear to their hearts (like Scottish independence.) They are lovely people, who certainly regard their windfall as good fortune, and are happy to pass that along. I'd like to think I would want to do the same sorts of things with a huge windfall.

 

With $1 million I could:

• Pay for my daughter's last year of college
• Pay off all credit card debt
• Pay off my house and make some much needed improvements
• Quit my job without another one lined up and take my time finding a better one
• Replace my 2005 minivan that has well over 250K miles on it
• Add to my existing retirement investments and pretty much guarantee my master plan to live in Nevada during the hideous Wisconsin winters

$10 Billion is so much I can't even wrap my mind around what I might do with it. TBH I don't think I'd want the responsibility that comes with keeping track of that much money - I imagine you'd need to have a lot of trustworthy people to manage it for you, and that just sounds like work to me. I'm much rather just be comfortable.

 

With one million, I would pay off all of my debts and all of my parents' debts.

With ten billion, I would do the same along with my sister's debts. I would then purchase a home in England with some land. I would quit my job, but continue going to school. All of the extra money I would use to help save animals and help fund various organizations that I agree with.

 

1mil I'd put in a CD and collect interest for 50 years. When I died I'd give it to my kids, and they could keep it and let it grow and do something meaningful with it.

10bil I would pay off The Guild and build the final wind traps, so I could finally exact my revenge on House Harkonnen for their treachery.

 

Actually, I'd like to revise my original answer, it came off kinda harsh. $1million would still go into blue chips for my retirement, but with $10billion, I'd either travel to meet my friends, WF and otherwise, who are scattered all over the world or even better rent someplace like, oh, Honolulu and have everyone over for a party. I'd fly you all in first class, of course, and get really nice accommodations, food to your specific preferences (vegan, vegetarian, carnivore, whatever). We'd have a great time, marred only by the slight cough I've picked up recently. It would probably be about four to six weeks before you felt that tickle in the back of your throat as well, long after you'd returned to your various homes and met your loved ones, greengrocers, taxi drivers, friends who are going on holiday abroad....

 

You are a truly wonderfully sick devil-child.

 

$1 million- get a NYC penthouse. Go shopping all the time. Hire house cleaners and cooks. Buy a sailboat. Go to concerts and get the VIP tickets.
$10 billion- Everything I said above, and I don't know what else I'd do. Probably, like, help some animals and orphaned children. And buy a beach. But for just a few days, because it would probably be really stupid to have a check for that much money just lying around your penthouse, I'd let it sit in the closet and take it out and look at it occasionally. (Actual inside joke from my real life) ((Not pertaining to me getting $10 billion, though))

 

Hate to burst your bubble, my friend, but a million bucks won’t even get you the penthouse outright in NYC, not anything half-way posh, at least.

 

go shabby-chique, baaaybee!

 

Belhai kah'ifa

 

Gesundheit

 

It's from the brilliantly crafted SY-FI channel Dune mini-series.

It means something like 'Blessed be' or 'So be the will of God'

 

I would buy a big house in the countryside for my family to live in. I would pay all the debts that my eldest brother left my parents, and as I wouldn't have to worry about money I would adopt a baby girl as I can't have children - other than writing, being a mum is a big dream for me - The rest I would just save and spend if anyone wanted something

I'd just want enough where me and my family could live comfortably.

Samantha.

 

under The Dignity Law, all women are mother to every child, no child anywhere goes unloved.

 

$1 million:

Stop worrying about reaching the magic early retirement date for my pension, and just quit the job. Earmark a tenth of it for the garden and slowly spend that on projects. Otherwise, just bask in the idea that I’ll probably be able to pay for health insurance.

Billion(s):

Quit the job, of course.

Buy the guy his own small airport, stocked with small planes the way you stock a pond with fish. Build a bigger garden—possibly including a pond stocked with fish, and a little second house. There’s that five acres on the edge of town that we decided was too much of a money sink.

Hire an assistant to scurry around and do things for me, and another to research ethical investments and donations/foundations.

 

$1M - whatever

$10B - buy a TBM, and make one long tunnel from Cape Town to Scandinavia, then let whoever use it to stop people from f-ing each other over.