You open your mail. Two letters. One tells you your tests show you have between 6 and 12 months to live and there is nothing that can help, you won't suffer and will remain active until you die. The other letter advice's you have inherited 100 million dollars and it has been credited to an account in your name and the enclosed card can access it immediately. Do you give it all to your church? Do you you buy a huge supply of drugs and booze. Do you enrol in a make you a better person course. Travel? What would you do? I know this type of thread has appeared before but I think building in the bad news may generate an interesting discussion. Alex
I had an old school buddy who was told to give up drinking 10 years ago, due to liver problems which could kill him. Recently, last year he was informed he only had 2 months to live due to advanced bone cancer. First thing he did was go down to his local club and ordered his first beer in 10 years! He has now passed on. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! But I digress...Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! If I was put in that position as described in the OP, I would use the money to take a trip to the ISS, and possibly even contact Mars One to book a seat to the first Mars manned expedition1. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
You wouldn't last the trip - and there's no way that they would send literal dead-weight to Mars. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! To the OP: first I get the best doctors to give me a second and third opinion. Then after the denial is over, I'd make sure friends and family are happy, then give a large chunk of it to some charities, then some sight-seeing holidays, good food, good wine, and basically do anything I wanted to do whenever I wanted to do it. And yes, I would quit my job. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Hey!! I may be an old fart, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't pull my weight. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! As someone in excess of 70, recent full medical scans, and examinations, reveal I'm pretty strong with a great heart rate; And afterall they did send John Glenn when he was in his 70's to the ISS. [Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! granted, sadly Mars maybe out of the question, still money talks a lot of languages! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
The bad news in the OP is that you have only 6-12 months to live... a Mars round trip is a tad longer. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I guess you'll earn the nickname of "Ballast", though. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I just realised I don't like drugs, booze or travel. There was something else I liked but I can't remember what that was. Alex
In between snorting fat rails of blow off the asses of $10,000 a night hookers...I'd probably set up a few charities....and wreck a few Ferraris.
Don't believe I could spend 100 million in such a short time and still enjoy it. I would travel--Europe, Asia, Australia, and the pacific Islands. There would be satisfaction in knowing my family would be financially secure after I was gone. If I didn't get 100 million and still had a short time to live, I would probably jack my credit and barrow as much money that I could, then travel.
I was thinking of the MARS ONE expedition proposal...a one way trip. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! http://www.mars-one.com/ Ballast will suit me fine if I could get on! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
) I WOULD attempt tho straighten my life with my Maker ( live righteous ) Create a foundation to provide drinking water in poor villages
You only have 6 months. That's something I would like to do. I reckon a couple of miles of 19mm Polly pipe and fittings would be a big help for so many places. Even black plastic sheet to line mud brick tanks would help. Alex
A big check to Detroit Dog Rescue and another to the Humane Society. Live my life as I already do (no gods, no masters) finish a couple of in-process paintings, leave the rest to my lovely wife so she can take care of my Labrador properly.
Buy @40,000 contiguous acres of farmland in america's fertile crescent and will it to my sons with the codicil that they work with a forester, or crew of their choosing, and plant 1/2 of it in a mixed hardwood and softwood forest(with appropriate mycorrhizal fungi) with wildflower meadows and frog ponds.
I would definitely follow Sarkus' advice and seek out a second and third medical opinion. I could certainly afford any treatment, even experimental ones. Otherwise, I'd lawyer-up as Goat suggests and create a charitable trust of some kind, devoted to awarding grants to causes that I like, such as scientific and other scholarly research. Maybe $95 million to that kind of thing. I'd want to ensure that the money continues to go where I want it to go even after I'm dead, and that future trustees can't hijack it and bleed it dry. Then I'd give most of the remainder to my family and friends. A few hundred thousand here, a million there. And finally I'd keep a million or so for myself. I'm not sure what I'd spend it on though.
Well I did not think for one moment you would trash a Ferrari. But overall I thought you were joking. Alex
