Welcome to Gaia! ::

Bill Gates stops you on your daily commute to work/school/unemployment line. "halt!", he says. You notice his glasses are a bit greasy and that he isn't really comfortable doing this. You stop and greet him..."hello sir, a-are you really Bill Gates?" "Well, yes, I am. And, as you probably know, I've been keeping an eye on everyone using Windows for a while now..." You think to yourself so that's what that funky looking update was for, but decide to not comment on it. He continues "...and I have noticed that you are unique. As part of an experiment you have been picked"
You hasten to say that you are not interested, but from behind his back, he grabs a bag full of money. "Oh, no you don't understand, you don't really have to do anything. I am just really curious what you would do if someone gave you one million US Dollars." You rise an eyebrow. "It's completely save, you don't even have to give 50% of it to the government. I took care of all that."

He hands over the bag to you and gets back in his car, you think you hear him mumble. "man, this is more fun than curing AIDS."

You are on the street, there are roads in all directions. People walk by you without paying attention to you. What do you do with your 1 million US Dollar?

Crack, Strippers and whores, am I right?

Actually, I'm just kidding. But as an interesting aside, there was actually a documentary series about giving a homeless man large amounts of money in attempt to help him "start over." Really I think this lame excuse for a social experiement was just a set up for showing human beings how low we can go. Giving someone large sums of money and sittting back behind a camera is not so giving or responsible as, say, helping give the guy housing, grooming and career skills. In the end, the guy wasted all his money, as opposed to turning his life around... And I suppose we're supposed to think that it was all the bum's fault...

Just like if I gave a child a loaded handgun, I wouldn't be responsible at all if the kid shot his friend or himself, right?



Anyway, if I had a million in US currency (assuming the government didn't steal half of it in taxes), I would pay off my debts. Help pay off my parents debts and mortgages, and whatever I had left over I would either invest or manage.

I would try to grow what I was given, live off what I only needed for housing, food and a small allowance.

The rest I might try to put into community trusts or projects to help out other people who are struggling.

not much.

a mil just doesn't go as far these days.

QFE

I would just use 300-450k of it to get a decent place with some acreage and put the rest into savings for retirement.

I bet he'd buy a bunch of toys/figurines 3nodding And a bigger home to put them in.

I'd open up a comic shop that'd have a nice selction of indie comics as well as the ol' DC marvel stuff and I would hold different tourney's (vid games and CCG) maybe places where local clubs can hang out like star wars association here in town and what have you. I'd have little baskets near the front door with like promotional samples of spray deodorant so i can kindly remind some of the stinkier nerds. And maybe a girls only hang out to escape your chest being stared at by some nasty little otaku kid. I'd have like a few security cameras so i can catch little punks trying to steal from the discount bin.

Then i'd put left over in the savings for when i retire or something like that.

I would go back to school.

I like Kenzie's idea of the acreage, and the idea of living off dividends...

Opening a gaming/hobby shop or a restaurant wouldn't sound too bad, either.

I always have been found of Colorado <3