THE PACK Message Boards

You have more money than you'll ever need, lets say, like, $50,000,000 more or less. Given the opportunity, what would you invest it in?

I'd probably do a little bit of everything (a little charity, a campaign contribution here and there, some money in the market to keep me from going bankrupt, etc.), but something I mentioned before that I definitely would love to fund the development of is the roadable plane, AKA: the flying car. I mean, this is the 21st century, isn't it? Weren't we supposed to have flying cars already? Sure, a nifty invention isn't exactly a sound financial investment, but that's what they said about the home PC. And even if it doesn't work, it's too good an idea to pass up if you ask me.

So what about you? You can just click a response and not say anything if you want, but as long as we're all just daydreaming here, you might as well go nuts with the specifics, right?

hmmm... I would have to say a little bit of everything.

I would try and help out the homeless, I always have to give them a few bucks here and there when I see them, so that would be the first thing to do. and I have a few project ideas up my sleeve that just need a few million to get done.

and I would love to be a movie producer, and that kind of money would help out a lot!

hmmm... and well, that's just what's at the tip of my mind at the moment,

I'd invest in myself (personal trainer, self-improvement type stuff), mostly, and my children's future (I don't have kids yet, but someday I will).

I'd build a massive island in the middle of the Pacific where I could live, and I'd secede from the U.S.

Any combination of the above. Definitely. I couldn't be selfish and not share it. I would definitely love to work on things for myself because money is so tight for me I would want to enjoy it myself and with people who I consider family. Not just my blood family even though they have given me hell so many times. I have friends that I consider family as well and I would so treat them as many have helped me when I could not do something on my own, whether it was money wise or just being a shoulder to lean on. So yea I'd share it, but make sure to keep plenty for myself as well.

A little of everything after a few months, at first I would enjoy myself and catch up on a few things I would like to do, buy a house, car, items for home etc... fifty million alone in the right place can earn a nice amount of interest, I would stay within that level each month which is beyond easy based on what the interest would be on fifty million. The first two things on mind are helping out whenever I can (there are some things I would like to help fund or completely fund.) and enjoying life, after while I would see what I would like to go into in regards to earning more, since the more there is the more that can be given. At this time such money would fix and open the door to everything.

A combination of myself/charity/packmate's scripts ( ) and such.

Fifty million is a lot of money. I could easily make due with less than that, and there's plenty of deserving places for it. Good karma/luck/whatever to spread it around a little.

Invest it in something, then take the dividends from the investments and live off of those. You know, an some Pack script's help. Whee for libraries!

hmm...well:

1. Ensure that I don't have any debt when I'm out of college, and that I actually get to go to my top choice out of the ones I've been accepted to.

2. Invest some of it into making some of my better ideas a reality. What ideas are those? I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you.

3. Make even more money when said inventions cash out.

4. Donate a ton of money to charity, specifically research for curing degenerative neurological diseases, seeing as how my family has a couple very rare ones popping up.

5. Build a giant deep sea drilling platform.

6. Pick a suitable spot and place said drill there.

7. Bore through the earth's crust into the mantle, thereby creating a man-made volcano.

8. Build a time machine.

9. Travel millions of years into the future to when the volcano has formed a relatively large island.

10. Figure out how to bring the island back to the present.

11. Build a mansion on said island.

12. Secede from the US, per Renorei's idea.

13. Go to war with Renorei's island, thereby doubling my land.

14. Travel back in time.

15. Kill one of my ancestors.

16. Cause a paradox which tears a hole in the universe, pushing me through it and back to #14.

14b. Repeat steps 14-16 for all eternity...and beyond.

17. Systematically kidnap all the world's scientists and force them to figure out how the heck a real Werewolf would be possible, and then force them to make it a reality....simply to satisfy my own random interest and make people here happy

18. Wipe the scientists memories of said research after they do it.

19. Force the scientists to cure the common cold, threatening to randomly infect them with the Lycanthropy virus they invented earlier (but don't remember doing), if they don't show results. If I'm forced to follow through on said threats, I'll seal the lab doors to contain the resulting shenanigans when the unsuspecting werewolves find themselves hungry.

20. Learn telekinesis, and perfect it to the point where I can control the moon's orbit...thereby allowing myself to simultaneously make it a full moon whenever I want it, AND be able to hold the world at ransom by screwing around with the Earth's tides.

21. Build a werewolf army, and achieve world domination through all the resulting consequences of #17-20.

22. Steal Pluto and make it into another moon for earth, since nobody cares about it now that it's not a planet anymore.

23. Blow up Charon, because it's way too close to Pluto and would get in the way.

24. Buy 560 bottles of Dr. Pepper from the local Cumberland Farm's store, at $1.29 per bottle, with the remaining $723.56 in my vault.

25. Buy a large bag of beef jerky with the remaining $1.16

26. Drink every bottle of soda and scarf down the entire bag of beef jerky

27. Due to the CO2 content of the soda, belch so loud that I throw the Earth off it's orbit.

28. Sit around and do nothing until the earth is dangerously close to the sun.

29. Travel back in time and prevent myself from ever building my own island and causing events #5-28 (of course, remembering to bring the lycanthropy virus with me so it doesn't get erased, and maybe the cure for the common cold so I can make some extra money).

30. Buy an estate the size of a small town in Maine, build a huge house, fallout shelter, etc.

31. Invent a parallel universe...because I'm that awesome.

I would go to college in California to learn more about computer animation, then come back to Texas to start a 2D/3D animation studio in Dallas employing around 50 people for doing special effects, commercials, and related content for customers. I would live in a modest but spacious home with enough bedrooms for visiting family and friends, and a large basement with a 6 PC LAN setup for fun. Of course I'd donate a substantial amount to various charities such as United Way and several animal sanctuaries. Traveling on vacations regularly is something I always wanted to do. I have so many people I want to meet, and places to see.

Kaebora wrote:I would go to college in California to learn more about computer animation, then come back to Texas to start a 2D/3D animation studio in Dallas employing around 50 people for doing special effects, commercials, and related content for customers. I would live in a modest but spacious home with enough bedrooms for visiting family and friends, and a large basement with a 6 PC LAN setup for fun. Of course I'd donate a substantial amount to various charities such as United Way and several animal sanctuaries. Traveling on vacations regularly is something I always wanted to do. I have so many people I want to meet, and places to see.

See what you can get out of CalArts (Disney's art college) or Otis art institute; they are both here in smoggy southern Cauliflowernia.

And as to what I'd do with the money? Buy several thousand gold plated duckies and throw them at Figarou, maybe...

Howlitzer wrote:5. Build a giant deep sea drilling platform.
6. Pick a suitable spot and place said drill there.
7. Bore through the earth's crust into the mantle, thereby creating a man-made volcano.

adds to his mental list of "Things to do if I win Big Wednesday" the following item: "Buy Howlitzer a DVD of "Doctor Who: Inferno" before he does anything the rest of the world would regret"

I'll invest in cool gadgets!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i3zfL1VUGo

Figarou wrote:I'll invest in cool gadgets!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i3zfL1VUGo

um....wow

haha...

yeah that's amazing and pitiful at the same time

Wow, $50 million. Not that it means much these days...with a recession coming up.
But assuming I got that kind of bargeld, I'd probably do a bunch of things (not necessarily in order):

1) Throw a couple million and buy a few thousand acres somewhere in west Oregon, and trick it out with wind generators, solar cells, geothermal, wells, etc.
2) Get together with about 150 other people and build an eco-village on ten of those several thousand acres.
3) Plant crops, crops, crops, enough to sustain the village populace with enough left over to sell.
4) Buy an Haute-Cheval (Friesian x Lipizzaner) and/or a Moriesian for Tagie to buddy around with. Complete their training all the way up to the Airs Above The Ground. Kit all of them out with the best and all the tack they need (not necessarily the most expensive). I wouldn't be settling for the XW-tree Wintec or a used Stubben, I'd hire a master saddler to custom-make matched saddles, bridles, surcingles, croupers and breastplates for all of them and matching gloves, crop and spur straps for me.
5) Set up a modest monthly donation (~ $35 - $50) to all the causes and campaigns I support. ALL OF THEM.
6) Take about fifty acres and build a dinosaur park. Except it wouldn't be dinosaurs, it'd be mythological creatures. We got plenty of dinosaur parks but how many bestiaries do we have? And so what if it doesn't make money, it'll be cool.
7) Design and build a European-style glockenspiel.
Build a farmer's market building like Pike Place, so the Lane County Farmer's Market and Saturday Market can have a space to vend 10/7/360.
9) Establish a Pagan cemetary, complete with burning ghat, lake for Viking funerals and rock tombs for Egyptian Pagans.
10) Pay off my whole family's debts.

Vrik...Friesians are midnight-black and Lippi's are pure white. What color is a Haute-Cheval? I've never heard of one (which shows you how much I get out...sigh)

Why not combine the Glockenspiel and the Fantastic beasts into one thing? Watch the Werewolves and Dragons dance while Nessie counts the hours...

I've been writing for thirteen hours and I'm getting silly with fatigue...nevah' mind

RedEye wrote:Vrik...Friesians are midnight-black and Lippi's are pure white. What color is a Haute-Cheval? I've never heard of one (which shows you how much I get out...sigh)

Don't worry about it, you're not the only one. They're a breed composite that's in its first generation, where Warlanders were about six years ago. Nobody's heard of Haute-Chevals outside of dressage circles...

Haute-Chevals start out black, because Lippis are grey. They're born black and fade to grey/white over time. The one HC I've seen is 5 years old and steel grey. He will eventually turn grey because grey is dominant.
And yes, he's GAWGEOUS. A little more gracile than most Friesians, perfect rhythm, sweet face and a temperament to match.

Why not combine the Glockenspiel and the Fantastic beasts into one thing? Watch the Werewolves and Dragons dance while Nessie counts the hours...

I was visualizing werewolves beating the hour on taiko drums while wizards, hippocampi, Green Men, yetis, dragons, gryphons, makaras, yallis, manticores and other beasties dance and Baroque salmon gargoyles spout water.

Good idea!

Howlitzer wrote:

Figarou wrote:I'll invest in cool gadgets!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i3zfL1VUGo

um....wow

haha...

yeah that's amazing and pitiful at the same time

its better than hanging it on the wall. Unless you can hide an LCD TV inside the wall itself.

Now to find an even larger television that comes down from the ceiling.

Howlitzer wrote:

Figarou wrote:I'll invest in cool gadgets!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i3zfL1VUGo

um....wow

haha...

yeah that's amazing and pitiful at the same time

*nods* I wasn't sure whether to call that "the ultimate in storage" or "the ultimate it laziness."

Also reminded me of one of those inventions in a modern home cartoon. You know, first Daffy Duck demonstrates how the TV comes in and out, then he throws Elmer Fudd on the bed and the robotic arm whacks him with the TV five or six times? Am I the only one that sees that?

My "Lottery Contingency," my various scenarios involving sudden wind-falls of large amounts of money, are varied and depend on the specific amount. There's a big difference between $10,000; $100,000; $1,000,000; $10,000,000; and a billion. Here's a rough run-down. In each case, I'm assuming that the wind-fall can go directly to my personal accounts, as opposed to business, that the money is after taxes, and that no floating uncertainties such as house problems or sudden heart attacks take any of it.

$100,000: pay off all debts except house payments and business-related debts with interest rates lower than investment rates. I'd set aside about $5000 or so for splurging and put the rest into savings. I'd continue working my current hours. My wife would probably buy furniture, while I buy miscellaneous tech gear.

$250,000: Above, but pay off part of the house and both cars. The reduction in monthly expenses could reduce my work load such that I could either cut back work hours or work at slower-paced locations more and high-volume places less. My wife and I might each enjoy about $10,000 or so worth of splurging. I'd probably get a custom Falcon Northwest Mach V gamer's computer with bleeding edge components, overclocked at the shop and pre-configured. I'd also make a hefty donation to wildlife recovery, and Cathey would probably put a like amount to Finca, a charity that provides micro-loans to women in developing countries to break out of poverty and raise tribal and community living standards.

$1,000,000: Pay off everything and reduce work to part-time.

$2.4 million: The cut-off point at which I could retire and maintain my current lifestyle living strictly off interest. Note that I have a rather ambitious lifestyle, and I acknowledge that if I could live simply, I could retire on a lot less. My splurge at this point would be either a Porsche 911 Targa-S or to get on the waiting list for a Tesla Roadster. A lot of family members would be getting some help with various issues--not a "hand out" so much as resolving specific problems and giving some boosts in savings to those who are already more responsible.

$10,000,000: More money than I could need: At this level, I'm flying around the world and funding some of your movies.

$100,000,000: Freeborn and Camp Lycanthrope are done deals, though Hour of Darkness sounds a bit more ambitious.

$10,000,000,000: I'm funding an X-prize to get a working space elevator as well as promoting development and deployment of renewable clean energy.