Are You One Of Them?
 

FORBES has just listed 946 BILLIONAIRES in the world. I'm not one of them are you ;) If you WERE one what would you do with some of the $$$...goodness knows you couldn't spend it all!

I would:

#1 ~ Set my mom, brother and sister up with the best doctors in the world for their ailments

#2 ~ Buy everyone in my family their dream home...making sure that my kids, step-d and knucklehead nephew's homes were near me!

#3 ~ Sit down with members of my church to see what we, as a church body, could use some of the money for

to be continued...............

I would...

Buy our families a home and give them some money as well

Donate, donate, donate...I am all for helping kids and would donate a lot for childhood cancer, habitat for humanity, the homeless, vets would get some and a couple of other organizations

Travel I guess...

To be honest I don't know what I would do with so much money. After you buy a home, cars, furniture what else is there to do with it all.

I would take care of my immediate family.

I would love to open a number of homes for foster children -- not just houses but "homes" with family units, etc.

Find a few homeless people, help them back on their feet and then buy them a nice house!!

Have my dream home built.
Have deep pockets and dole out large chunks to all my family and friends.
Donate.
Sway political affiliations. LOL
Buy a new mini van with GPS, On Star, DVD/TV, one o' them thar fancy fangled sattelite thingy ma-bobs, a car alarm that says "Get away from my vehicle before I shoot!"...you know, the standard stuff.
Spend a couple months traveling Europe.
Spend a month on a cruise ship.
Spend a month in Mexico.
Spend a month on the islands...any islands.
Spend a month in Hawaii with a friend and a relative.
Spend a month a Disney.
Spend a month traveling the states visiting long lost family members.
Then I'd spend the next four recuperating so I could start over the following year.
Go shopping for clothes every day.
Spend a week at a spa, have my hair done, nails done, face done.
Spend a week at a hospital, have my boobs done, tummy done, fanny done.

Man! Being rich sure does wear me out.

1)Build my dream home
2)Take the kids to Disneyland
3)Have a "girls" vacation with my mom and sister
4)buy my sis her dream home
5)set things up for my 4 kids schooling (by the time their are grown that will be a good chunk there) lol
6)have a tummy tuck and put my boobs back where they belong
7)move to a warmer climat (I am sooooooo over winters)
8)set up accounts for my kids so life would not so hard for them
9)charity,charity,aharity (mostly for at risk kids and schools)
10) and of course have more kids

Well, I'm not one of them and unless DH stops buying defective lottery tickets, I never will be one of them.

But if I were, this is what I would do:

1. make sure that each member of my family got yearly gifts of the maximum amount allowed under the tax laws (somewhere around $10,500 per year right now)
2. make sure that my children had enough money to go to the college of their choice
3. set up a scholarship for underprivileged kids so that they could attend college
4. set up a scholarship for music majors (like my DD)
5. retire
6. travel and relax
7. and the list goes on.....

I'm definitely not one of them, but I would:
1. buy my dream home
2. pay off all existing homes for my sisters and brother and all their other bills
3. buy a large house boat and jet skis
4. build a nice cabin on a lake
5. buy homes for each of our kids/step-kids
6. buy me a Hummer and a Lexus sports car
7. buy DH a Corvette and the Hummer truck
8. Take my entire family on a 2 week luxury yacht
9. travel the world
10. give some to charities that I feel are worthy
11. Save money for my kids and step-kids to go to the university of their choice

I would pay off all my family's debts, spend my life doing what I've wanted (travelling all over the world) and buying me a pottery wheel and kiln. I would spend all my time working with ceramics.

I'd get the surgeries for when I've lost all the weight. My teeth bleached. I would give money to donations or to an organization that would actually help the people of other countries. I pay for my parent's retirement stuff.

And so on...it's not really what I'd use my money FOR...but what I'd do with so much...(like working on ceramics).

1) Donate money to my favorite charities
2) Build a huge deluxe animal shelters for animals without homes
3) Pay off my parents house
4) Buy a couple townhomes/condos for myself in areas I'd like to live (here near DC, somewhere in CA, maybe somewhere else as well). Wouldn't buy a stand alone home because I like smaller places and I don't want to do the maintenance on them.
5) Travel more often to more places
6) Open up my own business and make sure DH has his own business. Not sure what I'd do but I had thought about doing a pet kennel company when I eventually retire or maybe I'd work with DH.
7) Pamper myself a little more - some spa visits and such

I would...
-buy a new house (mansion)
-buy a new car, maybe a porche
-make sure my dad would never have to work again
-give to charities
-pamper myself at the spa
-spontaneously jump on a lufthansa plane (1st class of course) and travel Europe for as long as I want or until I get tired of traveling and go shopping everywhere and see everything!
-buy a boat
-buy a puppy
-buy a business so I can be a CEO

Yes, in fact I AM one of them.

1) Buy a huge house in the country with lots of land for a garden & animals.
2) Pay off my family members' debts.
3) Set aside money for my brother to finish his degree, because he's put it off a long time and it would be his biggest accomplishment since he didn't graduate from high school.
4) Set aside money for my nieces & nephews for their college educations.
5) Set up a no-kill animal rescue center.
6) Donate to various worthy causes.
7) Set up a scholarship for people who are unable to get assistance for school.
8) Go on a lengthy vacation to Spain, since that's where I have always wanted to go.
9) Pay for my parents' & in-laws' retirement.
10) Finish school myself.

I can't even comprehend having that much money.. I may die of shock before I am able to do any of my list!

I would be impressed, our very own billionaire :)

As the previous poster stated, going into shock would be something that would happen to a lot of this if it was something that happened all of a sudden. If we built it up ourselves or what not, then we would most likely know what to do with a billion dollars. Would we really know what to do if we happened upon it? When I answered my "wish list", I answered based on the fact that I wouldn't go into shock and my whole world wouldn't go upside down.

Now a supplementary question to this one about what do you think you would do if you were a billionaire would be would you really want a billion dollars handed to you one way or another ? (family inheritance, lottery, secret MS stock from the 80s, etc)

My answer would most likely be no. Although it is easy to say that now because no one is going to hand me a billion dollars. But I wouldn't want my life turned upside down by money and I think that is what would happen with that much money. So in general, I think I'd try to keep my life mostly the same, I probably wouldn't tell anyone that I had that much money because I wouldn't want them to know. I also think I wouldn't live too extravagantly.

Couldn't fool ya, huh Nelie?

I figured this was some kind of fantasy thread, so why the heck not? ;)

AWWW, if it isn't my smart, kind nice, sweet, adorable, hot, sexy friend ROCKINROBIN! Hey dear...I forgot your address..wanna PM me ;)

continuing my list~

Have the ROLLING STONES come over and play for my backyard BBQ...as the OPENING BAND! :carrot:

Wait a sec... are you trying to say that since this is some kind of fantasy thread, THAT'S why I'm all those things? - ya know, smart, kind, nice, sweet, adorable, hot and sexy. Ummm, because that's not necessarily the case. ;)

Speaking of fantasties, oh gosh I can't believe I'm about to say this - but yeah, when I was a teenager, oh so long ago, I'm 43 now, ummm, Mick Jagger, well, ummm yeah.

Gimmie Shelter is just about my very favorite song.

Of course you are all those things robin!

Although EZ is just looking for his sugar momma. DH calls me his sugar momma but I can't break it to him that I'm not a sugar momma :)

Oh I think it is a slim possibility that someone here could be a billionaire. They are rare (as Forbes states) but that doesn't mean its impossible. Although, I think billionaires would have better things to do in their time. Usually very busy people :)

First thing that comes to mind...liposuction and a new kitchen...done by CONTRACTORS...not my husband and I. Anything more than that is beyond my comprehention of cash value.

I keep this list in my purse, just in case our numbers were to hit. ;)

1) Pay off my parents farm so they can retire

2) Get long term care set up for my brother (he's mentally ill)

3) Dream home (here and in Oregon near DHs family)

4) Travel

5) SIL works as a midwife/nurse in an extremely poor area of Pakistan. I would like to help ease some of their financial burdens.

6) College fund for all my kids, neices and nephews

7) Tummy tuck!!!!

I'm not sure what charities right off. Currently we donate to Habitat, our church, and SIL's missionary agency. I would have to do more research to see where I wanted the money to go. But wouldn't that be fun research!!!

I'd buy the Colorado Rockies and increase the payroll so they could keep all the young talent that they have and really be able to contend, this year and in the years to come. Travel with the team and visit all the ballparks.
I'd also make sure my family was taken care of with whatever they wanted. Make sure that my nephews go to college and follow their dreams. Buy a private jet to travel the world. Hire a personal chef to make healthy good food!
And to steal some elses, set up foster homes for kids. What a great idea! I'd probably adopt a few kids too, you know like Brangelina.
What a fun thread!! Gary you've been starting all sorts of fun, thought provoking threads lately! Thanks!

I thought of some more things I'd want:
1. a personal trainer
2. a personal chef to cook all my healthy , delicious meals
3. a huge indoor heated pool with a removable roof to be able to use it all year long
4. A boob job, tummy tuck and butt implants
5. A huge warehouse to hold all my clothes, shoes, purses, belts, hats
6. a vault for all my expensive jewelry
7. new vehicles for all our kids
8. a live-in housekeeper
9. a guest house to keep adult kids out of my house, LOL
10. an in-home movie theater and basketball court.

Darn it, my lottery tickets keep being defective too.

Oh a personal trainer would be nice. I thought about the personal chef one as well but I think I'd rather take time to cook for myself if I had enough money to live a more leisurely life style.

And now for reality.

Local man DID hit the lotto here...$315 mil. He donated $5 mil to my parents' church building fund, and an additional $1 mil for their general fund. They built a really super nice church and have a large memorial plaque in the front entry dedicated to the man (Jack Whittaker), his wife and daughter. Whittaker is now, you guessed it, divorced. He's being sued by some women who claimed he sexually harrassed them at the local dog track. His granddaughter, whom he'd setup with I believe $20K a year for life, died of an OD. With that much money, she could afford her drugs. :( Whittaker has also had problems with drug abuse. He is currently facing possible jail time because of discrepancies in his accounts, and on and on. The man's life has been totally ruined.

I bet none of our fantasies would ever come close to real life. :(

Ahhh, now I get it. Us "billionaires" are a little slow sometimes. Especially the fake ones. All the buttering up in the world won't change the fact that I was kidding. (although I wish it would). It's such a far off thought, one that I can't even come close to imagining, that I don't even wanna make a list. :( . But it would be very similar to the ones that have already been posted. Including the Rolling Stones. Ahhhh....

Well that is why I think a supplementary question would be, Would you really want to become an instabillionaire? I've heard that most major lottery winners end up bankrupt. Managing money takes discipline. Not that I play the lottery, but if I did and if I happened to win, I don't think my life would change drastically.

All the things I listed on my "wish" list are basically things I plan to have happen in my life eventually anyway. The latest one is I would like to donate enough money or build something myself that would be described as a deluxe animal shelter. I think animals without homes should at least have some place "homey" to live.

I think it'd definitely depend on how you were raised, and whether or not you are already responsible with money. I'd like to think I'd be okay and it wouldn't change much about the way I live, but that's only because we've had to be very careful with money just to make ends meet, and it's hard breaking those habits. I think I'd probably go all out for a bit, but I'm really not an extravagant person and my roots will always be a "country" type of living.

Oh..... money is so overrated - Nelie, to answer your supplementary question, no, I would not want to suddenly be a billionaire.
As they say, "be careful what you ask for....."
EZ - it's fun to fantasize though, but I would not really want the fantasy to become reality. So if I were to fantasize? I have no quick answers but I'd be making lists and getting more informed as to what a billion dollars can do. I'd try to hide the fact that I had it so as to maintain a low profile from would-be moochers. I'd try to see how it all could help the most people long-term and do whatever I needed to do, travel wherever I needed to travel, to help to make sure that happened; goats for third-world countries or whatever.

I've always been so boring with this one. :) A number of years ago, a "contest" representative called my home to try to sell me something with the pitch, "What would YOU do with a million dollars?!"

"Um, I guess I'd go to school full time instead of part time," I replied. The rep quickly became flustered by my "complete lack of imagination" and hung up on me.

My life would not change dramatically with the influx of a large sum of money IF I could control the publicity surrounding it. I'd want to keep my name and image private if at all possible, because I don't want the headaches of dealing with people begging for or even demanding money.

Depending on the amount, my "suddenly rich" dreams range from quitting my job and devoting myself full time to finishing my undergrad and master's degrees in short succession all the way up to paying off our mortgage, setting up a fund for my parents' retirement, and paying my siblings' college costs.

I might even take a vacation or a few months off from working, but I don't think I'd be very good at being a member of the "leisure" class.

NOPE! I'd say those things even if no money was involved!

I am ALWAYS looking for a sugar momma ~ Angie just won't let me have one! ;)

You are quite welcome!

You know, we..or at least I do, make a lot of fun of people like Britney and Paris. Some of it deserved for sure...but watching the news on Britney lately and all the people hounding her for pictures etc. Well, it can't be easy to try and stay "normal". Sometimes I really feel sorry for those folks.

Woooo-whee, boy-howdy, am I ever! :dizzy:

:D

I'd lobby Congress to do something about NAFTA so we could bring jobs BACK to the US. Seeing the workers here in Michigan losing their jobs as companies take production to India, China and Mexico so the top brass can get larger bonuses and make it onto those Forbes lists is really disturbing to me.

Tiki