If you were a billionaire...
 

What would you do/buy?

Me, I would buy a moderately priced house in Woodside, CA, the town I grew up in but cannot afford now. It would be about 4000 SF on at least 3 acres, with a pool, and cost about 10 to 20 million. That's moderately priced in Woodside. There's one place for sale right now for 135 million. As a billionaire, I could afford that, but that would be too over the top. I'd also get a nice lakefront house at Tahoe and a Chris Craft wooden boat. That's all the houses I would need. Well, maybe a beach house, too. In Hawaii.

I would buy into a private jet sharing program and travel a lot.

I would have a large barn with a couple dozen vintage cars, mostly Porsches and VWs, but also a few other odds and ends. The barn would include an awesome shop for the cars and also for woodworking.

That's about it.

A car collection like Jay Leno's and a staff of full time experts doing the repairs on the many varied and unusual toys like Jay has.

I guess I wanna be like Jay.

Keep my house and general lifestyle.

Maybe a few exotic motorcycles, airplanes, mistresses.

Fund a dog rescue.

Fund some sort of space exploration.

Target for removal a bunch of politicians.

Thanks, I can now leave this thread a satisfied man.

This is something I think about a lot. Three of the top things I would do:

Every low income child would get breakfast and lunch at school and a take home snack.

Erase the term "food deserts" from our lexicon by creating a nationwide chain of stores in low income neighborhoods selling only real food and have cooking lessons nights as well as reduced price pots/pans/utensils for shoppers.

Create a goon squad network to infiltrate and destroy child trafficking from organized rings to the pimp putting a strung out 16-year-old runaway on the streets.


there's a lot more. and a lot of details in the above that I have in Word docs.

its fascinating to me that the american dream has changed into being rich enough to not have to participate in living in america anymore.



my answer, id go SRO pro racing probably. travel more. pay someone to work on my race cars instead of me.

I'm just not as quick as this guy ! One Minute !

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1639602107.jpg

Houses in:

Wimbledon or London
Garmisch Germany (in Alps)
Rome possibly
Monaco possibly

A few cars here and there but I really don't think I would go overboard on some brand new Mclaren or Ferrari. I'm so accustomed to the savings on pre-owned that even if I had that kind of money I'd still look at 2 or 3 year old vehicles.

Hawaii is simply too far and Oahu is too crowded and since the Anderson Estate has been sold on Oahu (Robin's Nest on original Magnum PI) Oahu is off my list. It would have to be Big Island or another.

I'd buy every Pelican a beer!

Stay thirsty my friends :D

I'd get the Disney Channel.
I want to see 'Get Back'

ROFLMAO! I know exactly what that is.

"I'm pretty sure if I had a million (billion) I could hook that up too."

Open a home for wayward strippers...

.

A billion is a bunch of dough, but I think it'd be pretty easy to get carried away.

A bunch would go into investments. Some would definitely be spent. We'd have some realestate. I'd like a relatively small home on a fair amount of land that was very rural. We'd probably also have something "in town". I suspect the missus would want a slightly different house than I would pick, but I'd be happy for her to have it. I'd probably have a couple/few cars. The missus and I would do a fair amount of travel.

Help family with debts.

Then cars and home stereo upgrades.

Not me. I had a conversation this Summer with a B-aire.

He really wanted to buy the Seahawks. Then he told me how NFL franchises increase in value about 40% a year. Which is about how Billionaire wealth increases. Conclusion? He is priced out and will never be able to afford the Seahawks.

I told him to look at Hockey...



Me? I would start an insidious secret plan to manipulate the world just for S's and Giggles. Like promote a HORRIBLE K-pop band or similar just to see if I could convince people to spend money on them.

The Kardashians are talented at this. And Bieber. And that Painter of Light guy.

Humans are stupid.

I get bored easily.

In case there's anyone that doesn't know...
freakin hilarious. that character was fantastic.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9jq6e8s1sik" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I just don't get it.

At least he does something.
??
Amen

Have a wallet with a built in TV that plays, on a continuous loop, the move Brewster's Millions every time i open the wallet

Yeah I mean... besides that.

Billion could make a big difference with lobbying.

Maybe get on same page as other like minded billionaires.

I'd try and improve the us education system. Maybe nationwide lobbying to fight stupid teacher union rules, advocate for cash incentives to attract and keep fantastic teachers.

Also advocate to raise estate and commercial real estate taxes.

Clean air and water? Global warming?

Polarization research?

Lots of stuff that can be done, find a few things that are achievable and work towards them.

Oh and I'd take college classes on stuff I'm interested in.

Not sure I get this one...one usually invests to increase their wealth...what exactly will $2 billion get you that 1 won't to making investing make sense?

In my OP, I was was only thinking of myself. Shame! I would also donate millions to children's hospitals.

I think a net worth over about 10-15 million would be wasted on me, my personal net worth is much less and I really don't want for much.

1st class tickets whenever/wherever without shopping for bargains is good enough for the girls I go out with. Galavanting around the world in a personal jet would be hard on my conscience

It was the perfect response, it had to be made, it had to be made fast and first.

It also had to have no words, if you know, you know, that is all there is to it.

I am too sober to type up my fantasy. I see 2 responses here that resonate with me.

I'd set up a lair and buy the top floor of a high rise apartment and live like Bruce Wayne, but without the crimefighting.

Properly invested money helps other people build things and grow their own wealth. And makes you money too.

Money just sitting in a Scrooge mcduck vault is nice but not living up to its potential.

It would be completely possible to think that the money train was never ending. Although, I suspect it wouldn't be that hard to go through a billion dollars over 25-50 years.

You start out traveling, staying at decent hotels and eating at decent restaurants. You could easily end up staying places that cost thousands per night and eating meals that aren't cheap. That could be the start. When money is no object because you feel like you could never spend it all, it would be easy to slowly escalate to more and more expensive purchases.

There are lots of actors and sports figures that have made obscene amounts of money, and are essentially broke because they over spend.

I'd like to invest a big portion, and use the returns for living expenses, and then be able to leave a bunch to our kids. I'd like to make my mom more comfortable and secure.

Charlie's thread from not that long ago which is about a ranch that went up for sale in Texas.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/1104830-i-think-ill-go-into-ranching.html?highlight=turkey+track+ranch

Sounds impressive. I was curious, so I did a search to see if I could find the largest ranches in Texas. ^That one^ isn't even remotely in the top 10.

https://www.wideopencountry.com/10-biggest-texas-ranches/

I would probably build a 100 acre+ country retreat in Southern Kentucky over looking a big lake, or river, have many barns, including my own fire tower lounge. I would have a few classic sportscars, and muscle cars, and my wife would most likely have a large hosre facilty, with an indoor riding arena.

I would help out friends, and family, and possibly help them build a house on our acreage. We would travel also, but probably check out all 50 states, and the Canadian Provinces. I wouldn't have multiple vacation homes, I would just rent for a month, or two.

I would invest half of the $$, and live off the interest, so this would be generational money.

I have done exactly nothing for over 30 years..

I had thought about opening my own private buffet...but I realize that would hasten my demise..so I deferred on that idea...besides it is so much cheaper just to pay the freight and hit the already established buffets..let them do all the work..

There is no such thing as unlimited funds..

Wealth does not increase by 40% a year in a rational universe...something has to be seriously wrong for that to happen? And you had better find out what that is.

I know the greatest thing that you can posse is an inner peace of mind. That when your head hits the pillow at night you can sleep like a baby and not be plagued by your own inner turmoil. now that is not to say you won't have existential problems to solve as that is all part of the struggle of life..that is why they say RIP..cause that is when that is all over. Until then party on...

I'd like to feed the world's poor.

I'd feed my turtles...shrimp every day. :)

I’d have 3 or 4 modest but very comfortable homes each situated on substantial acreage. If the land was arable, I’d have more of it. One in Italy, one in the SW, one in Northern Michigan and maybe one somewhere tropical. Completely paid for (including present and future taxes, repairs, and improvements) in perpetuity. Fully stocked and furnished with plenty of room to entertain. Each having an excellent, fully-stocked shop, caretaker’s quarters and whatever vehicles are appropriate for the various climates.

I have no idea what I’d do with the other $900 million.

A rich and famous actor once said, "He would like to be rich without being famous." There is something to be said for being anonymous . That is why I gave up the RR..it attracted too much attention...where ever you went... a nice Ford F150 suffices...no body notices..

You can only be in one place at a time...

and you would be broke tomorrow.

Exactly. A billion dollars is an incomprehensible amount.

change my name...

Yep. Options, my friend. Options.