101–110 of 531 posts
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vo34/whats_the...
You did well so far for publishing this anonymous, so kudos.
Firstly, congratulations! You sound very level-headed about it all which is refreshing. If you're UK-based I'd withdraw it all and hide it in a safe... FCS only protects up to about £70k (from memory) and who knows what state the banks will be in post brexit!?
OP almost certainly isn't in the UK, but even if so, you spread it around numerous banks and different asset categories (stocks, gold, bonds) rather than risk it all in a safe. Even just dumping £1m into an NS&I Income Bond would keep it pretty safe.
I'd personally diversify as much as possible and buy into a variety of funds covering most major geographic areas (e.g. a fund that tracks the Dow, one for the Asian markets, and so on.)
As someone who has been in your shoes to a lesser degree, here are some things I learned: It is best to not upgrade your lifestyle at all, but instead to use your position to bring broken people out of the pit. Here is why: - 1. It is better to end the suffering of someone else than to make your own already-awesome life slightly better. - 2. If you lose everything like I did, you will have actually lost nothing and o…
If you are unsure then sit on it for a few years. That is barely enough money to retire comfortably the rest of your life. If you truly feel giving it away makes the world a better place then why not. Chances are though you using it to better your life and find your niche would further enrich those you came into contact with. Do not feel guilty about having money that you actually earned. It is not like you got rich…
Barely? Using the "safe withdrawal rate" of 4% after inflation if the money is invested, one could spend 320k a year and probably not run out.
Don't get me wrong, the stock market is a perfectly great place to park your money, and it's basically back stopped by the US government.
My suggestion is look to invest elsewhere. Invest in real estate, invest in businesses. The latter, as you now know, can create much more wealth than the stock market.
The end goal of this isn't the money at this point. It's to build and be creative. It's not for everyone. Just my two cents.
EDIT: If you do put your money in the markets - invest in a handful of low cost and well-diversified ETFs. Hiring an advisor could be a good idea - but make sure you know their fees.
2) Devote your time to following your dream and doing what you enjoy doing. is there seriously nothing you always wanted to do but never thought it would be a reasonably paid career? Music? Film? Inventions? A programming side-project?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"It's when you have the freedom to do things that you wouldn't have felt comfortable doing when you were worried about paying your personal bills each month like me, like my fellow peasants." I completely agree, but we have no way to know what the best way for him would be to use his new freedom for self -actualization. There are lots of other interesting things to do in life as well. "That's quite a bit higher than…
>There are lots of ways to spend 8M fairly quickly. There's a lot of ways to spend 8 billion fairly quickly. That doesn't mean that either isn't an obscene amount of money to many people (it's 250x~ my gross income). Sure, he could go buy a jet and a manse and be broke in a week, but I could legitimately burn through 8 billion dollars fairly sensibly in several months throwing it at serious projects. Hell, I could bu…
I mean sure, it's roughly the size of the oil market so theoretically you could buy all the oil in the world for 4 years and just not use it, thus forcing everyone on a massive pace to post-oil economy.
But there's a huge hysteresis in how the society works, at such a massive scale, it's not sufficient to have the capital available, you also likely need a competent and willing organization to fulfill your goals, political co-operation from the major global players and most of all, for any of it to matter at all, you need to create a change that
a) lasts
b) changes things for the better
For example of moonshot ideas, I presume you could buy Space X and bankroll an entire series of Mars expeditions, but if you failed to create a sustainable economy and culture around your project it would ultimately be forgotten once the money runs out.
Of course, if you dump thousands of peoples on Mars, maybe other financial operators would take over.
I don't know if ending oil economy or colonizing Mars were the projects you had in mind, though.
Seriosly, if someone gave you 8 trillion... what would you do?
Now you can do whatever you want. This includes: Spend how much time you want with your family and important people to you; Work on something you really want, or some significant project for you; dedicate your life to arts or an hobby; Have time to know wherever you want; Take maximum care of your health; Take some risks in general, but not so much, or you might end up dying or being broke again; etc;
You have three resources to manage now: Time, Health and (assuming you won't spend all your money at once) your stocks/bonds [EDIT: or any other passive income of your wish.].
It may feel like infinite money, but can be burned through at terrifying speed. This happens to a lot of people who suddenly get money. My advice is do nothing with it, and start reading books about finance, investing, and money management. Then start gradually investing it as you learn the ropes. Hire a good CPA to help you with taxes. Buy liability insurance, because you're now a target for jackpot lawsuits. Don't…
Can you elaborate on why you think he should not listen to a personal wealth manager (assuming that's the same as a financial advisor)?
Congrats! Perhaps start here: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/windfall