What would you do if someone gave you $20,000,000,000?

I'd buy homes in London, Amsterdam, San Francisco and Bali

I'd hire staff to take care of my homes

I'd spend a billion funding research of various types

I'd donate a billion to women's shelters, civil liberties groups and drug law reform groups

I'd take my friends travelling

I'd fund new Millennium episodes

I'd do what I do now on an even grander scale

Buy a nice house with a really big hot tub
Open an animal shelter
Travel all over the world
Buy my grandma something pretty
Jump up and down and scream
Not necessarily in that order

Buy my parent's house and land. Make it into a private park. Buy them their dream home with a huge private lake. Give my family members everything they ever wanted. Help my SO start up a car lot because he likes to do that sort of thing... Start a home for injured and unwanted animals with an on staff vet... Take good care of all my friends... probably build up a little community somewhere so we could all live near each other. Put much much much money towards different causes involving wildlife, unwanted pets, and the environment... Oh, the possibilities!

buy a motorcycle

First I would by a Lamborghini Diablo (http://www.lamborghini.ca/)

I would die from shock

hahahaha....and then I'd wake up! As if that will ever happen!

Probably soil myself and then go out and buy a Bed & Breakfast on the Oregon Coast.

Bribe women to sleep with me.
Actually, I don't think that's enough money for that to work.

Buy House and car, go on a holiday and donate the rest to charity.

Put it in a savings account and live off the interest, while donating the extra from the interest to charities.

Buy my mom a house and set her up for life so she never has to work again. Buy myself a new, bigger house. Hire a maid. Give some to charity.

Buy my dad a fishing boat and a scottish island. Buy my mum a car and house, buy my sister a house and pay her uni fees. I'd buy a holiday around the world backpacking for me and my friends, give some to my grandparents, aunties, uncles, set up trust funds for my little cousins for when they are 18, put the rest in a high interest bank account, give some money to build schools in third world countries, buy myself and my best mate Torie a place to live in away from the scummy town we live in now so i can move out of home and she can leave the flat she hates.

Spend some, invest the rest, start my own business. And keep quiet about where the money came from...

Spray me muck up their guts.

you could easily live off the investment income from one thousandth of it

There is no way for one person to spend that much money. I would live well.

Twenty billion dollars?! Well, to start with, I'd give most of it away. I couldn't spend it all if I did nothing but shop for the rest of my life, and that doesn't sound like much fun. Probably set up some kind of foundation to help poor people in the third world. Keep maybe five million for myself. Buy a nice house.

Either buy northern Maine from the paper companies and turn it into a park or start my own space program. It's not enough for both, probably not enough for either.

Pay off my rent, redecorate, buy Daniel a car, get out of debt... There's too much to even start with!!!

Buy stuff.

Quit my job, make my family and all my friends millionaires, travel the planet, buy homes in Ireland and NYC...

Oh, why thank you Mr.Gates! Hmmmm... I would buy some nice land and have a pretty house built on it. Then maybe I would hire some brainies to make a holographic cinema, just to see if it can be done. Maybe I would also have all my other crazy ideas built.

Buy a lot of books. Build a house with a big library for the books, with those ladders on rollers. And stables and a few horses. Endow a whole lot of funding for graduate students in the humanities. Endow some professorships in Bible and Ancient Near East. Buy a car. Buy my friends things. Big things. Take them traveling with me. Pay for mandy and Sue Bee and their daughter to come visit! Buy my friend Julie a vineyard in northern California. Then with the 19,000,000,000 I'd have left...

Create a non-profit organization/fund and do a lot of good in the world....

I honestly know nothing about investing money. I plan to learn soon so I can mess with it and see how well I do. I just need a way to edumacate myself on investamafunk. Any suggestions? Do you know of any good resources of information on that?

Would you buy me a pack of pixie sticks and a puppy?

After I picked myself up off the ground I think the first thing I would do is buy a big lot of land somewhere, build my own neighborhood with a house for each of my kids complete with furniture and cars. Then I would make sure my parents never had to want for anything. I would make sure the little guys I have had college funds, and CD or stock for future investing when they are old enough. I would give alot to charity to help with the hungar and homeless problems here in the US. I would also invest alot into stocks, bonds, and cds.

Anything you want, darling.

Hmmm... First of all, I would tithe 10%, then I'd give large amounts to NZSPCA, SPUC, World Vision, Guide dog training, and the Salvation Army, then I'd give large amounts to my immediate family. I'd purchase my own house, buy a car and finish my education.
One can dream

I would: But a nig house for me and my mom and sister and grandparents.
By my mother a car
By me a car.
Donate money to everycharity I believe in.
I would go to designing school and set up my own business to design shoes.
I would hire people so my mama would never have to work again.
I would give some money to my dad.
I would invest some of it.
I would adopt a child.
I would buy a big house where homeless people could go and get clean clothes and shower.
I'd buy another house.
I'd travel.
And I would buy a kitten.
Not in that order.

I'd buy you a motorcycle

Hell...Motorcycles for everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

buy a motorcycle manufacturer (or two)

Indian!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd buy you a monkey farm

aiiieeee!!!

pay off all my bills...quit my job...get a fabulous house on the ocean...get a couple of cars...share with my relatives and friends...give some to charity and Church, and make some good investments. I would have to get a lawyer and a financial advisor, so that I could make informed decisions about wills, trusts, and investments. I would try to find someway to keep my windfall out of the media. I would probably give a very hefty sum to Uncle Sam! It might also be a good idea to call the police, just in case the money was stolen from somewhere or was counterfeit. That sounds so cynical, I guess. I would do a LOT of traveling. Who knows? I would probably die of shock or have a heart attack just from the excitement of getting the money.

with that amount of money you could buy a law firm.

You are so right! When I get the money, I will remember to send you something really, really, nice ;-(

Cool! And a helmet, too, please!

Of course!

I would use it to give Hare Krishna food to the homeless.

::feeling loved::

Buy a Survey Central Subsription....

HA HA HA......For everyone?

Maybe I'd just hook bill up...

I don't know if you could *pay* bill enough to do this...

I could try.

Give it back unless I knew exactly what it was for.

I'd give $19,999,999,996.99 to charity. With the remaining $4.99, I'd buy some gummy bears.

Oh, wait. I would also make SC advertisement-free. How much should that cost, Bill...about $1,500 or so?

I would probably do ALMOST anything.

I would buy a cool house and let all my friends move in.
I would go to a lot of concerts.
Buy a lot of clothes.
Buy a new CD player.
And I would buy a boat, a really nice one for my dad

You would only have 3.01 left for gummy bears, but that's ok. If you gave to my favorite charities, I'd probably help you get the bears.

you have to be careful throwing large amounts of money around. Giving even $200,000 to a charity that's used to dealing with things on the $100 level can really screw it up. Likewise, giving your friends millions of dollars can really screw them up too. Not saying you shouldn't do it, but in my experience you shouldn't do it without a great deal of thought first.

I'd pay to have research done into motorcycle monkey farms for Twistermine.

I agree with you...I have heard stories of people winning tons of cash in the lottery and being bankrupt soon after winning.

Somewhere I read of a study done of big lottery winners and what happened afterwards. Apparently it's not all the good things you'd hope for. A lot were quite unhappy with their lives.

The question is, what wouldn't I do?

I suppose I'd start a few companies...

The most recent large (million-acre) Maine paper-company land sales have come in between $200 and $225 an acre. This is for land that has roads already; I think the recent North Woods national park acquisition came in well under that. Maine has something like 17 million acres of forested land. So your first project would probably only cost about $4 billion.

As for the second project, I'd say right now is a particularly opportune time to start a space program. NASA is trying to cut a few billion off the cost of their space station to try to keep the cost under $90 billion. I bet they'd welcome a new partner with a lot of money to throw around; $15 billion might buy you a 1/7 share. Or that money could fund several dozen medium-sized unmanned planetary exploration projects at $200 or $300 million each.

And you'd still have a billion dollars left over for yourself...

There was a North Woods National Park acquisition? I knew there was talk about maybe doing such a thing but I didn't know there'd been any movement. I hope they don't make it a national park though; a wilderness area would be better but I wish they'd continue to allow airplanes and motor boats (and maybe snowmobiles) to operate there.

Unfortunately, the big missing piece in space exploration is decent access to low earth orbit. The Space Shuttle is terrible and with the end of the X-33 and the collapse of the Rotary Rocket Company, there doesn't seem to be anything better coming along. But if planetary explorations are so cheap (ha!) maybe a few more probes to nearby asteroids. I'd start trying to put the pieces together to build solar power satellites.

I would give half of it to those I know that need it...people I personally know.
The rest would be invested....

I would buy the whole Berlin Philharmonic Orchesta, and conduct it. Or I would pay so they could films movies I like, the way I like.

Aww, thanks, that's so sweet.

Roll in it

Set up a US corporation as a holding company with 80% of it. Use the other two to buy, supply and fortify a small island in the Pacific. Live there comfortably. Employ many friends and move them to the island. Begin implementation of revolutionary activities.

Spend only what I need to be comfortable and save the rest.

whoops, I misread some press releases about the allocation of money and thought from the fact that prices were listed that the land had actually been purchased. But no, it hasn't. Still, people are talking about a few tens of dollars an acre.

Donate 10% to the church, buy a house, and use the rest to start a research foundation for bone disease, then apply for a grant (that's what I do research in).

PARTY!!!

Then help some of the less fortunate.

pay my car off, bank the crap and wonder why the person didnt keep the money themselves??

I'd buy something really expensive and nice for romkey that he's always wanted-- it would be so FUN!

disappear.

Spend it like crazy! (Okay, I'd donate some of it to charity...)

***whispers***
I heard that he's always wanted a Goeduck

Maybe I should wait until he has a greenhouse for it to inhabit.

hehehehehehehe

or a sandbox

PUT MST3K BACK ON THE AIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And buy that BMW Z3 Roadster I've been looking at...

I would throw a huge party for all ya people from the SC, and my friends.
Buy the food for the starving people of Africa.
Buy a mansion.
Buy La Scala in Milano, and make it my hanging place.
Give the rest of the money away.

Oh, please do!!! I miss that show so, so much! The only time I can catch it is Saturday mornings at some ungodly hour like 9 AM.

Pay off all my bills, get a house... be generous and share with friends and family...and if I notice someone needs something they cant afford, I would help them.

NOTE: I said I'd share with MY family.... Would you?

Yeah, I would. I just didn't list everything I would do. I was in the mood for thinking of my crazy ideas when I answered the question.

It would be a crazy idea to share money with your sister? Oh well at least you'd share!

Silly lahdee... no. I was thinking of my crazy inventions and stuff I would build. That's why I didn't think to mention sharing. Not that I wouldn't share, but I didn't think to mention it.

Find some people to help, and have some fun of my own.

Be rich.

Retire

Bank it so that i could live off the interest and then set up a company of my own.

I would buy the company(PHS)that I was fired from,find new & better jobs for the employees that I got along with there,then hire a demolition crew to BLOW UP that building,& ask them if I could possibly be the one to set it off........THEN

I'd buy an tropical island paradise,stock it with everything my family,friends,(wanna-be friends)& I could possibly ever want or need.Invite a chosen few SC users to come & play for as long as they would want,all expense paid. I love doing stuff like that!!

I'd buy everyone their very own live monkeeeee

Can you keep mine for me? My cats would not like it.

And mine. I'm not a monkey person. *ducks*

INGRATES!
*hmmph*

Hey, would it make you feel any better if I helped pay for your wedding?

I don't want your dirty monkkeeee hating money!