John M Scalzi's weekend assignment over on By the Way is about what you would do with a million dollars, what you would do differently if it was $2 million after taxes, and what you would do if you had to give it away. Having thought about such things from time to time, I have a fair idea of the answers.
A Million or Two
When I was a kid, Parade Magazine published an article, "What Will You Do With Your Million Dollars?" noting that over the next thirty years or so, the average person would probably earn that much, albeit in dribs and drabs rather than a nice, big, investable or spendable chunk. That was thirty years ago, and the spending power of that million has gone way down. In short, a million dollars ain't what it used to be. It's still a lot of money to get all at once, but it's not enough to be automatically rich for the rest of your life (except maybe if you're already over 70!). Whether it's a million or two million, it's therefore necessary, if I'm keeping at least part of it, to invest conservatively (that's low risk, not Republican) so that there will still be money ten or twenty or even thirty years from now. That's after I pay off my debts, which are currently quite large and getting larger (the UoP isn't cheap!). I'm not retiring anytime soon, even with the two million. I might take a year off to write, though.
The Untraveled Travel Agent
As previously noted, there are a zillion places I'd like to see that I've never been, and can't afford to go. So the other thing I'd do in that year off would be to travel. While I was doing this, I'd probably buy an extra home, most likely in England.
Givin' It All Away
Even if I'm allowed to keep it, a good chunk of the money goes to charity. For me, that means St. Michael's And All Angels Episcopal Church. If there's two million, and it's all going away, the second charity would be one I'd start myself. The Sam Beckett Foundation, named after the Quantum Leap protagonist, would exist to "put right what once went wrong" in the real world. In the spirit of the tv series, handouts would have to be for some small, personal crisis, not to fix the world's problems on a macro scale. I'd have to find someone with good judgment and compassion to administer it, preferably someone wealthy enough not to need a big salary to do this. One office, small staff, helping one person at a time.
Karen
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