Unfortunately, Tom's a lot more creativity and concept-driven than money driven. So the best strategy is probably to spend the money on some kind of near-C subl

Unfortunately, Tom's a lot more creativity and concept-driven than money driven. So the best strategy is probably to spend the money on some kind of near-C sublight vehicle and take a one-hour jaunt in it, then return to Earth in a year and see what's tickled Tom's fancy since you last saw him. this solution may have side-effects that are left as an exercise for the Rocketeer.