4 ms·
What can you do with money?
Question to the successful guys amongst you: Did you find out what to do with the Money?
I run a successful startup. I dont make a fortune, but all of a sudden I have a lot more money then ever before. And guess what - I have not clue what to do with it.
Today, I read this:
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/27/DIME.TMP
And there is a sentence: "The person who sold the dime is Oakland businessman Daniel Rosenthal, who was unavailable for comment, perhaps because a person newly in possession of $1.9 million has got better things to do than answer a lot of questions."
I really would like to know: What are these "better things"?
What are those better things I could do then chillin on my sofa and reading ycombinator and stuff?
- deleted 19y ago[deleted]
- rms 19y agoInvest in foreign assets, you don't want all of your wealth to be in US dollars.
- Stewie 19y agoMakes perfect sense now.With dollar constantly losing against Euro and Indian Rupees , its best to invest in politically inert geographical locations .(I would love to invest in South India, but the government regulations are too much )
- dfens 19y agoDepending on how much you have, why not invest in start ups? (No, I don't mean me.)
- some 19y agoI dont have the time to analyze other startups, because I have to care for my own company. Of course if there would be some very cool project out there, I might take the time to help them. But finding that cool project would need time that I dont have.
- someless 19y agowhat is your startup
- waleedka 19y agoInvest some and put the rest to good use to make sure you contribute to making the world a better place: research to find cures, charity to help those in need, or whatever good cause you believe in.
- lkozma 19y agoIt's harder than it sounds. Charity often harms more than it helps. For example the donated used clothing from Europe/US completely destroyed a starting textile industry in Africa.
- rms 19y agoYou could start with the basics, helping people get water. I can't think of an investment with a better human-return than building a well for a community that needs it.
- udfalkso 19y agoI'm a little bit shocked that after 53 comments only one person mentioned philanthropy (and he was shot down in the first reply). Just because picking the right charities and projects is not "easy" does not mean it's not worth doing. Jeez people.
- ivankirigin 19y agoI for one don't like the idea that the only way to "give something back" is to do philanthropy. Any gain in happiness and productivity is a good thing. If you have had success, continuing to be successful probably means giving people both. Keep working. An example of comparative advantage: it doesn't make sense for a $500/hr lawyer to do pro-bono work for the poor. It would make more sense to work for that hour and use the income to fund 10 $50/hr lawyers. The benefit would be much higher for those in need. So my point is that charity isn't necessarily the best way to give back to society.
- udfalkso 19y agoSo you're essentially suggesting deferred philanthropy. I totally agree with that philosophy. This is why I'm also doing a startup and not joining the peace corp. But, once you've "made it" and have more money than you know what to do with (the question at hand), I think it's reasonable to consider Philantropy and not just "fun" stuff.
- sri 19y agoHave fun!! Invest in yourself. Go back to school and major in something that you were slightly curious about but never got around to learning -- I'm sure there'll be a startup idea buried there somewhere...
- some 19y agoI dont have the time. I run a company. And besides that... school??? Sitting on my ass, listening to someone sounds not like a lot of fun to me.
- azsromej 19y agoFor a couple of the suggestions you've responded that you don't have the time. Add a constraint to your question--how much time do you have
- some 19y agoTime where im not in the office? Most evenings and weekends. Now for example :-)
- ryantmulligan 19y agoI think you should be investing in having more time. Unless your company is what you want to be doing constantly, in which case you should invest all of your money in your company, so your company can do exactly what you want and doesn't have to take crap from anyone.
- johnrob 19y agoGo somewhere tropical. And hire someone to do your laundry.
- epi0Bauqu 19y agoAre you talking about using your money to grow your business, grow your money, or grow your happiness?
- some 19y agoGrow my Happiness. That does not exclude the other 2 points. In fact, currently most of my fun comes from my business.
- amichail 19y agohttp://www.virgingalactic.com/ http://www.virgingalactic.com/
- some 19y agoIt says "To view the flash version of this website you must have Macromedia Flash Player 8.0 installed." And thats all there is on the screen. I translate that to "We dont know what Javascript is, probably something that has to do with HTML which probably is some weird programming language or something." I dont think I will let these guys take my ass to the moon :-)
- amichail 19y agoIf they can achieve 100 suborbital flights without an accident, would you go then?
- some 19y agoNo, because having done something 100 times without failure is not a proof of a low failure-rate. Say your failure rate is 1%. Then the chance that you get away without failure in 100 tries is 37%. (0.99^100).
- amichail 19y agoIf your failure rate is 5%, then the chance that you get away without failure in 100 tries is 5.9%.
- davidw 19y agoApparently you're not married?:-)
- some 19y agoNo, thank God !!!
- ivankirigin 19y agoHA! Long term, children make people more happy than almost anything else.
- pg 19y agoMany startup founders are people who like to make things. So often the kind of work they do after they have the freedom to do what they they want is to make things where they're not constrained by the need to make money. Oddly enough, YC itself is an example. We may make money eventually, but our main motive for doing it was that it was a cool idea.
- some 19y agoSo you are having Fun doing YC?
- pg 19y agoYes. There is an almost palpable buzz of energy at YC. I think it may turn out to be one of those hotspots like Parc was.
- ajmoir 19y agoThat would be a good thing. The only issue I see is that YC seems to be entirely focused on success in the Web 2.0 and software arenas. PARC had a much broader remit. It appears to me that nobody is doing blue sky research in the computing field. Rather, it has all become a case of building a better mouse trap.
- pg 19y agoI didn't mean we'd literally do the same things as Parc. I meant more that YC might be one of those cases where, in retrospect, people were surprised that so many different things came from one place. The phenomenon isn't limited to technology. The New Yorker in the mid 20th century was another.
- nostrademons 19y ago"It appears to me that nobody is doing blue sky research in the computing field. Rather, it has all become a case of building a better mouse trap." You don't hang around the Haskell crowd very much. ;-) Seriously, blue-sky research is alive and well in the computing field. You just don't hear about it much because blue-sky research, by definition, is useless. And usually highly technical as well. Techcrunch gets far more readers by covering the latest Reddit clone than Lambda: The Ultimate gets by covering the latest advances in dependent typing.
- maurycy 19y agoSecure your future. And do whatever you want. If you want nothing, spend some time thinking. :)
- some 19y agoOk, I spent time thinking. I want plenty of Girls.
- mian2zi3 19y agoConverting Money into Girls, if your not willing to engage professionals, is not as easy as you'd imagine. Or rather, it is about as hard as you'd imagine. Money doesn't make that big a difference.
- some 19y agoOk, Im curious. Tell me about your experiences.
- davidw 19y agoInvesting in some salsa/merengue lessons is a pretty good way to go. It worked well for me in that it's a very non-geeky thing that lots of girls like. It's also a fun environment - in the right places, you can dance with lots of people without it being a Big Deal asking someone to dance.
- Psyonic 19y agoNo way. It may not be as easy as people make it seem, but if you take care of yourself, and dress really well (I'm talking Armani, etc) there is no way it's not easier. Personality is still a factor, but money gets you in the door.
- sbraford 19y agoI think this subject is ripe for a reality tv series. People (men and women) would love to see awkward rich guys falling on their face while trying to pick up women.
- euccastro 19y agoGive me that problem. :)
- some 19y agoWhat would you do then?
- euccastro 19y agoSorry, I was just being silly. For me money means mainly time. In your situation, where most of your time goes to your business anyway, I think I'd only 'outsource' time consuming tasks that I don't enjoy doing (e.g., cleaning, laundry) so I can do more of what I enjoy (e.g., reading).
- budu3 19y agoI think you should secure your future and that of your future family. So invest the money. You can use some of it to pursue or fund projects that you like.
- ivankirigin 19y agoA very comfortable yearly income is $100K-$200K. Immediately put the necessary base in an interest bearing account (~5%) to earn your comfy yearly income off the interest. $200K/0.05 = $4M. Then you'd really never need to work again, and you can focus on making interesting things. There is plenty of life automation that you can do. Laundry, grocery delivery, maid services, restaurants, financial planner. You can easily spend $1M on travel for months, building a dream house, etc.
- some 19y agoYou have done those things?
- ivankirigin 19y agoHA! I don't have $4M to put in the bank. But I do have a comfortable income. My goal would be to work on interesting problems without needing a paycheck. Things like financial planners, grocery delivery, and cleaning services are all excellent value for the amount of time they save.
- rms 19y agoThat's not going to work in the USA because inflation is a lot more than 5%. I'd go for a foreign stock index fund.
- tt 19y agohttp://philip.greenspun.com/materialism/early-retirement/ http://philip.greenspun.com/materialism/early-retirement/
- mdolon 19y agoBuy a Ferrari F430! Actually I'd probably invest in another business first if I had the money. Donating to charities is also a good call, or perhaps helping out your local (young) entrepreneurs who are in need of some financial support. Don't forget the Ferrari though. ;)
- hello_moto 19y agoYou make software? If yes, build/help to make open source (and free) software better and more "commercial" looking so open source+free software can be used widely. Basically be a disruptor. Make the next Perforce (either support git or make a new one). Make the next IDE (a complete one like Visual Studio) for Python so that Python can become the main language for enterprise. One example of disruptor in this area that is starting to rise is Ubuntu.
- AF 19y agoMoney is overrated. If you aren't happy without it, you won't be happy with it. Just imo.
- pg 19y agoThere is something to that, but for most people the curve of happiness to money is not simply flat. For most there are sharp steps at have-enough-to-eat and don't-have-to-work-anymore, among others.
- maurycy 19y agoThere was an excellent article in New York Times on the subject: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9E0DEFD61538F934A3575AC0A9659C8B63 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&re...
- thingsilearned 19y agoUsually the problem is the other way around. You have an interesting scenario :). My suggestions: Start another. or Spend a year in Argentina reading and building a boat. This is my plan upon retiring (2.5 years to go!)
- portLAN 19y agoThere's no requirement that you have to immediately spend lots of money just because you have it. It's a very normal reaction to not know what to do with a large amount of extra dough. You want to avoid the consumerist trap of retail therapy -- buying things to make you happy, which wears off 5 minutes later. Go ahead and hold on to what you've got and keep on doing what you're doing to make more -- you'll figure out good applications for money over time. This TED talk says that the key to fulfillment is to grow, so you have more to contribute to others: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5625548517080716077 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5625548517080716077
- paul 19y agoWhat can you do with freedom?
- epi0Bauqu 19y agoI agree with this sentiment. In my opinion, the best thing money can buy is freedom. As such, the first and foremost thing you want to do is protect this freedom. That is, make sure your money level isn't going to go below certain thresholds that impact your freedom. Of course, this involves investing, diversification, insurance, not spending too much, etc. After that, it really is not what can you do with freedom, but what do you want to do with your freedom? For me, at least at the moment, I like to work on Internet startup ideas and help people (as best I can) who are doing the same. For you, maybe it is something different, perhaps along the lines of some of the other comments. Finally, I think your situation just lets you slow down a bit. That is not to say you have to have less motivation, but just that you don't have to run at a million miles an hour all the time and hit potential burn out periods. You now have the opportunity to take things at a comfortable pace. And that can be a good thing for innovation because you can read more disparate things, try different projects, and even work on may projects at the same time.
- sbraford 19y agoYou know what I would do if I had a million dollars? I would invest half of it in low risk mutual funds and then take the other half over to my friend Asadulah who works in securities...
- Skyhoper 19y agoMentor other startups. I have been actively seeking a personal mentor and guidance developing my startup.
- rokhayakebe 19y agoIf you are asking for things to do,then it is clear that you are now unchallenged by your company. By some land near the city and staret building a house. I personaly like prefabs that you can put together.Then stuff that bad boy with books from the earliest centuries to the latest "the world is flat". Read about topics other than "javascript". Subscribe to newspapers. I like FT,NYT,WSJ,USAtoday and some magazines like DWELL.
- rms 19y agoWith enough money, you could stage a coup and take over Equatorial Guinea. It's ripe for the takeover, just take care not to fuck it up like Margaret Thatcher's son did.
- jdvolz 19y agoFigure out what you want to have, do and be. The have part is easy, most people can work that out on their own. What do you want to do? Do you want to learn something new (foreign language, to tango, a new programming language, etc)? Do you want to do something physical (run a marathon, achieve weight lifting goals, swim the English channel,etc). Do you want to be a philanthropist? Do you want to run a non-profit organization? Figure out 3-5 things you want to do. Be is harder IMO. Do you want to be a husband? father? grand father (you need help on this one obvious)? Do you want to a champion whatever? These are the questions I would ask myself. With the answers, you can start taking concrete steps.
- mac 19y agoPurchase an your own personal airplane and realize just how freaking cool it is that a trip from wherever you are to 3 states away is just 3 hours away, no airport hassles & wait times included. It makes the world feel a lot more closer. All of a sudden, a trip to LA from Seattle is just like a trip from LA to Fresno. Except your flying, in an airplane , inside a 180 degree view angle canopy. Purchase time with your money in hiring other people to do the chores in your work & life. (This may not apply for you) Purchasing real estate close to your work, reducing commute times to 10 minutes from maybe the hour or two you have already.
- wundie 19y ago"If I had a million dollars I'd do 2 chicks at the same time!" Seriously, I don't see the issue. Do you have any friends? If you're lacking in the friends department then don't read any further and work on companionship as your number one goal. I find a lot of joy organizing events, outings or exciting weekends for my friends. Make sure the trip has a baseline that everyone can afford and then maybe cover a tab or two while you're out. Ideas don't have to be grandiose they are just excuses to hang out and enjoy life together. I thought of a few things I enjoy and listed them below. Have fun planning these events on your own. Research destinations fully and be prepared to promote your trips so others will join you! Its time consuming (and fun) to figure out the 'best' places to go. Does the outing require that you buy any gear? Research the equipment and then buy it! Go Camping Hiking Deep Sea fishing Host a wine party / plan a trip to a winery Trip to another City for the Weekend Trip to another Country Get a boat Attend a music festival (Jazz Fest for example) Take up a sport like Biking (Road or Mountain) Hopefully this helps you out somewhat. If you wish to be as happy as me, I'll require $5 to share 'the secret'. Enjoy :)