Let's liven up the board - WWYD with $1MM to help others?

[Deleted]

Everyone says it's boring and dead over here... 

Today's WWYD: If you had $1MM and were not allowed to spend it on yourself, your spouse/SO, or your children, what would you do with it?

Example: I told my friend who has $80k in loans from law school that if I won the lottery, I would pay them off for her.
I would give some to my parents so they could buy a house in FL and use the proceeds from the sale of their house here in NJ for their nest egg (if you remember my post about my parents' worries about $$ in retirement).

[raangoli]

I would probably try to start up a non-profit to help others, except I am not sure where I would want to focus my efforts.

[Deleted]

Apr 17, 2014 9:34:45 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

This is harder than I would think! Much easier to spend $1mm on myself

Exactly!

I think mostly everyone on MM would use at least half of it for something responsible, like paying off their home, cars, SLs, or adding to their retirement funds.

If you have it to spend, but must give it away, the possibilities are endless.

[dexteroni]

I would give half to my sister and BIL to give them more secure financial footing. If it has to be spent on specific things, I would pay off my sister and BIL's house, buy them new cars, fully fund their 401(k)s and IRAs for this year, put three (or maybe 3.5 years, depending on projected growth) worth of college tuition into a 529 for each of my nephews, and send them on a few awesome vacations.

I would use the other half toward improving some of the (many) struggling parts of Cleveland. I don't know what that would be, so I would meet with some city leaders or urban planners to determine how to make it go farthest.

[crashgizmo]

I would give my SIL and BIL money to take a fancy vacation and pay off their debt. They are raising my BIL's two grandkids and making amazing sacrifices. I'd pay off my parents and my MIL's house (less than $200K combined).

I'd take a few hundred thousand and start a donor advised fund at a local community foundation. Then I would be able to vet the organizations and someone else can handle the paperwork for me.

[flygirl22]

I'd put 50K in college funds for each of my nephews/neices, and give a hefty sum to my parents and ILs to help them retire.

The rest I would give to charity.

[mbcdefg]

Pay of siblings' student loans and buy them each a car
Buy my mom a car and do something really nice for her
Buy FIL a condo or apartment or something
Give some money to closest friends for mortgage payments/kids' college funds/whatever
Give some money to local animal shelter
Take a really nice vacation <--- although doesn't a vacation for myself actually help others because I'm stimulating another location's economy?

[cajunmom]

People, she said that you can't spend it on your kids or yourself. That means no fancy vacations or college funds for your own kids.

I would gift $100k to each sibling, my mom, and in-laws ($500k total).

The rest I would split between animal rescue groups in my area, and some sort of program for digging wells/bringing fresh water to people. I'd have to research which program would be best for that.

[takeonyou]

I would buy my brothers a home to share (both single and wanting to live together) and reliable vehicles. I would pay off my patents house and buy them a camper with a tow vehicle. Buy mil and her sister a house so they don't ever have to move in with me.

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[Deleted]

I'd pay for my niece and nephews to go to college.

I'd also like to help out some inner city sports leagues / athletic programs for kids. I have some co-workers who are involved with these programs and they work so hard to cover the costs. I love hearing about how extraordinary some of the kids are in overcoming their own obstacles, and how some these coaches devote so much of their own time and money to help the kids out. I'd love to just be able to cover the costs for everything they need. It makes me really sad when they talk about the teams in upper middle class XYZ neighborhood and all their jazzy shit, while their teams in the poor neighborhoods are doing good just to get a uniform on everyone. I ponder this quite often.

I'd also like to help out with some local food programs.

World peace and food for everyone! lol, my million would be gone in one week with all the ideas in my head.

[lya]

I think I'd like to put it towards setting up a STEM scholarship and/or fellowship. Or maybe some new equipment for my undergrad science lab (although $1MM won't go that far there).

[Deleted]

Apr 17, 2014 10:07:07 GMT -5 takeonyou said:

 Buy mil and her sister a house so they don't ever have to move in with me.

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I like this line of thinking

It tangentially helps you, but not directly

[krisandgrace]

This sounds weird but I have thought that if I won big playing the lotto I would start a foundation to help the city of Detroit. I feel like in a lot of ways Detroit is a symbol of when American manufacturing and ingenuity was at its best.

Things I would focus on would be aftercare programs and other parent help programs, green spaces where abandoned homes were including community gardens and funding for startups that would provide jobs.

Ironically I have never even been to Detroit.

[hurricanedrunk]

- pay off siblings houses & loans
- send parents on a trip/ gift them 100,000.
- rest would be split between Planned Parenthood and an animal charity.


I wanted to say take the whole family on vacation (well at least my side) but sounds like that is against the rules.

[explorer2001]

My parents and brother don't need money (or deserve it imho).

I would endow the domestic violence shelter where I volunteer, create or donate to a fund for scholarships for survivors and their children, and create or donate to a fund for medical care for low income/uninsured/expensive treatments for my friend who is still struggling against cancer/cancer treatment related complications. There are three friends who I would want to pay medical bills for to allow them to get the care they need.

[btay]

I would invest it and start up a charity that provides low/no interest loans and grants for people trying to pay for IF treatments or adoption.

[Poppy]

My 1MM is going really fast, lol.

College fund deposits for the kids in my life (of friends and family). I'd make a big donation to the charity I volunteer for (science education related) and donations to NPR stations and programs (I am so cliche) and a developing country medical care charity of some kind. The adults in my family are on their own!

[Deleted]

Buy my parents a new house, there is a feedlot being built across from their's.

The rest would go to the scholarship that we started and/or the foundation that it is a part of.

[sometimesrunner]

1. Pay off my parents' house and deposit a good chunk into retirement accounts for them. (well, a taxable account to be used for retirement) After all is said and done, they will have put 5 people through college. (including themselves) They haven't been the most responsible people with their money, but they've worked hard and never seem to catch a break.

2. Work with the Lincoln Community Foundation to come up with a plan for helping fund the low-income schools, particularly the elementary and middle schools. Most of them don't have PTAs, which is typically a huge source of revenue for the wealthy schools.

[knavy]

I would start a non profit similar to Salvation Army that uses the profits to gives scholarships to underprivileged kids.

[yentl]

I've always thought it would be interesting to set up houses where foster parents have to move out if there is a problem with a kid/parent fit versus the kids having to leave to go to a new home.

I'm not gonna hand it to out to anyone I know even a little because I'd feel guilty about all the people I know who didn't get any money.

[monsterz]

I would put it into college funds for our nieces and nephews. We currently have 8 so that would take most of the money.

Anything remaining would go to various charities.

[vtdiamond]

Pay off my parents mortgage and buy them a condo in FL.
Donations to some of our favorite charities.

[glynn]

Help out our parents by about 50,000 each. The rest I think would go to our church's private school that is being started a grade at a time.

[Pom]

Split it up among our niece's and friends for their mortgages and their kid's educations.

[BeagleMama]

I'd financially set up my mother and my ILs with a trust/whatever so they wouldn't have to worry about retirement and use how they see fit (home, travel, etc.).

Set up a fund for my nephew's college education.

I'd endow scholarships at my high school and college, DH's college, my sorority and our current employer (a university).

Purchase a building and outfit it as new offices for my Junior League.

The rest, if any, would be set up in a fund at the local community foundation to support future projects as I see fit.

[jade]

Donate a portion to the Children's Hospital
Give some to a charity to help feed hungry kids - would need to research these to pick the most effective
Establish a scholarship fund at my engineering school

[jenn248]

Give some to my cousin's cousin to help her out (sweet kid whose parents have basically abandoned her; she's now living with my cousin).

Put some in a college fund for my niece and nephew.

Donate to animal-related charities and the local diaper bank.

[hulley]

College fund for my niece - $50K

Pay off my SILs debts, despite them being the result of her own stupidity. - estimate $25,000

Fund my mom's (currently zero-balance) retirement in the even her boyfriend does not outlive her. - $200,000 for senior living condo in her area, cash flow the day-to-day upkeep for her.

Pay off my dad to move back home since he hates where he lives now but is stuck there due to finances. $15,000

$250,000 to the animals. Not sure what form this would take, but definitely a lot to the animals.

Buy my ILs the lake house they always talk about retiring to - $200,000

Set up a trust to fund my pipe-dream nonprofit - $260,000 (the balance of the 1mil)

[kme]

Buy a huge house and foster/ adopt underprivileged kids. It'd be like "19 Kids and KME".

I would also purchase a house for my mom and sisters. Sisters would include rental apartments so they would have some income.