Just for fun, what would you do with a million dollars

[Jdege]

There's only one right answer:

• Spend $250k on boats,
• spend $250k on booze,
• spend $250k on broads,
• and waste the rest.

[Luv2Sail2020]

This is a million dollars on top of what I already have in my retirement funds?
Of course upgrade to a nicer, larger boat. But save plenty back for the carrying costs of such a boat.

[ol1970]

Originally Posted by Sofa King Fishy

I’ve got a million US and a paid for boat...currently I’m buying Quesadillas & beer at my home port, and spending the balance on keeping my boat repaired...pretty sure she is spying on my bank account & is determined to keep depleting it until I achieve total enlightenment ⛩

Wow, the boat market must being going crazier than I thought! A Catalina 42 Mk2 is a $1M boat nowadays?

[mangler68]

Originally Posted by OneTwoSail

I'm a longtime lurker but I thought just for fun



You've hypothetically been spending less than you earn and investing the difference for years. Now you've got a million dollars and want to go cruising with potentially no more income coming until pension time 20 years away.


How do you slice and dice the money? How much on the boat? How much on upgrades? How much do you leave invested or reinvest to live off?



And finally what do you do?

Firstly, I'm already retired and have enough money to support our cruising throughout the winter months on our nice Endeavour Powercat, we cruise the Bahamas and have made great friends and met a whole lot of Bahamian residents who have befriended us and will remember us as good people.
I just received one million dollars and immediately, I'm thinking Homeless americans, who aren't getting adequate food or shelter. I want to buy a warehouse, that's pretty much move in ready and outfit it with nice updated bathrooms with showers. I would petition clothing and food donations on a weekly basis, my main target would be these tent colonies around our city, to get these people off the streets and out of the weather. My hope would be, that this type of giving back would help other cities into something similar and of course as a tax write off, would help investors as well. I'm sure there will be some kinks to work out. but just think, you live in a tent under an overpass and your last meal was dug out of a Taco Bell Dumpster, and someone says I represent housing for the homeless and have a dedicated private space for you and/or your loved one, complete with a working bathroom, and you can come and go at your leisure.

[bigskyrad]

Agree with DenverdOn. A million dollars altogether isn't what it used to be. However, if I suddenly had an EXTRA million dollars, my first phone call would be to Tim Jackett and ask him to meet for lunch to discuss building a new boat for my wife and I. (Now sailing a 2001 Tartan 3700).

[Sirocco]

Good farm land and some bitcoin.

[wolfgal]

i missed the own-boat/freedom-at-55 mark last month and am still feeling the sting, so i'll give this one a go.

how would i spend a miilion drop-from-the-sky dollars?

easy! i would hire a fantastic and willing sailor to take me on an incredible journey (am thinking of Pip Hare, sunshine as she is), to teach me everything she could, to prepare me for so many situations. and, depending how she wants to be paid, i'd buy her the boat of her choice (to keep).

yes, i'd spend every last penny of that million on the learning/living experience. and when the money is gone, i'd climb aboard my little boat as confident as a gal can get!

[Doubleplay]

I would get out from US as soon as possible and go somewhere where you can live a much better life with a lot less money. This is one of the Worlds most expensive countries with no meaningful safety nets till you hit minimum 62 and Medicare/SS kicks in. That's why people are fearful about early retirement and most of the time forced to work in jobs they hate while dreaming about what they could, should, would do. It's another subject but this also kills creativity and that's why most entrepreneurs in this country are either first or second generation immigrants.
Most important thing you can do is to take care of yourself and stay in shape so you can enjoy the money you have. In a country where %50 are obese and need of constant medical care and drugs it's not easy. Hope you know our basic medical system is not even in the top 20 in the World and we are the most drug prescribed country per capita by far. One more time get out!
Avoid most financial advisers. They'll take %1-2 a year from you and fear monger you to plan up to 95 years of age. Last time I looked average age was around 80.You don't want to die with a ton of money and regret that you could have spent more.
Forget Caribbean, Bahamas, etc.. they are very expensive and used to rip off clueless rich America. Think South East Asia, Eastern Med or South America.
Don't be afraid. Life is short and unpredictable to plan for long term contrary to what we are made to believe by this system.

[COOGOR]

Buy a Neel 51

[RobPatterson]

This is how me and my cruising buddies do it:

Set up some passive income streams. I did rental houses but there are options. I think $2k/month is OK.

Up to $200k on a boat and $100k reserve for maintenance.

Cruise in Mexico and Central America.

[mlspadaro]

Forty years ago, I left Hawai’i with Sailmaking skills, a sewing machine and a bag of tools and spent 2 years sailing through the S Pacific. I also had a command of the French language. I also left home as one of the first women to have a USCG captain’s license and an alum of the University sailing team. It took me abuot four years to pull all these experiences together.
I also had $4,000 in my saving account and was good at sanding and varnishing.
I returned home two years later with $1,000 still in my bank account.
The big caveat here is that I was signing on as crew wherever I went so I had no boat expenses (or headaches). I was only 22 when I left so this was all fine but after two years I didn’t want to go on “boat-hopping” so I had to either get my own boat or come home - without money to buy a boat, I did the latter. (And here I am still, never having finished that dream.)
So my hypothetical answer is, like so many of the cruisers that I knew, including the famed Bernard Moitissier and Jimmy Cornell, have/get a skill - writing, carpentry, distance work - that you can do aboard and/or on land, and use only what you must of your nest egg and have a limit to how much you will draw it down. Quality of life and how hard you work WILL be dependent upon your finances when cruising is done - not all cruising ends well so you need to be insured - your health and the boat.
Of course if you are still i your 20s, like I was, then it’s different but you also wouldn’t have saved up $1mm! And with a million bucks you ought to be able to get $20-$30K annual income which outs you at the top of the heap for comfortable cruising!

Aloha, Capt Mary

[hpeer]

I like to recommend
voyaging on a Small Income by Annie Hall.

https://www.atomvoyages.com/planning/books-aboard.html

Lots to absorb in this short tome.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by mangler68

Firstly, I'm already retired and have enough money to support our cruising throughout the winter months on our nice Endeavour Powercat, we cruise the Bahamas and have made great friends and met a whole lot of Bahamian residents who have befriended us and will remember us as good people.

I just received one million dollars and immediately, I'm thinking Homeless americans, who aren't getting adequate food or shelter. I want to buy a warehouse, that's pretty much move in ready and outfit it with nice updated bathrooms with showers. I would petition clothing and food donations on a weekly basis, my main target would be these tent colonies around our city, to get these people off the streets and out of the weather. My hope would be, that this type of giving back would help other cities into something similar and of course as a tax write off, would help investors as well. I'm sure there will be some kinks to work out. but just think, you live in a tent under an overpass and your last meal was dug out of a Taco Bell Dumpster, and someone says I represent housing for the homeless and have a dedicated private space for you and/or your loved one, complete with a working bathroom, and you can come and go at your leisure.

WHAT!? Not spend the $1M on an expensive toy and self indulgent life style? What the hell is wrong with you? A comie spy from some bleeding heart liberal NGO no doubt, sent here to infiltrate and disrupt the selfish sub-culture of cruisers!

[emoji6]

[pendragon]

==>A million dollars buys you an basic average house in Auckland and an ice-cream, provided you got 50 cents left over.

[thruska]

Im already in the ss realm of things.
The 20 year prognosis is all make believe.
Id pay of my kids (3)mortgages. Give money to grandkids (3) for private schools. Payoff the greedy next ex wife.
OR...
Finance aweedfarm and do all the other things anyway.
Hook upmy bike to the truck... get the wind in my face until i can’t get on or off. Go live with the daughter who needs a house jester... or maybe a girl friend butnot a wife 🤷🏼*♂️☃️🏴*☠️