Hello HN. I was sipping on my morning coffee and I had the idea to ask HN, "What would you do if you received $1,000,000 today?" How much would you spend, how much would you invest, where and how would you invest it? Would you continue to look for funding for your projects? Or, would you self-fund with your newly acquired nest-egg?
I would immediately move to Malaysia and retire.<p><a href="http://www.workpermit.com/malaysia/malaysia.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.workpermit.com/malaysia/malaysia.htm</a>
resisting the urge to quote the movie office space here...<p>I would pay off debt, save a portion, and invest the rest. in my case it would work out to be just about equal parts. That solved, I would probably spend a few months recharging and starting a business of some sort- most likely some sort of software plugin creative tool for musicians.
I'd spend it on hackers, designers, marketing and hosting to aggressively launch my 'big idea' with a head start on anyone who tries to copy it. (It's an idea for a website with low costs but universal appeal and clear money-making potential... but if I just built it now there'd be nothing to stop a bunch of richer more competent people making clones. So I'm sitting on it till I figure out what to do about that. Which is a pity cause I think the world could really use it)<p>Ok, I probably wouldn't blow it <i>all</i> on that.
a million bucks isn't enough to retire on in perpetuity, but it is enough to set yourself up in such a way that you can, professionally, do almost anything you want with your life as long as you have some sort of working income stream.<p>i'd probably work on my current bootstrapped startup full-time for a while, see how it goes, and then travel the world while doing freelance work a few hours a day.<p>edit: oh, and pay down all of my debts, of course.
Pay off all my debts, then my parents and in-laws, set up college funds for my children and nieces/nephews/godchildren, give something to my siblings and my wife's, invest half of what's left, and donate the rest.
save half, invest a quarter in long term things (property, bonds, etc), distribute an eighth to friends and family, improve my own immediate quality of life with 1/16th. Invest the final 16th in shorter term projects, eg putting together a startup etc.