What to do After Making a Billion dollars

Some thoughts on this.<p>First, thought certainly not a Billion dollars, I came into a substantial (relative to my normal circumstances) bit of cash soem time ago. His #1 point is dead on, it was a mistake I made and regret a lot (see: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1511200" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1511200</a> )<p>In fact all of the advice looks good.<p>Except: "The No-Friends Rule"<p>The premise is sensible, do not donate to your mates, and definitely not to new mates, or old ones you forgot you had. But I don't buy that loaning to friends is a generally bad idea.<p>I lent a fairly substantial amount to a friend because they had run into financial hardship. We called it a loan because they refused to take it as a gift, but I'm not going to ask for it back.<p>One of my other mates has a fairly mad idea for a business that he always (for years) wanted to try. I funded that about 18 months ago and it is currently in the balance between outright failure and setting him up with a business for the next 20 years. Again, not expecting the money back.<p>It is only fucking money. You can enrich other peoples lives with it, so why not. No one <i>needs</i> a Billion dollars, but I know most of my friends could have awesome life changing experiences with a tiny portion of that.<p>So, yeh, don't become a charity... but always give to your friends.

OT: Followed the books link. The author seems like a pretty shady character. Got his wife to write a glowing Amazon review of his book, under a misleading name.<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/R2PELDZ9QQX0C3/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt?ie=UTF8&#38;ASIN=0062001329&#38;nodeID=283155" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/review/R2PELDZ9QQX0C3/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt...</a><p>Makes me wonder how he came into that money he mentioned at the start of the Billion Dollars post...

It's actually odd. I've had pretty decent windfalls come my way a few times and after it happens, all the crap I'd wanted so desperately while I was broke, suddenly wasn't that important. Case in point: I found a blue '69 Chevrolet nova at a pawn shop for $3,000. If I was broke, I'd have stayed awake at night dreaming about that car and "saving up" for it. Yet I had more than enough at the time to buy it outright, and prepay all the fees it'd need for the next year. But I looked at it and had no desire at all to get it. Same thing happened with a luxury watch I was looking at. REALLY wanted it when I couldn't get and once I could my attitude was "I don't need to spend $8,000 on a watch." I guess when my big one comes, I'll be ok. Just my $0.02 on the subject.

I'd like to add two more:<p>- Think about the idea you would have tried if someone had lent you $1M and you wanted to change the world. Lend yourself $1M (only) and do it.<p>- Resist the urge to become a professional philanthropist. Have the gumption to dream even bigger than before and risk utter failure. It's only money.

I like the part about waiting one year before making any major life changes. It makes sense that you would be more risky with new found wealth immediately after acquiring it. Giving yourself time to "get to know" your money should help put things in perspective.

I'd suggest just learning how to say No to friends. Why put up bogus reasons? Just say no.. they ask why? "Because I said so. Ask me in a year."

i'm confused as to why the title of the piece on his website is "what to do after making a ZILLION dollars" whereas it was posted here on ycombinator news (apparently by the author) under "what to do after making a billion dollars".<p>to me, "zillion" implies a certain amount of snarkieness, which is more fitting for the article. "billion" implies a more straightforward analysis, perhaps more befitting of the HN crowd.<p>just an observation.

Two chicks at the same time

I've never heard that chess saying before. That's one to remember.<p>"Only good players get lucky."

I think American's need to read this article, scale it down, and apply it to their own lives. I love how people think just because you earned a bunch of money you are entitled to spend it on a bunch of crap, whether today or in a year...

That was disappointing. This doesn't tell me what to do with a billion dollars at all, it tells me what not to do for one year. Okay I wait a year... then what? Beyond typical "invest wisely" advice, there might be things you can do with a billion dollars that I can't even conceive of.<p>Buy an island and populate it with beautiful naked women? Fund a nuclear fusion project? Build a high speed Mag-Lev train system between Washington DC and New York? Or do you invest in longevity, brain-scan and cryogenics research in attempt to be the first human to live forever?

This is one of the author's better posts. Some of it seems reminiscent of Paul &#38; Moynihan's "What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars", particularly the point of confusing rapid success in one area (stocks or poker) with the necessary expertise to invest in a new area (hotels in the blog post, thoroughbred horses in the book).<p>I will echo another comment, however. Three "Follow me on Twitter" links in a single article came across as desperate begging rather than offering extra value to the reader.

Buy/create a nation <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration_of_1917" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration_of_1917</a>