kate_nepveu | If I had a million dollars

I wouldn't be rich.

Chad pointed out a Cognitive Daily survey on what it means to be rich, which had questions about both income and net worth. It's interesting reading, and I recommend all of it, but one thing in particular caught my eye.

The survey creators asked how much people would give away if they won a tax-free million dollars. The answer was roughly $200K, which prompted at least one person to express digust at the lack of generosity.

If someone wanted to give away most or all of a tax-free million, I would applaud them. But it's not what I'd do, and I think that "digust" is a bit of a strong reaction.

Here's what I'd do, at least my immediate reaction:

First, I'd figure out how to get full health coverage for our parents for the rest of their lives, everything from annual checkups to the less happy possibilities like nursing homes or hospice care. This would probably be very expensive, since I'd want to set things up to cover every possibility (buy an annuity to pay the insurance premiums, maybe? Something like that.).

Then I'd set up a college trust fund for our child(ren) and the child(ren) of our siblings, which would itself be a substantial chunk of change.

Whatever is left, either we'd renovate the kitchen or just sock it away as a vacation-and-treats fund.

And with the money freed up by not having to save for FutureBaby's college, I could increase my monthly charity budget. That's the thing with a million bucks, it's not enough to retire on, but it would give me the opportunity to provide for later contingencies and incrementally increase my standard of living and peace of mind today.

Anyway. What would you do with a tax-free million dollars?

Oh, and yes, some of you live in places where you wouldn't have to fund these contingencies personally, congratulations, I'm very happy for you, you don't have to comment just to say that. If I didn't have those things . . . probably new house, dream vacation, and yeah, an up-front chunk to charity.

(On the other hand, I definitely don't understand the people who answered the survey who said that they couldn't have enough annual income, that no amount would maximize their personal satisfaction and happiness. Seriously? The best spin I can put on that is that they have much better imaginations than I do.)

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Interestingly, $1mill is enough to endow a chair at a college. so, one answer that I've had is "endow a chair, with the stipulation that I be the first person to take it.

In other words, create a job for myself, and then do it.

That would have unfortunate political ramifications, I'm sure.

Alternatively, by really nice condo, and stick the rest somewhere intelligent...

For the most part, Investing a million dollars, and then paying for health care out of pocket will be more efficient than paying health insurance for all parents.

I agree with you, that the effect it would have on my charity giving would be indirect. I'd buy a house (condo) again, and have more financial flexibility, so my yearly charity giving would go up, but I probably wouldn't give any of the original million directly to charity.

Re: health insurance: oh, probably; the appeal of doing it this way would be, in my daydream, that I'd never have to worry about budgeting or running out--one-time arrangement and then peace of mind from then on.

Creating a job for yourself is definitely a creative method, though as you say, possibly not optimal . . .

If I had a million dollars

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