Page 10 | to think a large sum of money would give you life long happiness we can't even imagine

THETFORD · 07/02/2022 23:00

So I certainly would give away the other £108m to causes I felt were worthwhile

you and every other 2nd person on this thread, methinks the reality would be quite different if any of you actually won ...

DdraigGoch · 07/02/2022 23:32

@THETFORD

So I certainly would give away the other £108m to causes I felt were worthwhile

you and every other 2nd person on this thread, methinks the reality would be quite different if any of you actually won ...

You don't know me though.

I mean seriously, what on earth could I spend £108m on?

Mind you, I'd quite like to buy up a past employer, sack the manager and run it properly...

THETFORD · 08/02/2022 19:27

You don't know me though

I know you are a person who thinks a million is enough to set up a charity, quit their job, hire their friends and pay them a golden salary all with a million quid. I know therefore you simply don't have a clue about economics, business or money.

DdraigGoch · 08/02/2022 19:38

@THETFORD

You don't know me though

I know you are a person who thinks a million is enough to set up a charity, quit their job, hire their friends and pay them a golden salary all with a million quid. I know therefore you simply don't have a clue about economics, business or money.

When did I ever say that @THETFORD?

Quit my job yes, but for the rest you've either got me confused with someone else or you've just fabricated it.

DamnUserName21 · 08/02/2022 20:14

@Teeeefs

I have money. Not £109m but enough for nice houses and cars and holiday and to never have to worry about the boiler breaking down t the car needing repairs.

I still have family with cancer, I’ve still had a shitty time medically, I still have a lovely husband whose life is dictated by his mental health.

Yeah, I don’t lie awake worrying about the heating bill, but money doesn’t absolve anyone of all the worries that many people endure.

Yeah, but money can afford you better medical and MH care. It can also provide good and thorough cancer care--it gives a person more options than having little or no money.

THETFORD · 08/02/2022 20:26

Yeah, but money can afford you better medical and MH care. It can also provide good and thorough cancer care--it gives a person more options than having little or no money

this whilst I think money can't fix or solve everything it certainly can help a lot. The recurring need to diminish its importance or benefit on this thread is a bit unrealistic.

Saracen · 08/02/2022 21:52

Some years ago I read an article by a financial advisor who had a background in psychology and a special interest in people who'd had unexpected large windfalls. They said that in their experience 80% of these people blew the lot within five years.

Most of us probably believe that wouldn't happen to us and that those people were idiots, but the huge change pushed them out of their comfort zone and they unconsciously fixed the problem. The only way they knew to get back to what they knew was to squander the money.

A friend of a friend won the lottery. He was terrified that it would ruin all his relationships. He was okay in the end, but did have some rough times with his large family I guess. He gave each of them a substantial amount of money, but some thought they deserved more than the others and there were fallings out. I think his kids have had some problems too - obviously he didn't have any experience of growing up rich himself and didn't know how to help them through it. How do you give them the things you want them to have without spoiling them? If you send them to a very expensive private school then all their friends are rich, so how will they learn how other people live?

Apparently most people do fine with a significant but not astronomical sum. People can imagine what it would be like to go from (say) renting to owning a small house, or from a two-bed mid-terrace to a three-bad semi, or to retire at 58 instead of 67. That's enough to change your life, but without throwing you out of the world you know and separating you from your friends.

I would actually be a lot happier to win that sort of sum. £100m would make me unhappy, and even giving it away would give me all sorts of regrets about whether I'd given it away wisely.

alwayswrighty · 10/02/2022 21:09

@Saracen I can quite believe that actually. Tbh I'd be happy with a 500k win. Repay the mortgage. Finish home improvements and maybe buy a BTL for pension purposes.

Not that I do the lotto.

Wineisrequired · 13/02/2022 07:44

Money can’t buy happiness but just being able to pay bills and not worry would be amazing . I’m not greedy though so just a few million would be ok 😂

Snowpaw · 13/02/2022 08:29

I think to win that much and it not ruin your life you need to understand and be able to practice how to be happy / positive in your day to day life already. E.g regular exercise for endorphins, structure to your days, purposeful activity every day, plenty of sunlight, eating healthily, regular socialising, etc. I could have that much in my bank and still feel low if I wasn’t exercising or eating healthily. The basics of how to improve / maintain a good mood etc wouldn’t change. But I would love to be able to do my exercise in a fancy hotel spa/gym and go out for sushi and salads regularly with no thought to the cost, and to structure my days with doing good deeds with the money. A life without work / study of some kind would feel very unfulfilling to me.

pastypirate · 13/02/2022 08:36

It's would bring me untold happiness like you can't imagine. I'm not even that materialistic but I'm so stressed about money now. Everything else in my life is great I'm very lucky but cash is a constant grind. A bigger house and nice holidays for the kids would make me incredibly happy.

shinynewapple22 · 13/02/2022 08:42

@SillyBud

Just pondering on the person who win the 109 million last night and think that yesterday they were just like us-stressed about so many things that could be eased/abolished by money-mortgages, rent, work,health and fitness,appearance...

Can you actually imagine waking up today to discover you are 109 million richer and free from so much the rest of us are prisoner to?

Wins of this amount of money really annoy me. Who on earth needs £109 million? For most people one million, or even £500 k will give them the security they need to pay off a mortgage, or get on housing ladder, employment options or the chance to take out private health care. You could do this for one or two hundred people instead of one person with £109 mil .

Loyaultemelie · 13/02/2022 13:45

We are having so many problems financially at the moment so it would be a huge relief. I wouldn't tell people and anyone close we wanted to help out wouldn't know the amount we won. We are farmers so wouldn't be buying a dream mansion somewhere so we could just set about quietly fixing everything that's broken and replacing the machinery outside that needs it and buy a bit of ground. We would be able to leave the kids sorted and make sure their kids were too.
I have health issues so we could adapt the house and put in a wet room and maybe even a proper heated pool instead of a 15ft intex one in the summer that I try to use to ease the pain on the 2 dry summer days it's actually warm enough

OmgIThinkILikeYou · 13/02/2022 13:56

I wouldn't tell anyone and I would stay living in my house. I would probably have a few more children and do some anonymous donations to some friends businesses (I don't know if you can actually do this but in fantasy land ha)

Then I would probably finish my projects at work as I like to see things through and wouldn't quit on the spot as they have been good to me so I wouldn't leave them in the lurch.

Long term I would probably give up work to 'look after the kids'. I imagine I would live mostly off the interest for a long long time. But yes, it would relieve a lot of stress from my life and I would be happier I think.

Getoff · 13/02/2022 14:21

@MasterBeth

£109 million would be beyond life-changing for you or your family. Your personal prosperity would be guaranteed for generations, with money to spare.

So now you’d have tens of millions of pounds in a world where many people are in need. I couldn’t feel happy knowing that. So suddenly your “job” becomes using your wealth for good, or else you’re a pretty terrible person.

I’m sure it’s not nearly as stressful as being poor, but I don’t think you could spend the rest of your life sipping cocktails by your Caribbean pool without feeling like a total shit.

Even if you want to do good, you don't need to actively manage the spending of the money within your lifetime to do good. You could just invest it, live your life, and leave it to charity when you die. Someone else will do all the work of managing the good-doing, and the amount of good done will not be reduced by the delay, because the investment return compensates for the delay.

Getoff · 13/02/2022 14:24

Having said that, on an investing forum I'm on, many wealthy Americans claim that the best thing they've ever done with their money is giving it away thoughtfully. This could actually bring you more happiness than anything else you do after.

Getoff · 13/02/2022 14:27

If I wanted to give my money away, and doubted that I would actually enjoy managing the process, I would leave it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They will accept bequests, as long as they are in cash and there are no strings attached. (I've googled this in the past.)

They are fantastic at choosing worthy things to spend money on.