Mega Millions

[rent4now]

Say you win the 636 million dollar mega millions jackpot tonight.

What would be the most prudent way to go about investing all that cash?

Real Estate?
Stocks?

[spdrun]

Put $20MM in urban and semi-urban property (a few nice complexes in SD would work fine), conservatively yielding 4-5% p/a. That’s $800k to $1MM per year. Spend another few mil on some decent farmland to have somewhere to go in case of a zombie apocalypse.

Do whatever you want with the other $350 mil or so after taxes. Start a charitable foundation. Go to grad school and go into research. Travel the world. Fast cars. Slow sailing yachts. Harlots and cocaine. Whatever floats your boat, just as long as you’re set with enough income to be comfy for life.

[The-Shoveler]

Come up with a plan to spend (after tax_) 90% in 10-15-Years, (Fast Cars, Fast Boats, fast airplanes etc…) (your not going to live forever) (OK you can give some away to a good cause too).

Then put 5% in cash flowing real-estate the other 5% in an Swiss annuity that can be passed down once your gone, that should be enough keep you and your family.

[Coronita]

$636 million? Is that it? I thought Piggs do better than that already 🙂

[FlyerInHi]

Spd, I like the farm idea in case of apocalypse. But it can’t be on the mainland where vigilantes will come in pickup and guns to redistribute your agricultural wealth to their hungry kids.

I’m thinking somewhere over the rainbow on the rainy part of a remote Hawaiian island where a small organic farm could easily feed all the inhabitants. Fish from the ocean and some livestock for meat, plus a good variety of fruit and veggies.

Some Hawaiian islands are very fertile with 3 growing seasons. It might be a good investment that could be leased out to tenant farmers.

I’m afraid that monoculture on the typical American farm won’t feed a family. Anything near big metros will be quickly overrun by vigilantes.

[spdrun]

Problem would be getting to a remote part of HI if the zombies run amuck, though a few mil would likely buy you an aircraft with the range and STOL ability required.

(And no, I wasn’t thinking of a typical American farm exactly…)

[FlyerInHi]

The Dole foods billionaire and I think Larry Ellison own Hawaiian islands and yachts to get there.

Apocalypse wouldn’t happen in one day. It gets progressively worse. When things get bad, you just take a vacation and watch the events. Back during previous wars, people who got out with their wealth early did best.

I think that a remote plot of land on the hill overlooking the beach might go for under $200k. There are cheap parts of HI away from the well traveled paths. I could survive on fish, eggs, chicken, bananas, pineapple or whatever else I might grow. Pineapples are really good and grow like weeds. You just eat the fruit and stick the top in the ground. The most important thing for agriculture is to be on the rainy side. That works out really well because tourists like the more expensive dry areas.

[scaredyclassic]

I have a ticket.

I p loan to worry more about $ if I win.

[joec]

The problem with any apocalyptic event is if you have kids, the small kids will be a huge liability to survive and would prevent you from moving around a lot or early due to school, another mouth to feed, etc…at least until they get to 8 or so and can pack their own gun…

[spdrun]

If the apocalypse happens, will you really be worried about schools? 🙂

[FlyerInHi]

I hate to think of apocalypse but I guess it could happen. We depend so much on our infrastructure that a few days without water and electricity and all hell will break lose. How bad it gets would depend on how widespread the outages are.

Adults can endure a lot, but if their kids go hungry, they will shot their guns.

Imagine we have a catastrophe, and the authorities aren’t able to restore electricity within 2 days. Politicians will begin to make announcements and promises they can’t keep. I’ll be on the first plane out to watch the events from far away, in comfort and security.

That makes me think of Syria. Imagine living a nice upper middle class life in Damascus. The regime could collapse and the country overtaken by sectarian violence to last decades.

[spdrun]

I’d say that it would take longer than two days without power for collapse. The Lower Manhattan blackout lasted 5+ days last year, and parts of rural VA routinely have their power go out for 2-3 days at a time after ice storms.

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=spdrun]I’d say that it would take longer than two days without power for collapse. The Lower Manhattan blackout lasted 5+ days last year, and parts of rural VA routinely have their power go out for 2-3 days at a time after ice storms.[/quote]

That’s why I said it depends on how widespread the outage is. Cut power to all of metro NY and see what happens. Let people go hungry for a few days. I wouldn’t want to be around.

If a general feeling of crisis takes hold, then we can descend into hell very quickly. Think New Orleans but much worse, spread out to a whole region the country. Even the police will be defending their own.

I don’t know what the catastrophe might be, but it could be meteorite striking the earth, revolution by NRA, some biological attack, or whatever. It’s not that I believe that will happen in my lifetime, but if you have the money and can buy a farmhouse in someplace remote, fertile, beautiful, and enjoyable, then why not?

[spdrun]

The 2003 blackout was extremely widespread and lasted 2-3 days in some places. Same with post-Sandy blackouts. It wasn’t just lower Manhattan; a lot of NJ and Long Island was out for 7-10 DAYS.

Problem with the farmhouse idea is getting there if you’re not there when TSHTF. Sailboat or an ultra-light aircraft might work if the place is in coastal (i.e. 5-20 miles inland, not right on the coast) Maine, I guess.

Car or motorcycle is too likely to be stolen at gunpoint or worse. Not to mention fuel, though old diesels are often able to run on a combination of yak excrement and nose grease.

[joec]

[quote=FlyerInHi]
If a general feeling of crisis takes hold, then we can descend into hell very quickly. Think New Orleans but much worse, spread out to a whole region the country. Even the police will be defending their own.

I don’t know what the catastrophe might be, but it could be meteorite striking the earth, revolution by NRA, some biological attack, or whatever. It’s not that I believe that will happen in my lifetime, but if you have the money and can buy a farmhouse in someplace remote, fertile, beautiful, and enjoyable, then why not?[/quote]

The problem with the remote locations is that if it’s safe, fertile or has anything worth taking, someone or more likely, some group would come by and take it.

I watched a few episodes of that Doomsday Preppers show and you have quite a few people stocking up for the apocalypse…Some of these groups have 20-30 people they know, heavily HEAVILY armed with tons of guns/bullets and everyone is trained to use them. They also have their own fort, but if they need to move, they can move within 1 hour with tons of food and their buses, a few other cars.

It just seems if you are alone or in a small group, your best bet is to just lay low or hunker down if you can or out of sight. If you show anything worth taking, expect someone to take it.

So do a lot of people here have their emergency stuff? We’ve been stocking out evac bag and have some fuel, but nothing crazy…(too expensive and silly). No guns though due to kids.

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