Someone posted a thread on Ars Open Forum (you’ll hear that phrase out of me an awful lot!) this morning where they asked how we would spend a theoretical ’several million dollars’ (a couple million invested and one million liquid to re-arrange your life with. Apparently both he and his wife were mid-level Wall St hotshots that got out while the getting was still good and are now settling down to a quieter life. I have no idea whether all that is true, but I dashed off a quick response (if I sat down to think too much about this then this would be ten pages long.)
1) Get out of the military. Actually I wouldn’t have any choice in the matter, they don’t let you stay in if your economic situation is that disparate from that of your peers.
2) Sell or give away the bulk of my stuff for now, stash the remainder with my family and spend a few years traveling with an emphasis on immersion, not just seeing the sights. Britain and the continent, India, New Zealand, Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan and somewhere nicely secluded in the south Pacific would all be on the itinerary. Somewhere in there, probably in China or Korea, spend at least a year teaching English and learning the language (more better in the case of Korean or from scratch w/ Mandarin.)
3) On returning to the US, another year of travel, this time around the country with visits to various cities and many small farms. Possibly by bicycle or motorcycle.
4) Go back to school, finish my Bachelor’s and likely pick up a Master’s (just because that would be an excuse to take more classes.)
5) Do what I’m hoping to do in a few years anyway: build a house and establish a small farm. Only with more security and possibly a more appealing locale.*
6) Set up funds to support my family and the development of my community.
*Having this kind of money available would make it even more tempting to try to find a place outside one of our favorite cities rather than sticking with what is available to us in the world of real money.
Post a Comment