this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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I have asked this question to countless people (mostly in hair salons) as an alternative to small talk, and it always yields interesting results.

Rules:

  • You get the money right now, right where you are. If it's 10pm and you're in the middle of nowhere, your money will still go poof at 11pm.
  • As a result of the above, tell us what time it is and roughly where you are (big city, desert, small town, ...)
  • You must spend the money. You cannot give it to someone to hold on to it for you for a while.
  • Normal world rules apply, e.g. you cannot buy a $250k car at a dealership in 1h in cash, and you cannot buy a house in 1h either.
  • Remember that getting from where you are to the place you need to go takes time. Factor that in!

Edit: I'm glad you guys had fun with this one. Feel free to post similar hypothetical questions. I kinda like these.

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[–] average650@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

If I can't think of something better, I would donate to my university's foundation and earmark it for myself, or at least my department.

Or, I would just donate it to charity.

Or, pay off all my debts and donate to charity.

[–] nigh7y@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

I mean, if I get that money via my bank app, just gonna buy some stocks and bonds with it, wait 60 minutes and cash them all in after. I get to keep the money after taxes are deducted, and then might as well get my life in order and start travelling with my newfound financial freedom.

[–] jackoneill@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I live in Las Vegas. I’m about in the middle of town and it’s 2200. There’s a pawn shop about 20 minutes away from me that’s open until 0100 every night. They’re a large normal pawn shop but specialize in jewelry and gold. I’d buy all of the precious metals, collector coins, and valuable jewelry. I’d sell the collector coins the next day to a different pawn shop that specializes in collector coins, the precious metals to the gold and silver pawn shop, and the jewelry to a third pawn shop. I’d probably walk away with less than a quarter of the original million and doubt I could spend it all before it vanished but 100-200 k in less than 24 hours is pretty damn good!

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
  • Whelp, It's still just barely afternoon for me, so I'd gotta get to the bank as fast as possible to get my card straightened out so I can go online and order a bunch of things like art commissions from digital artists I like and then go onto other sites like Etsy or eBay to get things like a couple different knock-off pokemon plushies (looking at you, grafaiai).

  • Then find DVD/Blu-ray sets for the cartoons I really like. Shows like Ahhh! Real Monsters or Code Lyoko. Whatever I could think of in the moment because I'd be too busy freaking out in excitement.

  • Probably go to some place like a thrift store and buy some clothes for my stuffed rabbit and bear since I think they would look lovely in some nice clothes (even if they are baby clothes).

  • After all that is purchased, I wouldn't know what to do, so probably just spend it on games on Steam or donating to groups like the people behind LibreOffice or Krita. Just giving a little towards the development of open source products I like in order to thank them for their product.

Edit:

I would only deposit a small amount into the bank so that way I would be able to use my card to buy all of these items online. I'd assume the money isn't directly deposited into my bank account, so I'd need to manually do it.

Thankfully I live close enough it'd only take less than 10 minutes to get in. Getting an appointment, might be an issue, so I might have to scrap all of the online shopping plans and just go to the game store I like and just buy a ton of old games and a pro controller for my switch and if they have it, another switch and a copy of pokemon scarlet so I can complete the pokedex on my violet save by either modding the switch or starting 2 new saves and doing LAN trading.

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Edit (since I don't know how to edit a comment directly on the Jerboa app):

I would only deposit a small amount into the bank so that way I would be able to use my card to buy all of these items online. I'd assume the money isn't directly deposited into my bank account, so I'd need to manually do it.

Thankfully I live close enough it'd only take less than 10 minutes to get in. Getting an appointment, might be an issue, so I might have to scrap all of the online shopping plans and just go to the game store I like and just buy a ton of old games and a pro controller for my switch and if they have it, another switch and a copy of pokemon scarlet so I can complete the pokedex on my violet save by either modding the switch or starting 2 new saves and doing LAN trading.

[–] pogister@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

8pm here. I'd buy a house using some house buying mobile app. I'd probably sell it afterwards when the time is right and add the money to my investments.

[–] Jfqs6m@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Buying some type of investment property was my first idea too, but this raises a good point. If the original question was that you had one hour for the funds to actually clear before they are taken away then I don't think buying a house would be an option.

[–] sproink@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

Can you pay in cash on "some house buying mobile app"?

[–] Sunrosa@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I would go out and find a store in which to buy liquid commodities, like gold, jewelry, etc. Anything that doesn't immediately degrade after being bought and becoming "used", and preferably something that can be returned, so I can quickly retrieve my money after "laundering" it away from being owned by the stipulation. And then, because having a shitload of money requires a shitload of thought, I would probably go find a nice cheap general aviation plane to buy for myself, or maybe a glider, and get my PPL, and live my dreams. And then maybe I'd buy and convert a work van into a place to live, and live the rest of my life out on the road hiking and camping. The rest, I could invest away in a safe and broad portfolio, and live my life worry-free. I live nowadays (excluding rent) on like $0 cause most of it is government aid anyway. So no more work.

[–] peterbata@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Probably a crap load of music studio gear then donate to one or more schools in my neighborhood

[–] TechyDad@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does the money go poof if you spend it? For example, say I buy some jewelry with half of the million dollars. Then, the time limit passes. Does just the half a million I still have on hand disappear or does the cash I spent vanish as well?

If the cash I spend vanishes, then I might be opening myself up to fraud charges after the hour is up. Going back to the jewelry situation. I buy half a million in jewelry and hand over the last of the cash just as the time limit ends. If the money in the store clerk's hands suddenly vanishes, they're going to demand their merchandise back. If I'm already walking out the door when it goes poof, they'll call the police on me.

Of course, if the money that I spend doesn't vanish after the time limit expires, then that's a different story.

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[–] balthasar1stern@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

I'd buy a good FPV drone, a Hurdy Gurdy and a nice office chair. My current one sucks.

Yeah, that's it.

[–] metalero@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

At the Bitcoin ATM around the corner.

[–] grte@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Living in the small rural community I'm living in ATM I'm not even sure I could. Maybe I could call up some property sellers selling something for around 800k and offer a million. But there is a zero percent chance they wouldn't assume I was a scammer when I told them they needed to accept this deal within the hour or it was gone, haha.

[–] dandroid@dandroid.app 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, I have an online portal in which I can make payments on my house from anywhere, at any time. I pay off my house first. I still have quite a bit of cash left after that, but I don't really like the buy and return/sell back comments. I think that's a cop out. And I'm feeling lucky, so I'm gonna head to a casino that is about 15 minutes away from my house and put it all on black.

[–] binwiederhier@discuss.ntfy.sh 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How do you make online payments with actual physical cash? 😬

[–] dandroid@dandroid.app 2 points 1 year ago

Oh, the OP didn't mention cash, so I hadn't thought of that. If it is all cash, I guess all on black it is!

[–] sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I would prepare myself to take a BIG loss.

I think I would go on Amazon or eBay and order a bunch of new or slightly-used laptops. Then I would spend the next few months selling them at bargain prices. I would never get the whole million back, but I'd make some damn good money.

Somebody smarter than me might buy something that will gain value over time instead of losing it, but hey, I only have an hour so this is the best plan I could come up with!

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does donation count? There are a few nonprofits in my area that Id probably give it too. Other than that wipe my mortgage and student debt, buy a new car, and a couple of suits probably. Man being an adult is boring.

[–] fische_stix@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

The answer to this heavily depends on how the funds are supplied. If it is in an account I can buy stock with an instant transfer. if it is cash, it is essentially worthless since counting it and the transaction will take over an hour. If we are counting only the agreement to purchase then I would choose property. While this is sn interesting question, I think it is more of a question about how we define "buy". One million dollars is a large enough amount to set off lots of red flags and questions, but not so large that you commonly move that amount of money. For someone who frequently does large transactions it would be basically business as usual. For the average person it would be a logistical nightmare.

[–] csolisr@communities.azkware.net 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Considering I won't be able to actually get it into the bank account on time because of KYC, the best thing I can do is to purchase the closest convenience store that is next to my house - I don't think the dude will reject a transaction in cash

A million dollars in bitcoin, I'd walk away with a cool $100 after selling it all.

In truth, being in a central Florida town at 7 in the morning, I'd go on a shopping spree at some of the bigger box stores and stock up on electronics and building supplies, before I blew the rest on tools.

[–] caffinz@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Assuming stuff was still open, I'd go to the bank and deposit it immediately.

Afterward I would pay off every debt I have online.

After that? Pay off my sister's car and my girlfriend's college debt. Then probably rent as far in advance as possible.

I honestly wouldn't have much time after doing that so I would maybe do an online grocery order to stock up and then seriously make a random DoorDasher's day.

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