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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I would buy four tickets on a mini-sub tour of the Titanic and give them to 4 billionaires.
I’m in Switzerland, so I buy a leisurely coffee and croissant. With the change I buy a bottle of water.
With the change I buy a bottle of water.
What change? You took out a loan to get the croissant.
Go to the nearest jewelry store and buy everything in it. Wait an hour, return it as per the refund policy. If there is no refund policy then I would sell it off. Even if I lost 50% on the sell back, that’s still half a mil in cash.
Most popular jewelers have at least a 30 day refund policy.
Quito Ecuador at 8:30pm on a Sunday night. Nothing other than small cornerstores and liquor shops are open. So I guess I’ll buy as much liquor as I can to resell later.
It’s kinda late here in Europe, but I would immediately go to my neighbour and explain the situation quickly.
His house isn’t worth a million dollars but I would buy it for 1 million dollars anyway, after the sale is done, I’d sell it back to him for a price so after taxes we would each get half. We know each other well enough to trust that we won’t screw the other…
Cheap Answer: Go to my nearest Walmart/Grocery Store (10 minutes away from me)and max out all of the vanilla visa debit cards with the $1 million but after fees it won’t be $1 million but I would still spend the million.
Actual Answer: Luckily I’m in a prime spot where I live that I’m 20 minutes away from Lamborghini, Aston Martin, and other luxury car dealerships. So I’d go there and purchase how many cars I can with the million. After I sign, sell them back to the dealership or sell them privately.
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.
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.
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.
Can you pay in cash on “some house buying mobile app”?
I’d buy a $1M hug from someone I’m very close to. Then offer them a $500K hug.
It doesn’t break rule 3 as written.
I was thinking the same thing, but buying something tangible off my wife. Money is ours lol
My concern with this is that the post says that the cash disappears after the hour, not that any unspent cash disappears. So whoever you give the cash too loses it too.
1 million in index funds which I will reinvest later.
The post specified cash. How would you purchase $1m in index funds with cash in an hour?
Bring it to my bank, deposit, then purchase online.
Though I’d leave it in my index fund, on average they perform better than actively managed accounts
I think getting to a bank, explaining where 1M in cash came from, getting them to accept the deposit, getting them to count it, then spending it in less than an hour is not feasible.
Because, depositing it in a bank is not enough.
It has to be spent.
So, if you don’t spend it then the bank is left without however much disappears… If that makes sense.And, given that, I don’t think investing is a suitable application.
Otherwise, just invest it directly at the bank.
Maybe you don’t get inflation-beating interest (ie, if it was your 1M you would be losing money), but after whatever-term you get 1M of clean money to spend.
