if you were given fifty grand
 

ok .. bored at work we were talking.. i'm sure everyone has had this conversation with friends at some time of their life.

so imagine grandad/grandma or whomever has willed you it.


keep 5 and put 45 in a high interest account and ignore it, would probably in reality what i would do.

I'm saying 50 because its a realistic amount, rather than the what would you do if you won the lottery, had a million ones.
Every one of those conversations has left me cold of ideas, i like the flat i live in, i dont drive, i like my job mostly, my debts are under £200, i could redecorate i guess.
I cant think of anything major i want or need, guess i just dont have ambitions to live in grander area, that i'm perfectly happy with what i have, i've never really window shopped for a better life, the one i have is fine.

This confuses my workmates, they have grand schemes to travel the world or buy a sports cars, shop at prada and jimmy choo, so i guess i'm just weird to be happy with what i have. I guess it stems from the fact that no amount of money could ever give me what i would wish for most in life, thats my best friend back (he died in a car crash at the age of 19).
I was allways a happy go lucky person and that created someone who is gratefull and happy with what life i have.
So i meander from day to day with no goals in life, it just makes me wonder if any GD'ers are like me or would you all make for the nearest travel agent/shop/car dealership ?

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

25k in the bank, pay off student loans/debts, live the high life at uni.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

pay off students debts current and upcoming; give 5k or so to my parents to shut them up and fritter the rest away on hookers and beer

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

I'd get a few things around the house, new computer, some DVD's...probably save 40k of it or so.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

i'd save enough to repay my debts and finance the rest of my time and uni and save the rest for a house when i need one

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

pay my mortgage off (which just happens to b e £50k)

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

Post it to the address round the corner.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

I'd pay of my study debt and.... don't know.
I wouldn't go on a shopping spree, I don't need anything really...
I don't need a big sports car...
I like my job too so I would not simply quit it.

I might start to plan my emigration more actively. I still want to leave this cold wet country and live in an entirely different culture for some time. Having the financial backup would make that more easy I guess. But it would be a difficult decision as I really like my job now.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

ditto. i wouldn't need to start loaning next year then and would have plenty of money to buy books/cd's/dvd's and travel a bit.


*edit: i'd get my motordriving-license and buy a superfast supercool ****ing big cool motor so my friends who all have motors would die of jealousy.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

that wouldnt be enough to pay off my debt :(

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

Buy a few hardcore records, just because they would look on my shelf. Then I would go on a hell of a binge, with a few close friends. Pay of some fines, and then travel, again with a few good friends. If I got bored and went home with cash left, I would probably use it in a smart fashion, but that's not my first priority. I'm too young and have too much still left to do before I settle down in any fashion.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

I'd give it all to the Labour party for a peerage.


Or a high interest savings account. I really don't need the money.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

Pay off debts, by a reasonable new car, give money to parents, some to charity, go on nice vactation, and save the rest.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

Id put it most in a high interest bank account and save it all except maybe 5k for uni. I might put some money towards my mats car just so we dont have to get the bus to college anymore.

Id give my parents 5k towards paying off the morgage, after all ive lived in the house all my life.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

Pay off debts. There wouldn't be much left after that. I'd join bupa though.

Ideally, I'd like enough money after paying off debts to buy a flat outright somewhere close to a major city. But I'd need more than fifty grand probably.

Hey, apparently Britons are the most in debt in Europe. We're winning at something! Up yours, unicef. More seriously, I can't decide if that's good, bad or neither for the economy.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

I was just about to post "alcohol and hookers" as well....coincidence? I think not.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

So long no-one close to me desperately needed the money then 10% to London's drug-dealing community and the rest would be gambled away (a combination of spread betting and casino's I suspect).

If by some miracle I was feeling prudent then I would use it as a deposit to buy a property with somebody.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

pay off all debits, and be on the first plane to calgary

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

Hm, instead of starting to work after Uni I could travel to some places instead. The mediterranean, North+South America, east Asia, pretty much all around the world I guess.

Oh, and go see the one Rage Against The Machine concert they do somewhere in the US, that would be cool, too.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

I'd fill a room with £5 notes and swim in them.


Also, this is my 1000th post so I need someone to toss me off over the internet by congratulating me

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

I'll give jer a call :)

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

what, i could always have said that i would have put it all up my nose or put it across the casino table, but i wouldnt have wasted more than a few grand this way so it wouldnt be strictly speaking true

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

I'd probably pay off all my debts first and then put half in one of them high interest accounts you need to give 30/60 days notice to withdraw money from to stop me frittering it away on useless bits and pieces here and there. Then use this money for a deposit. Would give my brother a few thousand, go on a couple of holidays, buy a new pc, some sort of mp3 player, and then drink and gamble away the rest probably.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

to be fair it's not an awful lot of money.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

It's enough to satisfy a small dream that a person has, whether thats a few months holiday to somewhere theyve always wanted to go, the ability to take a few years off work and (eg) do a new degree, start a small business, switch careers, having a shot at making a film, or a thousand other similar things.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

to this point i agree with you

with this i think that you got carried away in the conviction of your own prose

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

I'd probably pay off my loans and save the rest to start me brewery.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

I'd buy some good musical instruments and some recording equipment.

I'd also buy a Russian sex slave and teach her how to play the drums.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

The idea of a large sum of money solving all my problems is pretty narrow minded, so I have no idea what I'd do as I can't imagine the situation ever possible arising.

Saying that, one of my friends won £32k on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire a few years back (it was Mother + Son team, they won £64k in total) so I suppose it's not THAT crazy.

I doubt I'd do anything exciting with it. My debts are less than £1000 so that wouldn't be too hard.

I'd probably go and buy £1000 worth of clothes. Put another £1000 in a big fat party. Maybe get some laser-eye surgery (I haven't done enough investigation into this to see if it's worth it). Get my teeth whitened. Go travelling around Australia and America. Give my mum, dad and sisters £5000 each. Put the remaining £20k or so in some sort of savings account.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

Clear my debts and have a ****ing party

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

that's all very nice and alpha-male tom, but where is the money for cancer-research etc? :crymeariver:

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

50k. Black.


Or Red.



Or 25K on both.



With all the winnings on 29.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

Jet-pack.







Although I do also like the idea of using it to fill a swimming pool with beer and seeing how long it takes me to drink it.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

I'd put the £50k towards buying KoeN a clue. Obviously other donations would be required to buy a clue big enough to make up for his massively clueless nature but £50k would be a good start.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

that would be the best thing in the world for 2-3 days then some drunk guy would piss in your beerpool and itd go flat and youd have a whole swimming pool of flat beer and pee and no money

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

But what a two to three days!






Also you're assuming it actually lasts that long :(

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

that was actually the exact wording of what i thought you were going to say.

A more realistic aim would be the bathtub full of beer surely. that would be potentially doable.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

We could fill many bath-tubs with beer with fifty grand actually. A rather problematic dilemma regardless.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

29 is one of the numbers I play with, my big numbers are

0, 26, 29, 30

followed by 1, 3, 5, 7, 13, 15, 17, 20, 28, 34, 36

But I will always play 0, 26, 29, 30.

Still gambling is a mugs game :(

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

Especially roulette.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

If you bet on both red and black you could only possibly, in the best case, get your money back. And since you'd lose money if 0 or 00 come up (at about a 5% chance), your long-term expected return would be zero.

In fairness, it's zero no matter what you do. Play poker instead.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

Gambling (against the house) is indeed a mugs game (believe me, I know :( ) but I think people are unnecessarily harsh on roulette. In the context of games designed to take money away from idiots roulette isn't too bad. Other casino games (like anything with a "bonus" like Carribean Stud Poker or Let it Ride, or anything progressive and especially slot machines) roulette is actually slightly "fairer".

Most of the other games (again, especially slot machines) are designed entirely to obscure the actual odds the punter is playing with which makes cost/benefit calculations (such as they are among gambling addicts) are very difficult. This is one of the reasons slot machines are casino's biggest earners. In roulette, there is a nice simplicity to it all. Every spin has equal odds and the maths are reasonably transparent.

Obviously it's only for idiots and the mentally ill anyway. Lo me!

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

I know the odds of roulette are relatively simple (as you said), but it just seems a stupid game to play. There's no skill whatsoever involved, and you have no control over how well you do.

I've never played it, but I can't see how it could be enjoyable as you're not doing anything except selecting a number and dancing with glee if you win, and gritting your teeth if you don't.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

blackjack is probably a good game to go for for that as well, plus (if they don't shuffle the decks too often, I don't know if they do in the uk?) you can count cards, thus leading to profit.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

Deposit on a mortgage.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

Baccarat is enven better for an stupidly high staked game that really is just luck of the draw.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

I'd buy a bucket, a mop and an illustrated book about birds.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

Agreed (although there are different "strategies" in how you bet, but the outcome is the same). Compared to Poker, etc it's pants. But comparing it to other "versus the house" games, at least the complete lack of skill is obviously, whereas in something like Blackjack* or Let-it-Ride the decisions you do have to make (i.e. where a small amount of "skill" is required) can lull the player into believing he is "good" at the game and therefore can consistently return a profit. With roulette it's kind of obvious you are engaging in utter insanity (albeit, a seductive kind of insanity).

* I'm discounting card-counting here because the way it's played in most Casino's and online (with six decks, periodically shuffled) mean it's beyond the ability of most players.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

not that im being judgemental* but the commies would spend quite a bit on themselves and only be philanthropic in a nepotistic way. I was honestly expecting someting along the lines of 'id pay the capitalist system its damned debt and give the rest to the cause' but you'd just piss it all away, which doesn't seem very communisohwait.

Taking this seriously id give £30K to my parents and sister. Id pay off my debts then have a piss up with £1000, the rest id stick in a bank as i don't really want anything. Maybe another £1000 to charity.**


*quite clearly i am

**Failing that id take the entire £50k to vegas and spend a fortnight with hookers and crak and hookers on crak and just crak, as well as the obligatory gambling.

Re: if you were given fifty grand
 

I'd buy a Mazda RX-8 car, a Yamaha R1 or R6 superbike and pay any debt that I have.

Definitely would cover £50k.