

What to do After Making a Billion dollars - jaltucher
http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2010/11/what-do-you-do-after-you-make-a-zillion-dollars/

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ErrantX
Some thoughts on this.

First, thought certainly not a Billion dollars, I came into a substantial
(relative to my normal circumstances) bit of cash soem time ago. His #1 point
is dead on, it was a mistake I made and regret a lot (see:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1511200> )

In fact all of the advice looks good.

Except: "The No-Friends Rule"

The premise is sensible, do not donate to your mates, and definitely not to
new mates, or old ones you forgot you had. But I don't buy that loaning to
friends is a generally bad idea.

I lent a fairly substantial amount to a friend because they had run into
financial hardship. We called it a loan because they refused to take it as a
gift, but I'm not going to ask for it back.

One of my other mates has a fairly mad idea for a business that he always (for
years) wanted to try. I funded that about 18 months ago and it is currently in
the balance between outright failure and setting him up with a business for
the next 20 years. Again, not expecting the money back.

It is only fucking money. You can enrich other peoples lives with it, so why
not. No one _needs_ a Billion dollars, but I know most of my friends could
have awesome life changing experiences with a tiny portion of that.

So, yeh, don't become a charity... but always give to your friends.

~~~
citricsquid
You don't mention the amount you got, but I suspect it's much more than I ever
got or currently earn (which is a lot for me (19, always been unemployed)) but
I feel this line relates to me:

"there was no sense of ownership on the expensive items"

This is something that I absolutely hate. I have money I don't feel I
_deserve_ because it wasn't through hard work and because of this when it
comes to buying something I don't think "I have to work x hours for this, is
it going to return enough value to me that I am willing to work x hours for
this?" as I do when I _earn_ money, I think "I have money why not?" and this
really causes problems. I bought an iPhone a few days ago because they seem
cool, I already own a nexus one that works perfectly fine, but because I
didn't invest any time into buying it I don't really care for it.

Humans are weird...

~~~
ErrantX
Oh, there's no secret, it was a couple of hundred thousand. I never gave the
figure because it still feels like bragging. Enough to make me not worry if I
lose my job, not enough to live the high life.

You're right about the ownership - and the earning of money. I made a sum
total of about £25 from a single book sale this month, but it feels worth more
than the money I got from my job. I'm damn well spending that money on
something specific.

I could have got a decorator in to paint my spare room (turning it into an
office) but I did it myself, it looks a bit crappy in places, but it feels
awesome :) To me the cost of a decorator is ultimately valueless, even though
he could do a much better job.

On the other hand I hate washing my car so I pay to get it done.

"Value" and "Worth" are strange concepts.

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Estragon
OT: Followed the books link. The author seems like a pretty shady character.
Got his wife to write a glowing Amazon review of his book, under a misleading
name.

[http://www.amazon.com/review/R2PELDZ9QQX0C3/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt...](http://www.amazon.com/review/R2PELDZ9QQX0C3/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0062001329&nodeID=283155)

Makes me wonder how he came into that money he mentioned at the start of the
Billion Dollars post...

~~~
jaltucher
Haha. Maybe my wife just loves me. Notice she went through my last book and
found out how each stock performed. I'm grateful she did that since I never
asked her to do it. I was afraid to look at how the stocks had done.

Check out my blog: jamesaltucher.com. then you can see how shady I am

~~~
Travis
While not shady, the repeated links to follow you on twitter detracted from
the article. It also made me trust your writing a little less. Just sayin.

~~~
jaltucher
Travis, thats a constructive criticism. Thanks.

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daimyoyo
It's actually odd. I've had pretty decent windfalls come my way a few times
and after it happens, all the crap I'd wanted so desperately while I was
broke, suddenly wasn't that important. Case in point: I found a blue '69
Chevrolet nova at a pawn shop for $3,000. If I was broke, I'd have stayed
awake at night dreaming about that car and "saving up" for it. Yet I had more
than enough at the time to buy it outright, and prepay all the fees it'd need
for the next year. But I looked at it and had no desire at all to get it. Same
thing happened with a luxury watch I was looking at. REALLY wanted it when I
couldn't get and once I could my attitude was "I don't need to spend $8,000 on
a watch." I guess when my big one comes, I'll be ok. Just my $0.02 on the
subject.

~~~
MikeCapone
That has been my experience too. Sometimes the chase is better than the
catch..

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grandalf
I'd like to add two more:

\- Think about the idea you would have tried if someone had lent you $1M and
you wanted to change the world. Lend yourself $1M (only) and do it.

\- Resist the urge to become a professional philanthropist. Have the gumption
to dream even bigger than before and risk utter failure. It's only money.

~~~
ErrantX
I was in a discussion group onceand the tutor asked us "what would you do if
your company was sold and tomorrow you found yourself with a million pounds".

Of course, most of us came up with various philanthropic ideas and ways to
save the world/do good etc. Except one mate who said "I'd take it and go make
£10 Million, then I'd give you all a £1 Million each. Then I'd do it all over
again".

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dkokelley
I like the part about waiting one year before making any major life changes.
It makes sense that you would be more risky with new found wealth immediately
after acquiring it. Giving yourself time to "get to know" your money should
help put things in perspective.

~~~
racbart
I like that part too but it might be simply too strict. The point is to keep
lifestyle changes reasonably small during that first year. Replace your old
car worth $10k with a new $40k one (but not $200k) and don't buy many cars.
Move from a $0.5M apartment to a $3M home (but not $15M) and preferably rent
it for now, you will have better idea what you really like to buy after that
year. There's no reason you couldn't get some reward for your hard work - but
you need to make it small to don't fall into spending spree.

~~~
varjag
Imagine an Amazon delta dweller who suddenly got a $50K estate and moved to
Miami. The choices of goods and services are nothing like he seen before, and
their cost is nothing he can relate to. He might overpay a lot, tip too
excessively, get things he doesn't need and do not invest into services that
are truly necessary.

Which I think was the point of the advice, take a time out to figure out the
value of things in your new price range.

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adrianwaj
I'd suggest just learning how to say No to friends. Why put up bogus reasons?
Just say no.. they ask why? "Because I said so. Ask me in a year."

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kamechan
i'm confused as to why the title of the piece on his website is "what to do
after making a ZILLION dollars" whereas it was posted here on ycombinator news
(apparently by the author) under "what to do after making a billion dollars".

to me, "zillion" implies a certain amount of snarkieness, which is more
fitting for the article. "billion" implies a more straightforward analysis,
perhaps more befitting of the HN crowd.

just an observation.

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christo16
Two chicks at the same time

~~~
tomjen3
That doesn't take a billion dollars. Hookers are cheap (even if you go for the
higher quality ones) and if you have more time than money, there are URLs that
can help you <http://themysterymethod.net/>, <http://realsocialdynamics.com/>
etc.

Or the real shortcut: be a cocky, funny and extremely self confident asshole.
For more details see roissy.wordpress.com.

Finally, a warning: plenty of plenty of people who venture down this route end
up loosing any and all respect they ever had for women. The benefit is
(potentially) at lot of sex.

~~~
alinajaf
As someone who has been down this route, IMO taking the lead, being good-
humoured and having sex with a shitload of women is _entirely_ mutually
exclusive with not respecting them. It's exactly this kind of thinking that a)
makes women feel ashamed about their sexuality (thus making it harder for
everyone involved to get laid, especially women) and b) casts the 'seduction
community' in an overwhelmingly negative light.

And paying for it is bad for your soul dude.

~~~
tomjen3
As an atheist, I don't need a soul anyway.

But I don't plan on going down that route myself.

------
cbo
I've never heard that chess saying before. That's one to remember.

"Only good players get lucky."

~~~
jaxn
Yeah, I think that was the best line in the whole post.

Bummed I can't find any other reference to that saying on the internet.

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philthy
I think American's need to read this article, scale it down, and apply it to
their own lives. I love how people think just because you earned a bunch of
money you are entitled to spend it on a bunch of crap, whether today or in a
year...

~~~
bmelton
On exactly what grounds do you suggest that people who earned a bunch of money
aren't entitled to spend it on whatever crap they want?

~~~
philthy
On the grounds that you don't have to run out and buy anything just because
you can.

~~~
bmelton
I'm not really sure I understand the attitude, except to guess that you're
just trolling.

Regardless, I suppose they have considerably more right to waste their money
how they wish than you do in telling them what to do with it.

~~~
getsat
Other people disagree: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2311274>

I find that post to be extremely scary and reading it gives me a feeling of
visceral revulsion.

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dstein
That was disappointing. This doesn't tell me what to do with a billion dollars
at all, it tells me what not to do for one year. Okay I wait a year... then
what? Beyond typical "invest wisely" advice, there might be things you can do
with a billion dollars that I can't even conceive of.

Buy an island and populate it with beautiful naked women? Fund a nuclear
fusion project? Build a high speed Mag-Lev train system between Washington DC
and New York? Or do you invest in longevity, brain-scan and cryogenics
research in attempt to be the first human to live forever?

~~~
redthrowaway
You look at what the people who actually _have_ a billion dollars are doing.
Gates, Soros, and Buffet are heavily involved in philanthropy. Zuck, Jobs,
Larry, and Sergey are mostly sitting tight. Ellison is living the high life,
and Trump is being Trump. Branson's doing the closest to what you're talking
about, but mostly in money-making ways.

The point is, none of them are being stupid, and all of them are doing, for
the most part, what they'd be doing if they _weren't_ billionaires.

Don't operate under the delusion that fabulous wealth will change who you are
as a person. If you aren't happy as a thousandaire, you won't be happy as a
billionaire. The one gift that money like that gives you is the time and
opportunity to pursue what's important to you, but you've done something wrong
if you're not doing that already.

~~~
kooshball
zuck donated 100MM to newark school district.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/education/23newark.html>

also he has signed the "Giving Pledge" started by Gates and Buffet to donate
most of his wealth.
[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870349350457600...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703493504576007982500939482.html)

that's certainly not sitting tight.

~~~
redthrowaway
That was just recently, though. Also, there's a huge difference between
writing a check and being heavily involved in philanthropy. Gates et al pursue
philanthropy as they pursued their careers, but Zuck's is more of a fire and
forget style of charity. I'm not blaming him for it; he's a busy guy and it'd
be stupid for him to adopt the Gates model while facebook places the demands
on his time that it does. Were it not for TSN, he likely would have never done
either, not because he's Scrooge but because it's just not a big deal to him.

Which kind of goes back to my point. He's doing essentially the same thing as
a billionaire that he was when he was running facebook from his dorm room.

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tygorius
This is one of the author's better posts. Some of it seems reminiscent of Paul
& Moynihan's "What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars", particularly the point
of confusing rapid success in one area (stocks or poker) with the necessary
expertise to invest in a new area (hotels in the blog post, thoroughbred
horses in the book).

I will echo another comment, however. Three "Follow me on Twitter" links in a
single article came across as desperate begging rather than offering extra
value to the reader.

------
known
Buy/create a nation <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration_of_1917>

