Bloganuary prompt: If you had a Billion dollars, how would you spend it?
First I have to admit that, when I read today’s prompt I immediately thought of the Barenaked Ladies song “If I Had a Million Dollars” and it is stuck in my head now 🙂
I don’t think anyone should own this much money but I am happy to play along.
I know that I am not able to handle large amounts of money like this well, so I would hire people that can. Any money invested would need to go through a thorough review considering the ethics of the investment. In addition, I would probably need to hire people that can handle all the unwanted attention and enable me to continue living a “normal” life.
Of course, I would take care of my family, including our kids and grandkids first and make sure they are financially secure for the rest of their lives. One of the advantages of being so wealthy would be to have access to medical care that goes beyond our current means.
Yes, I would probably buy a new car, but it would be a “regular” EV and not some crazy luxury toy. Remember, I don’t want to draw too much attention.
One Billion dollars is a lot of money but facing the dire need in the world won’t “fix” a lot of things that need fixing. There are two areas though that I would want to invest in after careful consultation with the organizations involved.
Climate Emergency
As much as I love living in Canada, our society is much too dependent on the resource industry. International oil companies are expanding fossil fuel extraction, furthering the climate emergency, and trampling on the rights of indigenous people and the future of our kids and grandkids.
A major portion of my newfound funds would go into helping to stop this madness and sway politicians and corporations to take responsibility for the damage they have done.
Housing
The second area of focus would be more on a local level. A growing number of people in our city and our province live rough. There is not enough housing for everyone and a lot of the housing options that are available for under-housed people is dependent on conditions that are hard to meet.
I would put together a team of experts that help me fund and build subsidized housing as well as housing that is affordable for families and individuals on the lower spectrum of the income scale. I would be able to build housing and make it available without profiting from it.
🎶 If I had a billion dollars….🎶 What would you do?
Like you I would not want to draw attention to myself. I would want my children and grandchildren to be secure, once I am no longer with them. But I feel some struggle is important to growth. I have a couple of charities I would give to.