Would you retire today if you won $5 million dollars?

[GTR-guy]

I think building a race track would cost more than 5 million dollars!
Anyways, if I had that much money, I would sell the business do some travelling and buy a nice place in Canada. I wouldn't bother with working, or if I am really bored have some kind of casual home based business!

[TheyKilledKenny]

Id keep working for a bit just to see the looks on the faces. Id like to hear stuff like "that guy's worth 5 million, WTF is he doing here". It would make me LOL. Then Id quit after it grew old. Id invest in property, precious metals, and maybe some higher risk markets like China, India or Brazil because Ive already played it safe with the first two major investments. Id probably move to a country where I could live like a king on the cheap like Thailand or the Philippines, and wake up next to beautiful women with a smile on my face. Cars? who needs cars? If my investments pan out Ill be flying my helicopter.

[falcon]

I would not "work" but I would stay busy with personal investments/real estate and other things. But a typical "job," no.

[collector240sx]

hum, I guess I'm going to be the weird one.

I would actually buy some farm land in Brazil, (agricultural investment 1.5 mil), 1.5 million has partial investor in one of the many wind farm project again probably in Brazil (their government is really strong on alternative energy ever since the energy crisis that happened in the '70.) I would use the 1 mill to open 3-5 small business (to counter the variation of having seasonal business) that I would slowly grow. Try to keep at least 500k in cash or investment I could easily cash, for emergency.

And build myself a plan to live off 500K for at least the next 5 years. All money I would earn in the first 5 years would be reinvested in the business for either growth or acquisition. Then after 5 years I should start getting some profit from the investment in agriculture and wind farm. If everything is going good, then I would start to share some of the profit with my family.

P.S. To be honest my answer to this question would have been quite different 5-10 years ago, but with what is happening in the United State right now, I can't see them being able to continue borrowing the way they are for much longer. While back in the days I would have been a heavy investor in stocks, commodities, etc... Right now I just can't see myself doing that. That's why I would have my main invest in infrastructure, and agricultural, with low dependance on oil. Every one need foods and I don't anticipate demand for electricity to go down soon.

P.S.S. Living off the interest is nice, but you have to take into consideration how long you intend on doing it, and inflation rate present and future. If you live off the interest at today's rate unfortunately depending on your investment you might be surprise by how little you might be making (probably close to current inflation for really safe rate of return). But you must also take into consideration that 5 mill now is not going to be worth nearly has much in 50 years.

[CanadianGTR]

I remember some investor saying that unless you're earning >12% (might have been higher) you're losing money once you account for taxes, inflation, the time value of money, etc.

[knate]

I'd be broke in two or three years.... Why? Because race cars lol

[Dragon Humper]

5 million is a no brainer, hells yea I would quit my job. I envy those people who say that they would continue working at their current job afterwards. I have never had a job that (I've had 11 in my life) I liked that much.

Only two million is a tough one (not as much as it was 20 years ago, when I was 20....lol), that would be a little tight after I payed off all my debts to live for the rest of my life off the rest. 5 mil though, I can make that last at least 40 years and still leave my kids a couple of mil.


Jon.

[Tony-R32]

Investing in property like many have been saying is iffy to me...it's been hot for too long, what goes up must come down. and living off interest isn't full proof as you get taxed quite a bit on that gain.

I'd honestly probably keep working my job now, I like what I do.

I'd buy a nice house for myself and build a wicked garage, buy my mom a house, pass on some generosity to my closest friends and family members.

Only difference to winning 5 mil, is that in my free time, i'd get to enjoy my free time that much more. Living a normal life with 3-4 mil left in the bank would be a blast, working hard during the week would give you that much more appreciation to the added comfort in your life away from work.

My salary would help to replenish any frivolous money being spent, and in my opinion working for your money is more rewarding than sitting back and watching investments move up and down.

[louis110]

A lot of generous people here! Seems like the majority would still work to keep busy and maintain lifestyle.

I would definitely keep working to keep busy and fulfill personal goals. Also bringing in a salary on top of a lottery winning would allow me to live extremely comfortably. I'd share the money with my family, pay off all my school/car loans, buy a nice place to live wherever I'm posted while keeping a residence in Toronto, invest some of it in high gain mutual funds/rrsps, and get a few toys (i.e. couple of cars, a sport bike, a plane, etc.).

Dreaming is nice isn't it?

[Xeno-Vibe]

If i had a job, I wouldn't quit. lol.. Maybe i'd buy a job? :|
I'd invest in my own business, make more money, have my own shop. I got lots of unrealistic car projects i'd like to begin.

[Snake556]

I'd GTFO outta my current job, but I'd definitely get another. Whether it's something to just keep me busy or to continue to pile a little on top of that interest. Give some to closest family and 1-2 friends. Invest, buy a few cars, new house, kick back, and enjoy. I'd probably end up starting the business my friend and I have been thinking of as well

[Terrh]

Well I don't work now so I guess yes?

I'd finish school and then go do racecars till I ran out of money.

[GTR-Dad]

I like my job, so I wouldn't change a thing.

This is a cool question though as it prompts long term thinking.

What does retirement look like for me? My best thinking is that retirement means choosing your activities without concern for the income those activities will generate. (You still need to pay attention to the cost side of the equation, but you've got a bunch more freedom than you had before.) For me, I need to be meaningfully engaged in something that matters. The definition of what matters may change over the years, but I could never sit around doing nothing more than amusing myself. Even 'race car' would grow old I'm afraid.

A variation on this question is:
If you could write your own lottery ticket win, how much money would you want, and (wait for it...) why?

Dan

[newalliance123]

My roommate won the lottery 4 years ago. The best thing that came of it was being around the hottest girls in Vancouver.

[cortexx]

I know it sounds alot but 5 million is not a whole lot of cash , the investments available for this level will not really give you a return big enough to maintain the same standard of living for the rest of your life without dipping into the capital.

There is alot of uncertainty in the markets , the housing market in my opinion is going to burst sooner or later . We are approaching a condition where unless you already have a foot on the housing ladder - you'll not get the chance because of the average salary vs the cost of a house . Once this happens the market gets constipated and we all know what happens with constipation in the end.

Gold and especially silver are the best places to invest atm , i watch these markets daily and considering the amount of quantitive easing (print more cash without the backing of gold to value it) that has been going on we are in my opinion on the brink of a long period of increased inflation - as many have stated 5 mil will be worth only afraction in 10 years of what it is today.

The gold and silver markets have been deliberately kept undervalued for reasons i'm not going to elaborate on here but it can't be held down forever. Buying gold and silver bullion now ( bullion NOT certificates that the bank will tell you are the same but NOT ), will ensure your fortune keeps it's VALUE .

Silver value itself is going to rise exponentially in the near future as the consuption of it in industry is totally outstripping supplies and most silver is not directly mined for , it's a byproduct of mining for gold and other metals. SIlver is constantly used in a way that it cannot be reclaimed during it's usage.

Gold is the only REAL currency there is , it will undoubtably continue to increase in dollar amount (notice i dont say value) for a long while. Buying these metals insures you don't get stripped of your Wealth (notice i dont say cash) over the long run.

This is why executive order 6102 was instituted by Franklin Roosevelt back in the 1930's when people started hoarding gold to protect their assets and their financial future when currency could no longer be a good store of wealth. They stripped the population of it's wealth to stimulate the stale economy.

China's Currency is another big potential rightnow because the chinese government deliberatly keep it under valued . It is not allowed to rise or drop more than 1 percent (might not be completely accurate on the real percentage atm) on the stock markets and only a certain amount of it is allowed to be held by foreign investors. Once the chinese reverse this look out for an incredibly quick increase in the value of this currency . Most foreign investors already know this and are waiting for the moment to buy it and maybe double or triple their initial investment.

The US is totally screwed to be quite blunt , the Federal reserve that is mostly owned buy a cartel of Europeon bankers is totally screwing the US citizen. The goverment has totally lost power and no longer has the resources to fix this. It's a fact that if every single US citizen that gets a pay cheque paid at ALL in taxes , it would not cover the national debts interest on a daily basis - how the heck do they get out of that ? they don't!

Eventually the US government WILL run out of cash because they cannot continue to raise the debt ceiling any higher and print more cash , one day in the near future the government will not be able to pay :-- pensions , social security cheques , the military , the civil servants , the governments own officials , the foreign creditors etc and when this happens expect a complete collapse of the banking network , total closure meaning suddenly no access to personal accounts , useless credit and debit cards not being able to be used , a population in need of food and armed to the teeth . Can yo smell bloody revolution and Anarchy ?

It seems unrealistic that the american dream will fall so hard and most people cannot grasp exactly how severe things will be . Martial law will attempt to remove the publics right to bear arms to reduce immediate threat of this and those who resist will end up in the FEMA camps that the US government has been feverishly building for the last decade .

As i have just gone severely off topic ill leave it at that and go make a tea - if your want to know the details of the above - go google "who owns the federal reserve " and "fema camps " and then you'll realise that 5 million dollars today won't be worth the paper it's written on tommorrow !