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Ask HN: You've got a million dollars. What do you do?

by sssilver on 12/8/24, 5:46 PM with 15 comments

You're an ordinary 40 year old software engineer in a major US city, making six figures by writing code that you know creates more problems than it solves. Your performance reviews read like a predictable template of strengths and weaknesses, delivered by an Engineering Manager who insists your company will revolutionize the way the world does X and oh how he misses writing code. You don’t buy any of it. Honestly, you’re hoping — for his own sake — that neither does he. You remember that programming used to be all the fun, but you don’t remember how that transformed into this. It doesn’t matter. You really need the six figures. It doesn’t even cross your mind to change the company — you’ve had enough jobs at this point to know they are all, in a nutshell, more of the same.

You live in a cookie-cutter house in a good suburban neighborhood with a child and a loving wife. Between your mortgage, two cars, restaurants, and some hobbies, your total cost of living is about $12,000/mo. During weekdays you build shareholder value. During weekends, holidays, and “unlimited vacation”, you enjoy life.

You’re cleaning out your email inbox on a Sunday afternoon and stumble upon an old confirmation for a cryptocurrency purchase from years ago. You barely remember buying it, but out of curiosity, you log into the account. To your shock, the balance has ballooned to over a million dollars — $1,157,329.

What do you do?

Asking for a friend.

  • by iwanttocomment on 12/8/24, 8:13 PM

    As ridiculous as this comment will sound, a million dollars for a 40 year old with a family is not a lot of money these days. "Oh hell yeah, I've got a million in fungible assets" honestly doesn't mean much when it comes to ensuring your future. Yeah, yeah, you could buy a Lambo in cash, and many of us here on HN could... and we don't. Do you have a pension? No? That money is there to help you in the future, not in the present.

    1. Cash it in.

    2. Pay the taxes.

    3. Pay off any high interest rate debt, like credit cards or home equity loans.

    4. Put money in a college fund for your child.

    5. Move where you want, hopefully with a lower cost of living. Then, do what you want you like for money. Feel free to take breaks, but keep things moving. (Note: you do not have enough to properly retire in the US unless there's more in your investment funds that you're not telling us about.)

    6. Put the rest in index funds, target funds, and other real estate investments.

    7. Live quietly and calmly.

    That is all.

  • by DamnYuppie on 12/8/24, 6:01 PM

    Depends on what their financial picture looks like and how they feel about debt.

    If it was me I would do the following. 1) Pay off all consumer debt, cars, credit cards, personal loans, etc. 2) I would set aside at least 50% of what is left for long term savings 3) Depending on where you are in child's college savings I would put some money there maybe like $50k and let compounding interest do its thing 4) I would create a Toys and Play fund (aka TAP fund) say $100-$150k, this is for vacations and toys. Invest this money and every few years take out some of the gains for a really nice vacation or toys.

    Anything left I would personally put towards the mortgage but that is because I HATE debt, not everyone feels the same though.

    I will say this, that TAP fund can really be AMAZING for enjoying life. I don't know of anyone but me how has one as I started one by accident many years ago and it pays for all my vacations and cars now. Give it a few years to get going and you will be able to have several amazing vacations a year. One benefit of this fund is that it is setup specifically to ENJOY life. I now have zero guilt spending the gains in that fund. Some people are great at savings and become bad at spending/enjoying. I am one of those people. Having this fund removes all guilt, hesitation, or family friction when it comes to buying hobby items or nice vacations.

  • by toomuchtodo on 12/8/24, 5:53 PM

    Tell no one. Liquidate, diversify (VTI, VXUS, BND), coast and do what makes you happy. Congrats on the freedom. You can’t afford to do nothing, but you can afford to do something that pays less, or gives you more flexibility.

    More info: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Managing_a_windfall

  • by bigfatkitten on 12/8/24, 8:59 PM

    More like $750,000 after the tax man takes his cut.

    Pay off my mortgage, redo my mid-1980s kitchen, DCA the rest into an index fund and then go back to work copying and pasting YAML files (they call this "infrastucture" nowadays.)

  • by fuzzfactor on 12/8/24, 6:53 PM

    It's the worthwhile actions that are probably what means the most.

    I'd keep doing what I'm already doing, gradually ramping up the most worthwhile stuff in an accelerated way.

    And gradually decelerating the less worthwhile actions.

    Just because life-changing money comes your way unexpectedly overnight, doesn't mean you have to change your life overnight, or at all really.

  • by Kon-Peki on 12/8/24, 10:19 PM

    The answer is completely obvious. Give your kid the thing they want the most: a sibling.

  • by chistev on 12/8/24, 5:53 PM

    Wow, that's oddly specific.

    I'd send this user a thousand dollars for commenting under my post. Lol.

    I'd quit my job. My dream is to not work a 9-5, to have freedom to live my life under my own terms. A million dollars gives me that.

  • by theLegionWithin on 12/8/24, 5:57 PM

    withdraw it all immediately.

    invest in cheap land somewhere warm, build/renovate housing, hire local property management and rent it out. the million & change will go a lot further if you do this internationally (Thailand, Belize, Kenya, etc).

    now you have somewhere to retire & it will make money until you do.

  • by sexyman48 on 12/8/24, 6:37 PM

    No matter how often you ask this, the answer is always the same. Two chicks at the same time.

  • by abstractspoon on 12/9/24, 12:35 AM

    Invest it and finance a fleet of soup kitchens for the homeless

  • by solardev on 12/8/24, 6:53 PM

    Donate some to a local homeless shelter or food bank

  • by GuestFAUniverse on 12/8/24, 6:22 PM

    Retire