If I gave you $1 million in cash to spend in 1 hour, after which the money will disappear, what would you buy? (discuss.ntfy.sh)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by binwiederhier@discuss.ntfy.sh to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I have asked this question to countless people (mostly in hair salons) as an alternative to small talk, and it always yields interesting results.

Rules:

You get the money right now, right where you are. If it's 10pm and you're in the middle of nowhere, your money will still go poof at 11pm.
As a result of the above, tell us what time it is and roughly where you are (big city, desert, small town, ...)
You must spend the money. You cannot give it to someone to hold on to it for you for a while.
Normal world rules apply, e.g. you cannot buy a $250k car at a dealership in 1h in cash, and you cannot buy a house in 1h either.
Remember that getting from where you are to the place you need to go takes time. Factor that in!

Edit: I'm glad you guys had fun with this one. Feel free to post similar hypothetical questions. I kinda like these.

Edit edit: Free advertising 😅 --> I run and maintain an open source push notification service called ntfy, which let's you send notifications to your phone via PUT/POST, like curl -d "backup successful" ntfy.sh/mytopic. Go check it out.

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[-] boomaDooma@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

I would buy four tickets on a mini-sub tour of the Titanic and give them to 4 billionaires.

[-] cosmicsploogedrizzle@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Go to the nearest jewelry store and buy everything in it. Wait an hour, return it as per the refund policy. If there is no refund policy then I would sell it off. Even if I lost 50% on the sell back, that's still half a mil in cash.

Most popular jewelers have at least a 30 day refund policy.

[-] binwiederhier@discuss.ntfy.sh 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

This has been my go to answer if the hair stylist asked what I'd do. I'd go to different jewlery stores, because they'd still call the cops if you wanna buy stuff for a million.

(I forgot to add the "no returning items" rule; but since you added the "selling it off" part I think it's fine, hehe)

[-] dewritoninja@pawb.social 1 points 2 years ago

Quito Ecuador at 8:30pm on a Sunday night. Nothing other than small cornerstores and liquor shops are open. So I guess I'll buy as much liquor as I can to resell later.

[-] Milk@latte.isnot.coffee 1 points 2 years ago

Cheap Answer: Go to my nearest Walmart/Grocery Store (10 minutes away from me)and max out all of the vanilla visa debit cards with the $1 million but after fees it won’t be $1 million but I would still spend the million.

Actual Answer: Luckily I’m in a prime spot where I live that I’m 20 minutes away from Lamborghini, Aston Martin, and other luxury car dealerships. So I’d go there and purchase how many cars I can with the million. After I sign, sell them back to the dealership or sell them privately.

[-] csolisr@communities.azkware.net 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Considering I won't be able to actually get it into the bank account on time because of KYC, the best thing I can do is to purchase the closest convenience store that is next to my house - I don't think the dude will reject a transaction in cash

[-] lazylion_ca@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Alberta Canada. 2 pm.

I'd buy a house. Normally that's takes a lot of time but as long as I hand off the money to the realtor I should be good. I don't actually want a million dollar house, and definitely don't want to pay the property taxes on it. But I can resell it later and keep the money this time.

[-] DrTeeth@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I'm in Switzerland, so I buy a leisurely coffee and croissant. With the change I buy a bottle of water.

[-] sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago

With the change I buy a bottle of water.

What change? You took out a loan to get the croissant.

[-] ramius345@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago

1 million in index funds which I will reinvest later.

[-] SpliceVW@vlemmy.net 2 points 2 years ago

The post specified cash. How would you purchase $1m in index funds with cash in an hour?

[-] NattyNatty2x4@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

Bring it to my bank, deposit, then purchase online.

Though I'd leave it in my index fund, on average they perform better than actively managed accounts

[-] towerful@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

I think getting to a bank, explaining where 1M in cash came from, getting them to accept the deposit, getting them to count it, then spending it in less than an hour is not feasible.

Because, depositing it in a bank is not enough.
It has to be spent.
So, if you don't spend it then the bank is left without however much disappears... If that makes sense.

And, given that, I don't think investing is a suitable application.
Otherwise, just invest it directly at the bank.
Maybe you don't get inflation-beating interest (ie, if it was your 1M you would be losing money), but after whatever-term you get 1M of clean money to spend.

[-] 7heo@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

expired

[-] pogister@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago

8pm here. I'd buy a house using some house buying mobile app. I'd probably sell it afterwards when the time is right and add the money to my investments.

[-] sproink@feddit.de 1 points 2 years ago

Can you pay in cash on "some house buying mobile app"?

[-] Jfqs6m@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

Buying some type of investment property was my first idea too, but this raises a good point. If the original question was that you had one hour for the funds to actually clear before they are taken away then I don't think buying a house would be an option.

[-] Steve@compuverse.uk 0 points 2 years ago

I'd buy a $1M hug from someone I'm very close to. Then offer them a $500K hug.

It doesn't break rule 3 as written.

[-] JargonWagon@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago

I was thinking the same thing, but buying something tangible off my wife. Money is ours lol

[-] 0b00101010@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

My concern with this is that the post says that the cash disappears after the hour, not that any unspent cash disappears. So whoever you give the cash too loses it too.

this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023

2 points (75.0% liked)

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