If You Received $100 Million Dollars, What Would You Do With Your Life?

A Life-Changing Sum of Money

The thought of receiving $100 million, or even $10 million, is such an exciting thought to most of us because of how much it could change our lives. No matter who you are, almost all of us want a lot of money, or at least more money than we already have because of the changes we could make with it.

Think about what you would do if tomorrow $100 million appeared in your bank account. If $100 million seems to grandiose to you then how about $10 million, or even $1 million.

Would you buy a house? Pay off all of your debt? Quit your job and travel the world? I’m sure you would want to help out those in your family who had bills to pay or debts to take care of as well.

When proposed with the idea of a large sum of money coming into our lives, most of us immediately think of how we could do one or two things:

• Alleviate the financial problems for ourselves and our loved ones (debt, bills, education costs)
• Buy all of the stuff we never thought we could afford, such as houses, cars and fancy trips

 

I’ve started to really enjoy asking people this question and hear their answers. Though almost everyone’s answer is different, most people still fall into one of the two categories I’ve mentioned above. And it makes sense because these are the things that we normally think about. They are the reasons that we get up and go to work everyday, even if you are the type of person who enjoys their job. You might enjoy your work, but if you suddenly came upon such a windfall as $100 million, my guess is you still wouldn’t be going to your 9-5.

Unfortunately since the reality of having so much money coming into our lives is such an unrealistic thought to most people, few of us have ever truly wondered about what we would do with it. So now let me challenge you a bit…

If you received $100 million tomorrow, what would you do 6 months from now?

After you take care of family, friends and buy the fancy toys, because those would likely be taken care of in the first few weeks, what would you do with your life?

 

A Common Question With A Difficult Answer

Like I said before, I’ve started to really enjoy asking people about this scenario and hearing their answers. However, what’s very common is that once I push people to think about what they would do 6 months from now, most people don’t really have a great answer.

Most people have quick answers for what they would buy and how they would use the money to help their loved ones, but no one really has an answer for how they would spend their days after coming into such a large sum of money.

The answer to how we would spend our lives once money is no longer an issue is difficult because most of us haven’t really thought about it. We’re concerned on a daily basis about trying to get money to buy a house, pay off debt and upgrade our lifestyles. Maybe we really want to start that business or become financially independent, but that still is an end goal, which would be taken care of (or made much easier) by a $100 million windfall.

So I employ you, my free-thinking and curious readers, how would you go about spending your days once money was no longer an issue? Think long and hard about it.

I’ll give you my answer here as some inspiration:

Living on the beach in a warm climate, I would spend my days by waking up early, doing some sort of exercise or physical activity, working on investing money or building businesses related to my passions in renewable energy and health/wellness, and then finishing the day by spending time with family and friends.

It’s a bit of a short answer, but you get the idea. Nothing about my answer has to do with spending money or buying things (besides my sweet beach house in Southern California), because 6 months after receiving $100 million, I would have bought everything I desired and helped out all of my loved ones who needed it. The most important thing that financial independence would give me is the freedom to spend my time as I please.

So now if you have an answer to this question, you may be thinking what good is it to think about this? Because I don’t have $100 million!

 

You Don’t Need $100 Million To Start

The good news here is that you don’t need a huge sum of money to get started on your dream lifestyle. Yes, we may not be able to buy a big house or pay off all debts, but you can make small steps to direct your energy to living a life of meaning. In many scenarios, the life you would be living on a daily basis wouldn’t require a lot of money. It would probably involve some work, play and spending time with family and friends.

Here are a few things you can do to start living your dream life today:

• Pursue the work you would if you had the money. Whether it be writing a book, starting your own business or working for a non-profit, you can do these things without a lot of money. Write in the evenings after work, launch your own business on the side of your day job or volunteer at that non-profit on the weekend. It doesn’t need to be perfect to start, but you do need to start to make it perfect.
• Spend more time with family and friends. We’re all busy on a daily basis, but set aside more of your precious free time to spend with family and friends. Strong relationships make life worthwhile.
• Have fun! You don’t need millions to have a good time. Set aside time to enjoy life!

 

Often times the idea of millions of dollars can be an excuse for us to not pursue our best life today. We say “I’ll be happy when…” or “I’ll do that when I have more money…”, but this is nothing more than an excuse we tell ourselves so that we don’t have to take the risks and put in the work to live our dream life today.

So go out there and live like a millionaire in your mind!

Question: What would you do if you received $100 million dollars? Is there any way you could do those things without the money?

Leave a comment or send me an email!

 

Subscribe with your email and check out my Free 5-Day Money Course!

Check out my tools for tracking your spending, learning to invest or many others!