If you were given 500000 dollars to move away and start over, where would you go and how would you spend it? (people, raise)

[perry335654]

Take the 500,000 dollars and move to Mexico where your money would be worth 5 million with the exchange rate and purchasing power due to the cheaper cost of living.

[cpomp]

I would buy the same house in the same town.

[cpg35223]

Buy a used 38-40 ft catamaran in good shape and sail it to the Virgin Islands. That's about $200,000, fully equipped. Then I can go from place to place rather than rooted in one place.

That makes my cruising kitty about $300,000. At roughly $1,500 a month (A reasonable cruising budget that factors in replacement and maintenance) that's...umm....16 years, 8 months of cruising. I can live with that.

[Georgiafrog]

I would pay off my house, invest in local real estate, and open a microbrewery.

[415_s2k]

- pay off the remaining $8k on my S2000

- maybe buy a second car... something with more than two seats... nothing too extravagant, since $500k isn't too much these-a-days, in the grand scheme of things. I'd love a Bentley Flying Spur, but why blow 2/5ths of my newfound pile of cash on a car? I'll just say $22k for a used Mitsubishi Evo.

- back to school! I'd probably go to UCLA, or... well... I have legacy entrance to Harvard or Yale if I could grapple with moving back out East. Time to earn that business degree! (Figure $100k)

- apartment. Probably a 1-bedroom. I am but one man... sure, a gigantor penthouse would be sweet, but what's the point if I don't have the income to keep it for more than a few years? Furthermore, though buying property is neat and all... but I don't have any faith in the housing market, and would rather use that chunk of cash as capital to complete school and a springboard for making the sort of life I want when I'm done. I'm 27 and still not entirely sure where I want to end up... so really, buying a house could end up just being an anchor to me. (figure this will cost me about $50k over the course of three years).

- Really cool aquarium. I have a cool one right now, but you know... like 300 gallons, big enough for a coral reef and a stingray. Maybe a small octopus. ($1500)

- A female red-lored Amazon parrot, to keep my male red-lored Amazon parrot company. ($700)

All told, we're coming in less than $200k. That leaves me with about $300k remaining, considering that I don't go nuts and drink myself into the gutter or get kicked out due to my ribald sense of gender dynamics the first semester. I'd look into my options for investing a large portion of that *coughGOLDMANSACHScough* in the hopes I'd get some sort of return. The rest would be general expenditure money for my time in school, which considering that I managed to survive comfortably on less than $25k in Los Angeles for a couple years, shouldn't be much of an issue with my frugal nature being what it is

[MidwesternMan015]

Chicago
Buy a house for 250k
50k car
Save the rest

[losperc]

I am a South African living in the USA and if were given $500 000, I would go back home and start my own hospitality business for international visitors. I would want to use the money to create jobs for a country that is struggling economically. It will also afford me the opportunity to see family that I have not seen in years.

[CharlotteNCRepublican]

$120,000 to pay for my tuition at WVU.
$100,000 into savings
$50,000 to Chabad (Synagogue)
$230,000 buy my sister, and parents a house (we live in an apartment)

[greyhorsewoman]

Since it's 'move and start over" -- I'd move to Ecuador, buy a small farm (under $100,000) and raise alpacas.

I assume this is $500,000 AFTER taxes, otherwise, the actual spending amount would be closer to $300,000.

Personally don't understand all the responses that include spending $30-$50K on a new car. What a waste. "Driving off lot depreciation" adjustment is crazy. A nice used car under 10K would get me anywhere I have to go and more to spend on other 'toys.'

[Vlajos]

Lisbon or Crete.