You've won ten million dollars, but... (+poll!)

[DokiDokiTsuna]

• You can either spend it ONLY on yourself
• Or you can donate ALL of it to charities for needy children, animals, and climate change issues

Show results

...I saw someone else make a poll like this yesterday. And I was like...there's gotta be some smart-ass way to have your cake and eat it too when faced with a choice like this...

But...I'm too tired to think, apparently. So maybe some smart-ass on this site will have the answer.

[ar-ninetysix]

Create your own fundraising charity events with some of that money you just recieved, and use the funds from those to donate to any organizations

Easier said than done though, but with 10 million dollars?? Even if you don't know how to put it together, you can hire people who would know how to properly set everything up

[rajillustration]

Invest the 10 million into my retirement, then spend way more than that with the return on the investments towards making other charities. It's as the saying goes, you can only pull the mite out of someone elses eye if the mite is out of your own eye first, and like if I'm not completely financially stable I can't make someone else stable.

[yansusu]

You could also spend some on yourself, spend the rest on charity and if somebody asks say "Oh, that's not really for charity. I'm just doing it for my own vanity!" Who is to say you don't?

[Jenny-Toons]

Yeah, spend it on myself. A lot of the places I go to are Ma and Pa shops, and my money does directly to them. I spend my money knowing that I've still helped someone else in the process.

That and "on myself" means a whole bunch of things. If I'm spending it on a charity I trust, that is spending money on myself -- it has better my interactions with others and provided me life-long experiences and growth as a person.

Edit: This really sounds like someone who thinks spending money on others can't do something for yourself in return. You're paying it forward not just because of money (or always with money), but because you have tried to do what's best for others. That's enriching for your growth -- it increases empathy.

[GesuGesu]

Good answer, Jen.

I would spend it all on myself but start leaving HUGE tips. Or if I wanted to spend it on my own happiness, and donating makes me happy, then it should be fine?

[vothnthorvaldson]

I'll spend it on myself, but in a relatively generous way, I suppose.
The most difficult part for me about being pretty poor (not worryingly so, but 'not much extra possible' poor) is to not be able to support artists I like as much as I wish. This is true now for comics etc, but since longer, for music. I'd love to be able to support significantly some musicians, especially when it's clear they have a large potential but can't go further for financial reasons. So yes, that's how I would use the money. Go from being a micro-patron to a more significant patron. With 10 millions, one can already help significantly a good number of artists.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

The most difficult part for me about being pretty poor (not worryingly so, but 'not much extra possible' poor) is to not be able to support artists I like as much as I wish.

UGGHH YES

Back when I first started working I used to commission basically anyone in my feed who needed it, at any time...but now that I've realized just how little money I actually make and I've started budgeting more strictly, I don't get to do that anymore. :[
I really miss it...it was nice knowing that, even if no one would buy my art, I could buy someone else's and make their day instead...

[vothnthorvaldson]

Same. I was in a better place financially a few years ago, and I got the habit to do things like buying albums on bandcamp etc. way higher than the minimum price; it was very important to me because I often knew at least a little the musicians, and wanting to help them was always in the background, it was not only about having the music. Now I can't do that anymore, and I feel very bad when buying stuff at the minimum, generally ridiculously low, price. Or not buying at all.

I find it super easy to not buy things produced on a large scale, or even popular cultural items. I'm not very much of a consumer. But niche cultural items or artisanal goods, especially when I know the creators.. it's very difficult and almost like a feeling of failure for me, to not be able to support.

[HollowEve]

I would adopt all the corgis I could find and spoil them rotten. It's for me, but it's also for them.

[rmdooley]

Charity is critical to my life philosophy. That would be spending it on myself because I would be acting on what I believe I need to do to stay spiritually healthy as much similar to how I would need to invest financially in exercise and food to stay physically healthy.

So I say investing into my spiritual health and charity falls under 'spending it on myself'

[ViktorGrim]

Simple. I spend it ONLY on myself.
How do I do that when I'm buying houses and setting up businesses for friends and family?
Very simple....
No only does it make me happy, it makes them owe me.
Giving to charity decreases my taxes.
In the end, the purpose is self serving.It all furthers my own power and influence.

[Karmillina]

I'd spend it only on myself! Who says that I can't support others if it somehow benefits me? Art, small businesses... Besides, there are so many things I'd love to use the money on. If I won it but it all is for someone else, I didn't technically win it, did I?

[Darth_Biomech]

I'll spend it on myself. Not afraid to admit that I'm selfish, but this amount of money will sustain me for approximately 677 years if I use it as a timed monthly source of limited income, which means I won't need to work, which means I will have time and ability to do my projects and to help other people for free with no strings attached.

[azzy-m]

Call me altruistic but I'd probably donate it all to charity. Or create a charity organization and use that to donate money. Is that cheating? I feel like it's cheating. I feel like I'd be corrupted by having that much money, lmao.

[nostalgicroxas]

I'd use what I need and donate the rest to things important to me. If that happens to include certain charities, so be it!

[LordVincent]

Hate to be that guy, but a one-time donation of ten million, while generous, makes little difference on a larger scale.

I'd invest the money in building and marketing a business that could deliver me money on a regular basis, long term.

Then I would put some of the profits towards the charities of my choice.

[AVXP]

Why is this question so hard to answer?
We're supposed to be creatives, right?
Great imaginations and the ability to think outside and inside the box?
Two choices. That's it.
One or the other.

How about we put our brains to work.
There's a council and accountant watching your every move.
If you pick one choice and do ANYTHING that constitutes the other, they take all the money back and throw you in prison.
Sheeesh.

If that's too hard to adsorb, think about the SPIRIT of the choices.
Are you more about yourself or humanity?

I would give it all to the charity of AVXP.
And if I did anything to benefit the world, it would be through my stellar example of a life-lived-well, the great many works created and an inspiration for all that see what I do and become.

lol, not lol.