Asklemmy

I was going to say a house by the sea… but it probably wouldn’t be my first purchase. Instead it would likely be:

1. Pizzas
2. A salad
3. Booze
4. A video game
5. Clear my own debts, while also setting aside money for friends and family’s debt.

I'm enjoying this mostly because of how many people are reading it as $500,000.

Well, first of all, I'd throw half of it into that project trying to create open source insulin.

After that: co-ops, co-ops, co-ops, and more co-ops! And some random open source / decentralized projects as well.

A new laptop and that's it. No need to make dramatic changes in my life, I'll keep the rest of the money stashed so I can live comfortably and not have to worry about financial troubles.

Don't. Tell. A soul. I can't deposit the money for obvious reasons, so there isn't much I can do. I could try money laundering.

Assuming it goes straight to a bank, and my security isn't an issue, I'm giving away 300m away to charity, environmental research, and family. I'll get someone to help me invest my money, because I know nothing, and use it to kick start a business or YouTube channel.

Sorry, can't really tell you 5 specific purchases I'd make with it.

$500,000,000? I would probably donate like 475m at least cause I'm not a fucking monster that would hoard the level of wealth. Then live more than comfortably off the money you get for having money until I die and pass that fountain of youth on to another family member.

Half a billion? Put down a deposit on a house for my kid. He's turning 17, he might be able to pay it off in his lifetime.

:cries in Australian:

First I'd buy my own house from the bank. Next I'd buy each of my neighbor's houses going out three or four blocks and gift them to them, with the option to stay or move at any time in the future and sell them back to me at market rate. If they sell it back to me, take the cash and move, I put the property up for sale to the lowest bidder - ie, I would offer them to local families who needed it most, selling them for literally pennies.

I would then start gifting large amounts to local schools, with the rider that it has to go towards increasing salaries for all existing staff first, followed by creating a floating fund for supplies and meals so that no teacher or family in need ever had to buy them out of their own pocket.

After all that I'd start commissioning giant bronze statues of my favorite fictional characters and plopping them down on undeveloped land in the area, then building parks around them.

Near one of these parks I'd build a great big classically-styled movie theater that plays classic films for three bucks a ticket. Operating costs would be paid for from a fund set up to keep the place open and running indefinitely, with all ticket sales to go to local charities.

200k in a high interest savings account. 100k in stocks and shares. 200k into a property

Lots of different stock so I can be a proper capitalist living from passive income.

Then see how much of an income that is and adjust lifestyle.

A house or nice apartment in this town. Private school for kids. Great bicycles. Still no car. BahnCard 100 for every family member.

Reinvest and donate the rest.

Retirement accounts for myself and people close to me so we can live off the interest. Then probably a bigger house and a bunch of old cars

1. Surgery, fixing my phisical disability with the best doctor money can pay.
2. Instruction, get the most forward education to be sure my future is safe even without money.
3. Buying house, investing in a second as well.
4. Hire someone to make that money a machine to keep earning more.
5. Take a luxury trip around the world for some years.

First five? I'd blow all I'd spend in one. A small farm. The rest would be saved.

I know I'll never realize that dream, but it's the only one I have left.

I'd probably dump most of it into open source or fediverse projects I thought were cool.

I don't need anywhere near that amount to fund my own existence tbh.

Let's see. Kinda lame, but I will go get me some hardware. I want to get into self hosting and woth that much money, I'm going to order a high-end Synology NAS, but first I'll buy a house for my parents to live in (so I will have that hpuse as the postage address, duh), and set aside enough money to cover all of my living expenses at University plus some extra. Look through my options for starting a business or investing them, and if a business seems like too much work, I'll get a relatively small investment portfolio of about 50 Million, to cover all of my living expenses for life, which at a stable 3% annual dividend would get me about 1.5 Million p/a or just over 100k monthly. Of the rest, I'm leaving 225 Million for myself to try creating some businesses, invest in companies, organisations and projects that require it (1 million to the GNOME Foundation, 1 Million to KDE, 1 Million to XFCE, 5 Million to the team behind Cinnamon and Linux Mint, 1 Million to the Elementary OS team, 1 Million to the Nix and NixOS Project(s), 5 Million to Debian and 5 Million to Arch).
That leaves me with 205 Million of which I would like to use 5 Million to try out some businesses, see if anything works out, 100 Million to invest in making the Best Linux distribution for New users under a Company, with these resources giving me the ability to make something truly great, and to market it, to rival Microsoft, and to get Linix on the desktop to where it really needs to be, both for home users and enterprise users. That leaves me with 100 Million which, after all of these projects, I should hopefully be aware how to use to become a Venture Capitalist, but not for some profit-driven companies, but rather companies which respect a user's privacy and right to repair. Now, If you did the Math, you might have realised I still have about 225 million left. Of these 25 Million to my parents, to do with them as they wish (likely invest them and retire immediately) and 200 million for various environmental causes, because we really are killing the planet.

To actually answer the question:

Actual Purchases:

Synology NAS

Other Hardware, such as:

An M2 Mac Mini for its power efficiency,

A Framework Laptop for its modularity,

A High End System76 Laptop, to support an awesome company

A bunch of Raspberry Pies (the SBC not the food)

Some actual servers

Non-Hardware:

A house

An investment portfolio

Maybe a company

A lot of donations

i mean uhhh, id buy an island so all my friends can live together happily and whatever money is left id make non profits to fight global injustices

A new house for my aging parents with no stairs.

New car for the wife. Something flashy and fun that she would never buy for herself since the Toyota probably won't die for at least another 10 years.

Probably pay off the condo. Maybe do some upgrades.

Travel with my wife somewhere for a 2 week long vacation.

Throw the rest in savings.

Buy Reddit and Remove the Powers of Mod.

1. Pay off current debts (est. 350,000 with my mortgage)
2. Build an elaborate gothic/victorian mystery mansion with hidden passages and various other secrets in a remote mountain location overlooking a small town (Budget 5-10 mil)
3. Setup accounts for managing my remaining funds for investing for return, various investments in small companies I personally like, donating to charity, and for living off of. All of these account should be setup in such a way that they can persist after my death without a defined next-of-kin (not really a purchase but I'm still spending money so w/e)
4. Continue to exist for a while, then hire a professional assassin to kill me in a very particular way I will have detailed ahead of time (est. Idk however the fuck much assassins cost)
5. The person who is able to piece together the clues I left behind in the wake of my murder will inherit my fortune. (note: this does not necessarily mean "solve my murder". I suicided by assassin, that'd be a boring answer.)

As for the "why", the only answer I can give you is because I would find it fucking hilarious

1. My own island
2. Engine swap, lift kit and two sets of new wheels for my truck

I don't know what else. Tools, building supplies.. maybe a backhoe. I basically already own everything I want.

1. Bitcoin

There is no second best