This post is inspired by and in reply to this Bitches get riches post. If you haven't read anything by them then I can highly recommend them.
The idea is that rather than asking what would you do if you had infinite money you increase it by a factor of ten. People have a hard time visualizing infinite and by breaking it up it gets more manageable and can show your priorities.
I remember the question being what would you do if you had a million kronor I remember us saying gall kinds of things castle and jets. Only later realizing that one million is not actually infinite money and it will maybe buy you a house.
1
Meh, nothing put it in a pocket and forget about it.
10
Still nothing really put it in my wallet and forget about it then buy something the next time I'm at one of those weird stores that only accept cash. They are few and far between but still exist and causes trouble every time. Alternatively I put it in my pepper cash purse for the day solar storms crash the internet. I'm a very inconsistent pepper.
It is interesting how I'm clearly assuming its physical money we are talking about.
100
Well, there's a bookshelf I've been meaning to buy next month as part of my aim to make a nicer workstation for myself.
1000
No idea invest it probably, buying a dishwasher. A tiny one that fits on my counter. This is a bit of an odd number of money too big for most things I regularly buy but not enough for any of the big things life changing stuff.
10 000
My plan for the next two years is to take time of work to study and get a masters degree, this would go to pay of general expenses during the years without a salary. At least I wouldn't need to take as much from my savings.
100 000
This would pay for probably half an apartment in the area I want to live. When I moved last year it was with the plan to only stay here for a year or two mostly to find out if I like the city or the area. I have decided that I do, the area at least. The apartment has some issues mostly that it's on the fourth floor with no elevator and it has bad insulation. But I like the area and has decided to keep living here though maybe a street or two closer to the city center. In this case it would be more permanent and I plan to buy the apartment.
1 000 000
Mostly that same but probably a nicer apartment or maybe one of those cute little houses that sometimes exist in cities (I think my cats would appreciate having a small walled in garden). Anything that's left I would invest allowing me to start working part time or full on retire to focus on my writing.
10 000 000
This is where it gets difficult and as an aspiring FIRE this is something that I've thought a lot about. At this point I could quit work and spend my days reading and writing. I could do that in the earlier stage too if I went for a less expensive house. While I do want more free time I don't know if I want to quit work. I worry that I would spend too much time at home alone never meeting anyone and generally getting isolated. But part time sounds good, maybe study something just for the fun of it (not as a strategy for career advancement). But as I said I could do that at 1 million dollars as well. That's the nice thing with fire knowing exactly how much you actually need.
Thoughts
Most of these are things I already plan to buy or do. The bookshelf purchase it slated for august. The apartment for two years from now. I like to plan things out to the extreme and a sudden windfall would only speed up those plans, not fundamentally change them. A factor might be that apart from the last one they are all sums of money that I already have or that I will conceivably get in some years if I want it so I have spent some time planning this.
