If you had all the money you'd ever need, how would you spend your time?

[heids]

I feel like this question gives a lot of insight into what matters to you, what you want to achieve in life, what you love, and what sorts of careers actually interest you when money doesn't come into the picture.  So I'm really curious to hear everyone else's (honest) answers!  They can be as corny/heroic or as 'selfish' as you genuinely feel; there's no right or wrong.

I'm giving it two loose categories: career-related (working/volunteering/studying), and leisure (hobbies/travelling/other).

My ideals

Career-related:
- In the mental health field, e.g. running peer recovery groups, counselling, psych nursing, writing about mental health
- Make AN forums more useful/supportive
- Studying philosophy, psychology, linguistics and marketing

Leisure-related:
- Reading anything and everything
- Random acts of kindness (e.g. writing nice notes for strangers, decorating cards and sending them to lonely people, etc. - it's fun as!)
- Bushwalking
- Playing games related to strategy or words (e.g. Scrabble, Boggle, chess, and so on )
- D&Ms with friends

[Joseph41]

Writing ATAR Notes posts.

[sweetiepi]

Either reading books or y'know spend 24/7 here

[BigAl]

I really envy those who hop on a motorcycle and travel around the world.

If I had all the money I needed I'd hop on a motorcycle and ride through where I've never been before

[HasibA]

furiously donate every minute of my time to giving to as many charities as i can
why?
because letting 'my life go' for millions of others seems like something id be proud to do, regardless if i never enjoy other nice things etc. like a big house/car etc.
:3
#Altruism

but realistically, probs invest in housing LOL idk i like houses hahahaha

[elysepopplewell]

I'd definitely be somewhere in a Lavender field in Provence, typing on my laptop the greatest stories of the world. That's Monday-Thursday. Friday-Sunday would be in a teeny tiny little book shop in Italy, next to a pastry shop, writing on ATAR Notes. That's nice.

[Coffee]

- Reading anything and everything

I second this.

Definitely I would spend a great deal of time travelling since that has always been a dream of mine. I'm also planning to eventually move to the UK, so that too.

Study-wise, I'd love to pursue a PhD, so having infinite money would certainly be useful.

I would definitely spend A LOT. I love shopping. But coming from a disadvantaged financial background, I would also share that amount of cash with my mum who has worked incredibly hard in a menial job just to support us. I would want to relieve that financial stress and I think that's important.

Eventually I think the novelty of having infinite cash would wear off and I would want to do something productive. So, donating, definitely. I'm sure there's more but off the top of my head I would probably donate to the Malala Fund because I'm a huge advocate for girl's education and also something health-related: cancer research or something similar.

[RuiAce]

This is a bit too unimaginable for me, because this is implying that I'd have all the money I'd need to spend on gaming and that's just not possible. It also implies that whilst I may have done some maths for the hell of it, I'd ultimately still be a gamer

[elysepopplewell]

$1 billion - I wouldn't know what to do with myself. Too much money. Maybe run for president.

Apparently you only need a "small loan of a million dollars" 

[Joseph41]

Writing ATAR Notes posts.

But to answer betterly:

I guess I'd want to combine a few passions somehow. I'm very interested in language, education, writing, mental health, design and sport - does anybody have a job that combines all of those? Haha.

I'd be pretty stoked to travel around with the Australian cricket team in the summer and the Melbourne Football Club in the winter and just, I don't know, write articles and shit. I'd also enjoy keeping statistics (particularly obscure ones). I've always really loved statistics, and it's no surprise (now that I think about it) that I'm super interested in corpus linguistics.

But then I'd also want to be in education or mental health somehow hahaha. I guess I'd do something along those lines in my spare time (or maybe have this as the primary job and the above in my spare time - that probably works out better).

[strawberries]

I'd be really selfish unfortunately.
To be honest, I don't really think you can ever have "too much money" or all the money you need, so even if I did have all the money I needed, I would probably
Save it or invest it
Start a successful business
Travel the world while staying in 5-star hotels
Own/buy many homes across the world
Eat out at restaurants
Buy luxury items like clothes/cars/idk??
Donate to charities
Help out people who really need monetary help??
If I have children, spoil them
Learn lots of new skills (whether academic or practical)

Yeah I guess I can dream 

[HopefulLawStudent]

I feel like this question gives a lot of insight into what matters to you, what you want to achieve in life, what you love, and what sorts of careers actually interest you when money doesn't come into the picture.  So I'm really curious to hear everyone else's (honest) answers!  They can be as corny/heroic or as 'selfish' as you genuinely feel; there's no right or wrong.

I'm giving it two loose categories: career-related (working/volunteering/studying), and leisure (hobbies/travelling/other).

My ideals

Career-related:
- In the mental health field, e.g. running peer recovery groups, counselling, psych nursing, writing about mental health
- Make AN forums more useful/supportive
- Studying philosophy, psychology, linguistics and marketing

Leisure-related:
- Reading anything and everything
- Random acts of kindness (e.g. writing nice notes for strangers, decorating cards and sending them to lonely people, etc. - it's fun as!)
- Bushwalking
- Playing games related to strategy or words (e.g. Scrabble, Boggle, chess, and so on )
- D&Ms with friends

I'd probably end up dead bored but anyway:

- Donate some $$$ and time to charity work
- Study 3-4 languages (I love learning languages)
- Buy a bunch of pretty dresses (don't judge)
- Travel the world

[TheProphetPancake]

I'd like to believe that I would somehow discover a hidden treasure trove of ambition, hindsight, wonder, curiosity and lust. But, realistically, I don't think I'd do very much at all. Take, for example, right now. I have finished my exams, done as well as I had hoped for, and now am facing the burden of extended freedom. There is so much of something, in my particular case, this is time, that I have no idea what to do with it. I flounder and dream, all the while the time I'd been waiting all year for passes, indifferent to my ambivalence.

Perhaps I would go around the world, or donate to all the charities I can and become the next modern saint, perhaps I'll start my own country, or buy an island, or move to the Neptune- who knows? Maybe I'll become mad with power and wealth, and end up alienating those around me, and become a hermit living on the side of a mountain in the Himalayas. I would presume that a life in which one does not have to struggle to make ends meet is a very comfortable existence indeed, and is free from very much suffering at all. Nietzsche, when we were studying him this year, said that suffering was the mother of human ingenuity, that it unlocks "man the creator" and helps build him. I tend to agree with him on this, due to both personal experience and what is entailed if suffering ceases, namely hedonism. Somewhat naïvely, I think that people tend towards hedonism and selfishness in such cases, due to the overabundance of choice, which causes them to fulfil their wildest fantasies without a regard for their financial wellbeing. Now if this is a beneficial usage or waste of time is completely subjective.   

The decisions surrounding what to do with the money would come fast and compulsively, I suspect. After all- you do have all of the money you will ever need. But after a point, I think it is pertinent to say that there is only so much you can do within a certain time period. If one does spend their lives jet-setting around the world, buying big and indulging, there is a fair chance, in my opinion, that one won't die any more fulfilled than one who did not receive this blessing. Ultimately, that is the end-game, right? To be happy in your life and die knowing you've lived it to the fullest? A lot of philosophers think so (Aristotle, Parfirt and Callicles (in a regard), The Stoics).

I just think that the money aspect of the life would quickly overrule the other parts that make life such an experience, such as struggling, suffering and having those ambitions and dreams that drive a person, that I fear maybe lost or quenched once someone has all the money they'd ever need, resulting in stagnation and/or long-term indecision.   

I don't know- just some thoughts from some cooked carbohydrates 

Link for those interested in a more scientific view of happiness: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/

[Swagadaktal]

tbh for me not much would change.
Not like I have all the money in the world, but stuff that money buys simply doesn't motivate me - I don't look at fancy cars and feel like I want anything similar to it to any degree, or travelling around the world and just chilling seems so pointless and empty to me...
 
I'd probably try study and become who I want to be in life, so like the path I'm on now, and maybe donate as much as I could to charities that actually get work done - but other than that the path I'm currently on seems to be the only path I'm content with atm and don't see myself anywhere else.

Afterthought: maybe use my money to make the path I'm on now smoother - that's probably what I'd do.

[appleandbee]

Re. discussions above on whether unlimited money was a  realistic concept or such thing as 'too much money'. On this context there isn't such thing as too much money considering it is a relative concept to different people, and there was a specific amount mentioned to judge that relativeness. The idea of enough or unlimited money generally means that you don't have to come up with a cost/benefit analysis for the things you want in life, compromise on future plans (like career or course choice) or make trade-offs (like whether to go to the movies or save up for a house) like most prople have to in the real world. Just imagine that money grew on trees somehow or a money machine that generated money whenever you wanted something.

I probably would  do most of the same things. Having more money would probably make my life easier since I plan on studying for quite a while as well as having to eat bread all the time (legit), but I'll still like to work because I think service to the society is one of the best applications of a human's mind, intellect and ability. I also don't think that consumerism is neccessarily a bad thing, most people don't live perfect lives based on intrinsic experiences such as loving relationships, wonderful jobs etc., so if having a chocolate bar derives temporary relief/hapiness every now and then do be it. If people's lives were to be determined on purely intrinsic experience, this worle would be a sad place in some ways. Time is an equally scarce resource as money (if not scarcer at times).

This is what my life would probably look life:

Career-related:

-Career: probably law/engineering related-like at the crossroads of international law/developing world, science/design innovation, social justice and environmental sustainability. I would like to do a stint at Google. Pursue medicine at an older age and work at MSF. Maybe also pursue two years of teaching at Teach For Australia. Freelance photojournalism for The Atlantic.
-Volunteering:continue being involved mentoring, social enterprise consulting and education initiatives
-Studying: mainly what I do now: pure maths, physics, biology, philosophy, economics, psychology and history with professional courses at graduate level (if I could do something differently I would probably study at ANU, Oxford or London School of Economics not because of prestige but because of their distinguished faculty and public speakers they attract). ANU and LSE didn't happen because of monetary reasons and I didn't apply for Oxford.

Leisure-related (most of which I currently do)

-Live in a really beautiful city like Edinburgh, Dublin, Copenhagen, Prague or Vienna (London and Paris are lovely but not a great cities to live)
-Competitive debating (at least during uni like I do now, though the skills and mindset from doing so never leaves a person)
-Rowing
-Soccer (if I had the time to play it regularly like I used to, currently confined to watching Liverpool all the time instead)
-Contemporary dance
-playing Cello and Piano
-Learn latin and read literature
-pursuing photojournalism, film/documentary making and art
-being able to buy nice clothes and go to the theatre ocassionally (although I have enough nice clothes)
-the experience and ability to love (not necessarily in a romantic sense) and to be loved (only if money could buy that...  certain past experiences don't allow for that)