There's been a lot of questions regarding the whiskey thing, and I suppose that's fair because it's unusual, especially over the internet. To explain a little, for me it costs $6600 to buy 100 liters of whiskey (or 25 gallons), and I get paid $9500 after 4 years, or an additional 10% after 5, depending on the barrel's aging.
Now this frees the company up to make more whiskey, to age. Given that 500ml of this whiskey sells for $200 or so, the company makes around $15-$20k per barrel, according to my goofy math. For small distilleries, this is common practice (as it is in other areas of alcohol production: wine, and other aged products). What makes this offer different is that it is public, usually it's made privately, or to partners.
In Australia, I'm aware of 3 distilleries that have offered, publicly something like this: one isn't doing it any more (obtained enough capital not to need injections), and the other two still are, I believe. The terms and conditions are available with an email. To cut a long story short - the price comes with insurance (in case of destruction, natural disaster, or bankruptcy - I believe) and additional insurance can be bought. That being said, it;s something I wanted to try out - if it works then I can get a solid $2.5k 2-3 times yearly and reinvest the money back into the company.
As per why not just own the company - because it's not publicly traded, and I don't have the capital to buy into it, other than to own some assets.
Now - onto two other things brought up.
Marz: I'm quoting the yield price on the bonds I own, which is perhaps different from the real interest returned (not sure why, or how, but hey maybe someone more informed can help us).
Wildflame + all:
A friend suggested putting my accumulation on the backburner and, instead, using my skills as an English teacher to travel and live (easy enough to get 12 month contracts in Asia and South America, even in the US and UK doing 1/2 year's work is simple enough. This can solve several problems:
1) Free airfare
2) Free/subsidised accommodation
3) Reduced living expenses
4) Money to spend on travel (can potentially save half and spend half, or something like that)
Additionally, it's been suggested that, perhaps teaching English over the internet allows me to work remotely/wirelessly, this is something that I have literally no idea how to start, or how to organise, so I'll have to look into it.
In any case, I would love to hear people's thoughts on the opportunity cost of staying here and working for 3, 4, 5 years then traveling, compared with doing both and juggling both. In absolute terms, the pay is better here, in relative terms (perhaps the more important terms) the pay is often better OS.