So, what would you guys do if you were rich...

[Killerbrandt]

I have a passion for old houses and buildings, so if I were very very rich (like Powerball rich), I would either buy up endangered homes in the Midwest and fix them up to sell at cost or below or I would created a foundation that gave grants for people to improve their historic homes. Or both.

Or conversely, I would make a few huge, endangered buildings my pet project to save. This would be extremely expensive, so I wouldn't be able to save as many. I live in a city that tears  down historic schools and structures all the time, and it makes me sick. If I had had 300K a few years back I could have saved an 1850s stone church built by slaves, but I didn't. No one else stepped up and now its a behemoth of an ugly gas station.

I love this!! +1+1+1

I love old historical buildings! Every weekend my wife and I travel around our city and find lost treasures! I would love to buy and fix up all of them in my city if I was powerball rich!

Also if I was powerball rich, I would travel the entire world with my wife and sometimes a few friends to make it more interesting.

[Squirrel away]

Check this out:

http://www.globalrichlist.com/

Enter your salary - and have your mind blown.

If you're reading this, you most certainly speak/type/understand English, have a computer, likely have a job and a roof over your head.

In a global context, you're part of the 1%.

I try to remind myself of that every day.

You’re in the top
0.16%
richest people in the world by income.

Wow, I should try and think of that daily. It's pretty unbelievable when you think about it.

[Chris22]

.04%/.08% using household/personal income.  Wow. 

[cjottawa]

A good friend of mine has traveled to India and relayed a story.

He was watching some women near a ship scrapping facility pulling things out of the water.

Turns out, when cutters were slicing into ship hulls, blobs of molten iron fell into the water where they solidified. The women would collect them, sell for scrap value and proceeds were enough to feed the family for the day.

Also, from time to time, someone would slice into a piece of ship hull and a massive, megaton panel would fall off and flatten someone below. "Just another day in the life of..." over there.

...

I DO NOT NEED TO COLLECT SCRAPS OF IRON TO FEED MYSELF.

We are effing spoiled rotten in the western world.

[Cookie78]

Check this out:

http://www.globalrichlist.com/

Enter your salary - and have your mind blown.

If you're reading this, you most certainly speak/type/understand English, have a computer, likely have a job and a roof over your head.

In a global context, you're part of the 1%.

I try to remind myself of that every day.

You’re in the top
0.16%
richest people in the world by income.

Wow, I should try and think of that daily. It's pretty unbelievable when you think about it.

Absolutely agree.

[11ducks]

I would go to medical school. After having a child alone at 20, I went for the most reliable hours-friendly career I could (math teacher). And that's fine, I'm happy, it worked out for the best (it's a fairly decently paid, secure career in aus)  I can support us both, like it, don't need childcare, and live frugally enough to put away 30% savings for a house someday. But med school was always the dream. Maybe one day!

[Leisured]

If I were rich, which I presume if I won a lottery, then the thoughts below should apply to a lot of people.

Step 1. Look after number one. Say $2M in investments.

Step 2. Look after relatives, known as 'relos' in Australia. Not so much as cash, but pay down mortgages, student loans. My wife is a Filipina, so the opportunities for 'international aid' are substantial. About 1990, my wife's sister in Manila had appendicitis, so my wife wired A$1000 to pay for the surgery. It felt good to be able to do it. Hint: a National Health Service is a good idea.

Step 3. As Forummm suggested, set up a tax advantaged charitable foundation, and fund worthwhile causes, of which there are many. My favourites are the Fred Hollows foundation which treats cataract blindness in poor countries, and Mercy Ships which moor in a poor part of the world and perform surgery which is unavailable locally. hollows.org.au, and mercyships.org

Step 4. If I won an insane amount of money, and if I were a lot younger, I might buy a marine research ship, rent it out to marine research organisations as a business, and reserve a cabin on board for me.

[Exhale]

If I had lots of extra funds I'd like to:
1) Launch a middle school/high school/college MMM-type financial fitness curriculum
2) Fix the US foster care system (no idea how, but if I could I would)

How's that for dreaming big?!

[electriceagle]

I can't stomach paying 10% penalty and taxes.  It would be likely 25% in federal tax.  I'd like to be in the 15% bracket and they would tack on an extra 10%. If someone knows a way around the penalty I'm all ears.

Are you married or single?  A single person would need to withdraw $68,000 a year to hit 15% federal tax before a penalty.  A married couple would need to withdraw $135,000.

And as someone else mentioned, you can use 72t or SEPP to withdraw without penalty.  You just can't choose exactly how much to withdraw with this method like you can with Roth conversions.

Thi is incorrect. A single person enters the 25% bracket at $37450 and a married couple enters the 25% bracket at $74,900.

How much does the guy have in his Roth IRA? Traditional to roth conversions and early roth withdrawals are more flexible than the 72(t).

[Matthew Olszewski]

If I was rich, and the money would not be a problem for me, I would have focused on my family. Perhaps I would have gone for some time abroad to relax and do some sightseeing.

[nawhite]

If I had lots of extra funds I'd like to:
1) Launch a middle school/high school/college MMM-type financial fitness curriculum
...

Check out Junior Achievement (ja.org). They do a pretty darn good job at getting volunteers to work in classrooms to teach financial literacy. I taught the Personal Finance class (https://www.juniorachievement.org/web/ja-usa/ja-programs?p_p_id=56_INSTANCE_abcd&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=maximized&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=ja-column-1&p_p_col_count=1&_56_INSTANCE_abcd_groupId=14516&_56_INSTANCE_abcd_articleId=19571) to some 7th graders and though it isn't as intense as MMM, it is WAY better at explaining budgeting, credit, and insurance than anything else I've heard of for a classroom setting. They definitely do a bit too much on the "get more education to get a better job that pays more money" thought process but it isn't exactly bad.

[StockBeard]

What would you do?   What would be most important if money was not an issue? 

My family lives in France, my family in law lives in Japan, and we're in the US.
If money/time wasn't an issue, we would see our families and friends abroad much more often.