What would you do with a windfall?

[Angel Tarragon]

25 million. Buy the Aurora archipelago.

Never heard of it, what is it exactly?

 

[Jeremy757]

Well I am for the most part debt free already so 50k being dropped in my lap would be pure profit.

I would use it to buy a 2-bedroom town-home on the HUD program. Spend 25k to 45k to buy the house and then another 10k to renovate it, hold on to it for about 3 to 5 years while it appreciates in value and then sell it hopefully for at least twice what I bought it for.

My ex-wife did this she bought a HUD home for 30K, renovated it and now 4 years later its worth 65k. The property values in DFW just keep going up and up as more of the Metroplex gets developed.

Real-estate is always your best investment.

 

[RangerWickett]

Oh, if I had millions, I'd fund a prominent computer game company to produce a next-generation console game based on my campaign setting. I've got the best idea for a game, too.

I'd help my ex-girlfriend Jessie start a comic book company.

I'd bribe my way into getting a job at WotC.

And I'd start a college scholarship called, "Ryan Nock was a smart guy who was too much of an idiot to get enough scholarship money, and I'm an idiot too." It will be given to valedictorians who decide to go to a college that isn't paying for their tuition, with preference for geeks, writers, and artists.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I'd use it as (part of) the down payment on a modest little house here in San Francisco.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

$50K isn't enough money to radically change your life (at least, not when you're out of college and have a fairly well-paying job).

I disagree, depending upon your definition of "radically change your life." I have a very good job, but even so, coming up with a chunk of cash large enough to make the down-payment on a decent house in San Francisco is going to take me a long, long time. $50,000 would change that, and it's a change that I'd consider pretty radical.

 

[Knightfall]

Pay off student loan, pay back friends & family, buy new computer, and save the rest so I could take a trip to Gen Con Indy. Whatever is left after Gen Con, I'd put away for a rainy day.

 

[mythusmage]

Additional

1 Giga Bucks: Buy Dungeons & Dragons® from Wizards. Put together a design team for D&D 4e. Their first task, 5 years of intense life experience. Learning about how things work in the real world. They would then take that knowledge and adapt it to the d20 system.

Don't know about you, but D&D 3.5 leaves me with the impression we're doing too good a job of protecting our kids from the world.

Let me put it this way, you don't need a feat to put extra muscle into an attack.

 

[Turanil]

1 Giga Bucks: Buy Dungeons & Dragons® from Wizards. Put together a design team for D&D 4e. Their first task, 5 years of intense life experience. Learning about how things work in the real world. They would then take that knowledge and adapt it to the d20 system.

I tell you: YOU ARE NOT GOING TO WIN THE GIGA-BUCKS, simply because I DON'T WANT A D&D 4th EDITION!!!!!!!!

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Here, here. I totally agree with you Turanil, I like 3.5 and don't want it to change (at least not for another ten years)!

 

[Desdichado]

Pay off depts, maybe take 5k and spend for fun, save and invest the rest

Yup, same here. Although with 5k for fun, I could do a lot. I'd take that trip to DisneyWorld with Julie and the kids that we've been talking about for a while, I'd pick up and Xbox and a PS2, and about half a dozen games each right off the bat; I'd get a bunch of Warmachine and Confrontation minis, I'd buy a bunch of RPG books. I'd get another set or two of work pants, and I'd replace all my aging socks.

Not terribly exciting, actually.

Of course, if you think about it, the income tax on $50k turns it into (maybe) $30k -- I may not actually be able to spend that much on fun after all. I still have a fair amount of grad school debt. And I could always stand to throw more money at my mortgage until I'm outta PMI...