If I Had a Billion Dollars
A few weeks ago, someone bought a Mega Millions ticket at a Speedway gas station in Des Plaines, Illinois. That ticket turned out to be a single winner and the owner won USD 1.337 billion. A student asked me about it. He said that this person probably has many people giving him or her (or them) financial advice of all kinds, and asked what would I advise the winner(s). Here is my answer.
I think it is much more rewarding to use your money to give to others than to spend it on yourself. When you give, your gift lives in others; it cannot be erased. It develops your soul and fills it with vitality.
I do not advise anyone on anything. What I can say, however, is what I think I would do if I won the jackpot.
If I won it, I think I would split the money between investing in young children and in the elderly. These two segments of the population need support and cannot help themselves. The rest of the people can protest or try other ways to improve their situation, but the elderly and very young children are completely helpless and cannot even complain.
I would use the money to build places for children and places for the elderly, different places for each segment. In these places, they will pursue activities that please and help them. For children, I would focus on entertaining educational programs, and for the elderly, I would focus on letting them enjoy themselves together.
Children need to learn and enjoy learning. Therefore, I would offer them free classes in art, photography, sports, and science, as well as games that develop their thinking and collaboration. It is important that these classes are free, just as it was when I was a child, so that everyone has access to them.
I think it is much more rewarding to use your money to give to others than to spend it on yourself. When you give, your gift lives in others; it cannot be erased. It develops your soul and fills it with vitality.
Conversely, when you use the money for selfish pleasures, you are burying yourself. It is literally a spiritual burial, a spiritual death. This is why if I won the jackpot, I would use the money in this way.