I have asked this question to countless people (mostly in hair salons) as an alternative to small talk, and it always yields interesting results.
Rules:
- You get the money right now, right where you are. If it’s 10pm and you’re in the middle of nowhere, your money will still go poof at 11pm.
- As a result of the above, tell us what time it is and roughly where you are (big city, desert, small town, …)
- You must spend the money. You cannot give it to someone to hold on to it for you for a while.
- Normal world rules apply, e.g. you cannot buy a $250k car at a dealership in 1h in cash, and you cannot buy a house in 1h either.
- Remember that getting from where you are to the place you need to go takes time. Factor that in!
Go to the nearest jewelry store and buy everything in it. Wait an hour, return it as per the refund policy. If there is no refund policy then I would sell it off. Even if I lost 50% on the sell back, that’s still half a mil in cash.
Most popular jewelers have at least a 30 day refund policy.
This has been my go to answer if the hair stylist asked what I’d do. I’d go to different jewlery stores, because they’d still call the cops if you wanna buy stuff for a million.
(I forgot to add the “no returning items” rule; but since you added the “selling it off” part I think it’s fine, hehe)
I would buy four tickets on a mini-sub tour of the Titanic and give them to 4 billionaires.
I’m on a flight 35,000 feet above the Gobi Desert. The cash is pretty much useless to me. In fact it’s a bit bulky and I’ll be glad to see the back of it.
Plus, nothing on this flight can be bought for any kind of dollars.
I’d buy at least 10 snickers and a bottle of wine or something, right?
What could a banana cost, Michael? $10?
So like two beers from the plane alcohol list, got it
It’s 10:15pm in suburban Colorado, and I’m purchasing one sexual favor from my husband for $1 million.
One? You’ve got a whole hour! That’s probably 7 or 8 at least!
…right?
Let’s put it this way. It’s a 45-min session for $900,000… and at some point I also make it rain with the remainder of the cash.
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Why do these always exist before the internet? We can order bullion online now. It’s almost midnight in a fairly rural area
But yeah, I know a guy that will sell certain things for cash that normally require legal hurdles. But if you show up, cash in hand, he’ll backdate things on his end. One phone call, I could buy out his stock in fifteen minutes because I’m a regular customer he trusts. He’s usually got a few hundred thousand of goods in place.
Barring that, I’m kinda screwed at this time of night.
I know a couple of farmers that would let me buy livestock in cash like this, but that’s only going to be a few thousand bucks.
I know a weed dealer that would be able to give me a few pounds if he’s got it in, but I would have to call and ask how much he has.
Do services count? If so, I’ve got an idea for a cheat lol. Hire my wife for a back rub.
So, I just took a second and sent a text to an acquaintance and explained the scenario. Turns out you can buy a car in an hour or less. It’s just a matter of paperwork to make the sale official. So, if you know a car dealer, and they have enough on their lot, you could easily get rid of most of that million in time. Most of the time wasted isn’t really necessary. If the dealer and the buyer are already on the same page with the price, you could get as many cars as you have time to sign for.
The fact that it is only cash makes it difficult
Everything is closed.
Plan A: I could try to stuff an atm full of cash, but I’d be investigated for fraud, counterfitting or something. I would record myself holding the cash, wave it in front of all the security cameras I could to show that I legitimately have it, then insert it as much into the ATM as I could and acquire reciepts. In $100 bills I can put 50 at a time so $5000.If it stops accepting any money, I could try a crypto ATM too. Countersue the bank for stealing my money if they claim I’m responsible for the disappearance.
Plan B: I can reach the airport in under a half hour, I could convert it to USD as much they let me before leaving. They might accept 10k that way.
The trouble is, I will be asked about the origin of the money, “It just appeared in front of me/A genie gave it to me/I dug it out of the ground” are reasons that might not hold up well in court.
E: Wait does “spent” money vanish or does it stay?
I would immediately pay off all of my debts in my online banking/credit cards/student loan/utility accounts, send my Landlord my rent early via Zelle, login to my parent’s mortgage and credit card accounts and pay them all off, pay off all of my wife’s student loans and credit cards and business loans via her online accounts, and spend the rest on ebay gift cards.
It’s cash though, how do you pay all those things off with cash in only 1 hour? If you walk into a bank with 1 million cash and ask to deposit it, that might set off some red flags.
It’s definitely gonna set off red flags when the cash disappears an hour later.
Damn. I read “cash” as “liquid assets.” and not necessarily, like, physical benjamins.
I guess I’d hustle over to the midtown and buy every single Rolex and Omega I could get my hands on at Watches of Switzerland, Bucherer, and Wempe. Probably would hit the half-million mark real fast and would then re-sell them at leisure
Even better than the “Refund later” idea, since some of those watches have a higher value on the grey market.
Waitlist be damned, if a customer walks in with 1MM in cash I’ll sell him everything I can. Think of the sales guy’s commission, that’s nothing to sneeze at either (and won’t disappear later).
How can you do all of that with cash?
I’m in Vegas, 22:22, so… $1 million dollars of food, water, and sun screen for the un housed.
Cheap Answer: Go to my nearest Walmart/Grocery Store (10 minutes away from me)and max out all of the vanilla visa debit cards with the $1 million but after fees it won’t be $1 million but I would still spend the million.
Actual Answer: Luckily I’m in a prime spot where I live that I’m 20 minutes away from Lamborghini, Aston Martin, and other luxury car dealerships. So I’d go there and purchase how many cars I can with the million. After I sign, sell them back to the dealership or sell them privately.
Do you really think they are not going to call the cops if a dude shows up with $1 million in cash to buy cars, asking to speed up the transaction? No way are they not gonna.
You need to stop and buy a nice tailored suit beforehand.
Frequently the real rich people dress really casually because they have nothing to prove.
They dress casually, but it still looks freaking fancy.
I’d buy a $1M hug from someone I’m very close to. Then offer them a $500K hug.
It doesn’t break rule 3 as written.
I was thinking the same thing, but buying something tangible off my wife. Money is ours lol
My concern with this is that the post says that the cash disappears after the hour, not that any unspent cash disappears. So whoever you give the cash too loses it too.
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Its gone 3:30am, I’ve just got home after a night out, I’ve had too much to drink, so driving is out of the question, besides there nothing open at this hour…I know, I’ll just sleep on it…for an hour anyway 😅
😂 🙃
Edited my post, & for some reason it duplicated…& then I deleted the wrong one… ahhh maybe its cos I’m seeing in duplicate…oops 😅
It is possible to buy a car in less than an hour, though I agree that you can’t buy real estate that quickly. New Yorkers might be able to pull off stocks, if the money comes to them while the NYSE is open, but I’m not in New York (or Chicago, for the Mercantile Exchange, or…)
It’s kind of a bizarre question, though. I have several small business owner friends. Could I get them to mark up a croissant to $1M, with the understanding they’ll cut me in on the revenue?
If not, then what really are the terms of the question? Arms length transactions only? How will that be adjudicated?
Too many answers trying to game the system. Have fun with it!
If this was earlier in the day, I would drive to a pinball arcade that is maybe 40 minutes away, and offer them the entire million for every pinball machine they had. Hopefully the owner could be contacted and close the deal within the remaining 20 minutes.
I wish there would be time to buy a boat. I know nothing about sailing or maintaining a boat, but I would love to just drive to a marina and just get a 50 foot sailing boat.
BTW, of they ask why I’m in such a hurry, I’ll say I have a Brewster’s Millions situation and hope they’d seen the movie. We could relax after the deal was done.
It’s 9:30pm in the middle of nowhere.
I’d put everything in my save for later in my Amazon cart and buy it. I’d buy a bunch of crafting supplies online, I’d buy the sports things for my husband online. Probably buy a new monitor or 3, new desk chair, and all the parts I can order online for the racecar. Probably spend my remaining time scrolling Etsy and Amazon for every impulse purchase I can think of, then I’d be out of time lol
But you can’t do all that with cash 😔 otherwise that would def be mine too
I somehow missed the word cash. Well, I’m screwed because I’m in the middle of nowhere lol
