Post deleted by Mat Sklansky
 

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

Ireland - go to a music conservatory, pick up about 20 instruments and redheads, and start playing in trad. bands -

RB

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

That's not real money........That's not rich.

http://ps.theport.com/blogs/portblog...21.4505306.jpg


I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. $50....$100 million buddy. A player.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

this is exactly what I would do....

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/2...3463944qf7.jpg

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

I think it's interesting that you're you stated you were not concerned with what people would do for recreation. Part of the reason a lot of people on this forum (or at least myself) play poker for a living is because of the synergy it offers between life, recreation and work.

I don't think my life would be much different if I had hundreds of millions. I would do more traveling, have a nicer house and car, but beyond that, not much. I am still fairly new to poker (been playing nineteen months), so I think I'd probably keep trying to improve as a player and beat the biggest / toughest games.

If and when I succeeded at that I'm sure I would look for some new challenges. Maybe it would be completing a marathon in a certain time. Maybe it would be starting a business. Maybe it would just be trying to be a good parent and partner. Maybe I'd write a novel, or try and help kids work towards their goals (rather than saying you must follow path x to succeed), and keep an open mind about their futures.

It's a tough question, I guess you first need to assess what is most important to you. Love, achievement, money, social status etc.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

i was actually thinking of making a post similar to this. i think i'd pursue my phd in philosophy. i just graduated from a top ivy league, but i have a decent amount of debt and my parents can't really support me, so, in the short term, i have no choice but to work/play poker to establish some sort of financial independence. i'm motivated by ideas and research, and i think a job as a professor/writer would be ideal for me. as it stands, the prospect of going to grad school for 7 years, deferring my student loans, and coming out with a degree that isn't too useful and that, best case scenario, offers me a starting salary of 50k/year is scary.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

My life would pretty much be just recreation. Early on just doing a variety of different activities to see which i like most to do long term.

Sept: Go to Hawaii to do 2 weeks of kite surfing. Come home catch a lot of last minute gigs. Work out. Go about setting up a studio in my house.

Oct: Sky diving in South Africa for 2 weeks. A few safaris and drive around the country for a while.

Nov: Ski somewhere in Europe for the whole month seeing if i like the lifestyle.

Dec: Some hiking. Somewhere.

Pretty much just lots of things like this. In my downtime i'd need something creative and achievement driven to do. Make music, train for a marathon, take some degrees in subjects i enjoy etc. something that i need to push myself to achieve as w/o that i'd start getting depressed. Eventually once decided what i enjoy most out of all those use that to seek achievement, a goal to compete at kite surfing for example.

It's nice to realise my current life is close to this.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

I'd pick a random subject like ancient Greek politics, read a bunch of books on it, rinse, repeat. Starting a business also sounds intriguing. I'd also have lots of time to stay in shape, so going to the gym 6/7 days a week would be about par. Basically, I'd pick something and try to get as good/knowledgeable as I possibly can at it, because I'm competitive like that. For some reason travel doesn't really interest me right now, possibly because I've done a fair amount already.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. $50....$100 million buddy. A player. Or nothing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

I'll just take Jay's life, thx.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

I'm not sure. I'm not in this specific situation but I still have enough money to live for like 10 years if I wanted to without working another day, so I've been thinking about this quite a bit and I'm not sure what I'm gonna do. Right now I just play more poker to get more money which means very little to me in my day-to-day life atm. When I'm not doing that I just hang out with friends and family a lot.

Wish I had a better answer

Post deleted by Mat Sklansky
 

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

Walk the earth..like Jewels in Pulp Fiction

GS

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

Winters would be spent in the mountains skiing most of the time. I would have a large studio/shop where I could do some woodworking, sculpture, and photography. I would have a beach house somewhere for the wife and daughter. In the warmer months I would bike, hike, and golf. And I would travel a lot.

I would probaby try to start my own distillery and produce some fantastic gin or something like that.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
this is exactly what I would do....

[image]image deleted[/image]

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok and then what would you do there? Fish for 50 hours a week? Read books all day for 20 years? Meditate full time?

I know to people who aren't sitting at that house in front of the water, it looks very alluring, but if you were actually there and had nothing at all to do with your days, I highly doubt anybody smart enough to make that much money at an early age would feel comfortable sitting around watching grass grow for the rest of their life.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not only that, but I'm gonna guess you could do that with a LOT less than $5 million.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

[ QUOTE ]

Ok and then what would you do there? Fish for 50 hours a week? Read books all day for 20 years? Meditate full time?



[/ QUOTE ]

ok fair enough...

First off: yes, yes, and yes to your questions. I love to fish, love to read, and would love to be able to spend more time examining and practicing zen buddism. I'd travel to places like Egypt, Macchu Picchu, Greece, but a place like this would be the home I'd always want to come back to.

I would pick up classical guitar again and really devote time to music. That was my major in college and though I was never good enough to do it professionally, it gave me great enjoyment.

I like working with my hands and would love to practice traditional Japaneese woodcrafting and carpentry.

Spend time with the love of my life and examine our spirituality and consciousness. Spending time with her is bliss.

Collect good scotches.
Spend time cooking and eating good food. Creole, Oriental, Greek.
Study Archeology.
Work out to enjoy my body, not to hit a weight goal.
Research my family tree.
Be there for my kids.


to start with..

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

I would travel a lot and become a photographer/painter.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

Recreation, travel, relaxing, enjoying hobbies of personal interests is all great. Yes I would be doing these things just like others have already mentioned in their replies.

We should all consider helping out with some type of charity or ogranizations.

Whatever happened to helping and giving something back to society? If your rich and in your example there is no need to work because of the investment income, we have plenty of time to pursue our dreams and enjoyment, and help society.

To help us feel like we are actually serving a purpose in life, I would think most of us need to do something worthwhile rather than just sit on a beach in the carribean smoking cigars and drinking cognac. Believe me, I would be doing the same and am all for it. But I would also be donating my time to society by helping with charities or organizations.

My time would be to help with autism. And some money would be donated each year, of course.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

i'd teach chemistry for a few months out of the year either organic in college or really really interested/advanced HS students...the rest of the year I'd live in different countries, travel and try and get into a lot of outdoor activities in random places (i.e. snowboarding/skiing, biking, etc)

If we are talking money in the billions: I'd probably give a [censored] ton of money to different science projects that i thought had promise.

I'd also buy a few airlines that made my life hell and burn them to the ground.

Maybe a few other ideas like this last one. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

wow i'm surprised hardly anyone would continue poker related activities i.e. business / entrepreneurship, trading / investing, chess, sports management, etc etc .

you guys really all play poker for purely the money and wouldn't want similar themes of competition and information-edges to be present in your future lives?

imo, online poker is just not very glamorous, but otherwise i don't know how i could ever live w/o the 12hr per day intellectual stimulation of "processing information better than others", whatever the pursuit may be called.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

Id try to own the city of st. louis. At first, Id get a nice italian villa, and a place in vegas, and do some world traveling, but when that got tiresome, Id try to singlehandedly try to revitalize downtown stl, so when Id die Id have a statue built in my honor.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

I'd put the cash in a high interest savings account, with 5mil you'll get 5+%. I could live off of the interest for the rest of my life. For work, I'd do charity events or work for a not for profit organization.... in hawaii...

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

Travel and try to play as many golf courses around the world as possible.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

Two chicks at the same time man

http://www.thecobrasnose.com/images3/OSlawrencecr.gif

Seriously though, for a few years I would travel around the world to every countr that ever intrigued me, experiencing tons of different cultures and trying new things.

Then eventually I would buy a place in the area(s) I enjoyed most, and probably maintain an "endless summer" type of life where I never had to suffer through winter. In the fall I would make sure to come home to the states in order to coach football and see my family. Also I would try to learn/master a ton of subjects like Roman History, Philosophy, etc (whatever I found interesting at the time).

Eventually I would have to stop moving around so much and start a family, where and when would pretty much be out of my control.

I also like guids' idea of revitalizing an area and becoming a hero to a community. It would also be pretty cool to start a prestigous University like Stanford did (unfortunately I think there's already a Southern University).

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

I seriously am quite lazy, and would probably find myself just traveling and bullshitting with people everywhere.

That, and try to get really good at one instrument (likely piano). Unfortunately my musical abilities kind of suck, and I'd probably spend 10 years getting as good as the 'pros' can get in 1.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

At first I thought this was a dumb "what if you were rich" question and wouldn't be interesting. But I began to think about it, and I ended up at a really interesting (to me) conclusion: I would not change much in my life. I got down to 4 things:

* I would get a bigger apartment.

Maybe a condo, depending on what was available and nice. I live exactly where I want to, so maybe I'd move a couple blocks to a place with some room, a nice kitchen, and some storage space. 2 people and 2 cats in a studio can get cramped at times.

* I would quit my job.

I only have it to pay bills while my wife finishes gradschool. I have no passion for it whatsoever, so if paying rent and tuition were not a concern, no job.

* I would give a lot to charities.

A lot. A lot a lot.

* I would travel more.

This is the only thing in my life that I find myself routinely thinking of lack of money as an impediment. I have a lot of family 3000 miles away that I never get to see, I'd like to see more of the country, and I'd like to explore the world with my wife. This is the biggest change of anything, as I have no money now I never travel, and with zero barriers I think I'd be on the road a few months a year easily.


That's really about it. I would buy the good wine and good scotch more often, eat out at nice restaurants more often, but I do some of that now anyway, so its not a big deal. I frankly wouldn't even buy a car; I like my high ground and would probably keep it. My family and close friends would probably get to buy a bunch of stuff.

So what would I fill my time with? Same things I do now. Poker. Playing games. Hanging out with friends. Helping friends make art. Reading. Cooking. Exploring. And of course, the above mentioned travel.

[ QUOTE ]
We all need some direction in our lives, something to make up proud and feel like we are doing something productive. What would yours be if money were no longer an issue for you?

[/ QUOTE ]

Basically I disagree completely with your statement here. Why do I need direction? Why do I need to be productive? Why should that make me proud?

Personally I take pride out of not doing harm to people, to life, and to the planet. Being "productive" sounds like the antithesis of what I would want to be. Basically I would revel in that which gives me pleasure, and help as many people as possible avoid hardship and pain in their lives.

Whether you want to call this hedonism, enlightenment, or nihilism is up to you.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'd put the cash in a high interest savings account, with 5mil you'll get 5+%. I could live off of the interest for the rest of my life.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not that you couldn't do this, but wow what a way to burn money.

Post deleted by Mat Sklansky
 

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

I would travel and travel and travel. If I found somewhere that I loved while travelling, I would stay there for as long as I wanted (or I could).. then I would keep going. I would keep doing this until:

1) I got bored/tired/wanted to get married, etc or,
2) I found somewhere that I never wanted to leave

While travelling I would pursue all sorts of different things: cooking courses of all my favourite cusines. Run a bar somewhere. Really, whatever I wanted.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

OP,

There are three things I'd like to pursue in that scenario.

1: I'd travel a lot and definitely try out a lot of hobbies/interests that I am curious about but haven't wanted to spend the time on.

2: I'd want to do some things that are much bigger in scope than anything I've done before. Maybe huge real estate developments. Maybe really try a big "game-changing" startup idea. Basically, something where in business/industry I can put my stamp on something. Like, start a new model for an airline. Start a new sports league. Come up with next generation mobile phones, whatever.

3: Do some big charitable work where I can actually make some real impact towards getting a problem solved. Basically leverage my money and influence to help really get something done on a big scale in terms of social impact.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

I would get my PhD in math, read as much as I could, and I would use my time and insight to write - on everything from philosophy to important social issues. In fact, I think a person in such a position could make for a GOOD politician, somebody to really better the world, not that I know I would do that.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

endow my own professorship somewhere, so i could be an academic without the pressure and teach (hopefully) smart kids stuff.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

I would become a professional student. I love learning and I would go to the best schools in the fields I was interested in for the rest of my life. I would go to Insead for a few years in France for a business degree. I would then move to Cambridge and study Astronomy. Next off to live in Ithaca for a couple years of Arcaeology. After that, off to Hawaii for some Applied Linguistics courses. The point is we all need goals and can't sit around ad do nothing forever. I know I am most happy when i am working towards a goal and I love learning new things. Of course I would mix in a couple vacations a year so I get well rounded in travel and the world, but this truly is my dream.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

I'd travel, write, play in a bunch of [censored] bands, and enjoy the hell out of life.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

I would try to get to travel around the world, and see all different kinds of sporting events.. along the way trying to meet as many people as i could, stopping and settling down somewhere if it ever felt like a good idea.

As far as a business idea that i would be interested in, either startup a bakery, or some sort of video game development studio.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

I have no idea, honest. I don't have a 'few hundred thousand' in my roll, much less a couple mil in the bank, so I guess I can't say 'I can do whatever I want', but it's close.

At this point, I almost feel unqualified to have that much (gazillion bucks, not what I currently have). I think I'd have to ease myself into the lifestyle gradually, and find out for myself what's 'worth it' and what's just unjustifiably blowing money that could have been allocated to better causes. I mean I have a pretty selfish personality, but I'd like to think that even I have a limit somewhere.

Wow. This thread made me realize just how much my life is centered around making money right now - at least the small part that I try to pass off as useful and fulfilling. Yeah, my answer has to be that I really, really don't know. Guess that's why you started the thread in the first place?

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

Re: travel: I think that's way overrated as something to do all the time. I've done a fair bit of traveling, but not nearly enough to say that I've seen the world. However, while I used to fantasize about making a world trip someday, now that I can (or could if I was prepared to abandon my g/f) I just can't see myself enjoying it all that much.

I used to get a thrill out of the exotic and unusual, and almost enjoyed being in a different country just for its own sake. Unfortunately, that feeling has disappeared.

I guess that's the reason people call it 'vacation', or even 'sabbatical', but not 'life'. Most people could easily afford to live their whole lives as backpackers, worry-free and doing the minimum to get by. Hell, go learn to play guitar and sit on some busy square. Reality is, 'seeing the world', like anything, gets old.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

Hmm.
I'd get a slightly bigger apartment in a more convenient location. The one I am in is kind of small and out of the way.

I'd work from 11 to 4 instead of from 10 to 5. I love my job, but I am pretty lazy.

I'd get a skull massage (those really good ones you get when you get your hair cut and they are shampooing your hair) after work every day.

Hmm.. I think that's about it. Not really into world travelling or meditation or world-changing philanthropy.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

I would travel. Ski everywhere. Settle on a place with a nice back country and never take a lift ever again. If I ever get bored exploring I'll move on to the next place. In the summer I would play golf everyday.

Re: What would you do if you didn\'t need money?
 

Backpacking with Boris obv., then I'd do whatever struck me as interesting, which would change monthly, with a penchant for traveling and visiting people and doing things of interest to my kids.

Definitely would be involved in new businesses. Like Gates it's the score that counts, not the money. I'd probably hire two great patent lawyers and start a pharma and a separate mechanical engineering firm.

No major learning goals.

No major charity goals.

Would do some adventure travel but not as much as many. I like to travel and do new things, but I like home too.

I would never ever get up before 9AM. Ever.