What would you do with $10 million tomorrow?

Debating how we would spend money we don't have

“What would you do if you got $10 million tomorrow?”

The question was first asked to me at a dinner with coworkers in late 2021. I said I wouldn’t work another day in my life—unless I wanted to—and all three of them completely disagreed. They said they would need to continue working, and that ten million wouldn’t be enough to live on.

“Ten million dollars isn’t really that much if you want to raise four kids in New York City,” one of them said.

At 25, I hadn’t really thought about the future that way—I am childless and while I know kids are expensive, I didn’t think they were that expensive. I still thought that the number seemed insanely high, and that anything I could ever want or dream of would fit inside that number. This had to be a case of New York City being New York City, where people dream of $50 million penthouses, and not the norm. Many people consider saving one million dollars as achieving FIRE (financial independence, retire early), and others in higher cost of living areas or wanting more cushion might consider a higher number, like two million, as achieving FIRE. So ten million? Sure, New York City is expensive, but ten million dollars?!

The same conversation came up while out for drinks with two of my friends last night. We were at a whiskey bar in Brooklyn, and we were enjoying a large bowl of fries ($9) while we drank canned wine ($13) and pints of Kona beer ($7). When I brought up the question, I was shocked when they said the same thing my coworkers had said three years before—“that isn’t enough money.”

“That’s more money than most people make in their lifetime,” I countered. “Ourselves probably included.”

“But my lifestyle would change a lot if I got ten million dollars,” my friend insisted. “A private chef. A car with a driver. Vacations.”

Would I want a private chef? Not really, but it could be nice to go out for dinner more often, especially at expensive restaurants I normally can never justify going to. A car with a driver? Not for me, I love taking the subway, ferries, and trains. Vacations? Okay, I could use a few more of those. Even though I’m happy with budget travel, even budget travel can be expensive at times.

There is one major thing I would upgrade if I ran into ten million dollars, and that’s my apartment. I have a small one bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side. When I say Upper East Side, I don’t mean the Met, Gossip Girl, the cafe with the $32 sandwich on Madison Ave. I mean, the part of the Upper East Side that usually doesn’t make the movies, with walk-ups over 100 years old, rats running around the sidewalk at night, and local bars with a $6 draft beer happy hour (yes, sadly that’s a great deal for Manhattan).

I love my apartment. I love the exposed brick, I love the natural light, and I love that it’s rent-stabilized. But, it would be nice to have a bedroom in New York City where my bed only touches one wall (it currently touches two, and in my first apartment it touched three), an elevator so I don’t have to lug my groceries up three flights of stairs, and a dishwasher.

And with ten million dollars, I would do that. Maybe buy an apartment like this one.

Photo from Streeteasy of a dream 2.75 million apartment

So then, how long would the money last? I wouldn’t just spend the $3,000,000 on an apartment and let the remainder sit in a savings account. I would put the money in the S&P 500, expecting 7% gains each year. I typically spend around $24,000/year on expenses outside of rent, but I decided to triple that number—let’s add in a few vacations, treating friends to dinner, and some expensive concert tickets. Then, add on $48,000/year in HOA fees, utilities, and taxes for that expensive apartment.

Spending $72,000/year on myself, plus housing costs, I would have $675,993,345 by my 100th birthday if the S&P 500 keeps growing like it has been in the past. Yes, the money would be growing each year, despite me hypothetically bringing in $0. I’d actually have to be spending more than $390,000 in luxury spending each year to start depleting the money.

(spreadsheet here, make a copy and play around with how you would spend your money!)

Back to that whiskey bar in Brooklyn with my friends—we asked the bartender if he would never work again if he got ten million dollars tomorrow. He gave a resounding yes and told us he would buy land in North Carolina and start a farm, leaving the city for good after spending twenty-six years here. He would probably end up with even more money in the end than me without spending so much on an NYC apartment and city taxes.

Of course, there’s other reasons to keep working besides staying afloat, but I can soundly say that any work I did after that $10 million would be because I truly loved it, not because I needed to. Especially with that compounding interest. Would I have lifestyle creep? Of course, some, but hopefully not to the level to run out of that money.

Anyway, none of us are getting $10 million tomorrow, but it’s fun to dream. What would you spend the money on and how long would it last you? 

I texted my friends from the whiskey bar after making the spreadsheet. Then they brought up another good point.

Thanks for reading! I post weekly about personal finance and lifestyle in NYC. I also post a monthly reset on the 1st of each month sharing everything I spent money on the previous month and goals for the next month. Subscribe so you don’t miss it!

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