Dec
What Would You Do With A Billion Dollars?
Over on Steve Pavlina’s forums someone raised the question, “What would you do if Bill Gates gave you a billion dollars?” I’m not sure what type of answers the original poster of this message was trying to elicit, but the answers ranged from passing out to paying off all the third world debt.
Most folks that are into personal development have a monetary goal for income in the financial category. Mine is to generate $1,000,000 or more annually in passive income. It’s a lofty, lifetime goal to be sure. I have a smaller achievable goal for the next 3 years ($10,000/month passive income) and an even smaller one for next month ($500 extra income from my purpose). Not to mention I have a lot of financial clean up work to do. However, why would I set such an outrageous goal for myself?
I made the goal $1,000,000 passive income so that I could have the time and money to work on philanthropic endeavours. In particular, I want to start a school that honors the divinity in children and offers them a holistic education. Beyond learning facts, figures, and formulas, the school will expose kids to different spiritual practices. It would show them how to make choices to have a healthy body. It would teach financial literacy from an early age. It would give equal time to the arts so that the kids can nurture their creativity, and express themselves through the arts. Instead of just reading about different cultures, it would offer opportunities to live abroad.
I want the school to be open to children from any background. I also want their parents to be heavily involved in the children’s education and I want them to be able to learn alongside their children. I want them to share the experiences with their kids so that learning moves beyond the classroom to life.
I’m not a teacher. I’m a person with a vision. I intend to summon the best teachers (formal and informal) in the world to gather their ideas for the creation of this school. In addition to the material covered, I want the environment to facilitate this experience, so I plan to commission architects and artists to make a truly pedagogical institute.
You know the saying, “God does not give you more than you can handle.” Well, it applies to the good stuff too. Can you envision yourself achieving your financial goal? What would you do with a billion dollars free and clear?
In Spirit,
Nneka


January 1st, 2007 at 10:05 pm
MyPersonalFinanceBlog Presents COPF#80…
Carnival of Personal Finance #80 has been unfurled by MyPersonalFinanceBlog. Its a big carnival with 62 posts. Our post “Tools - FireSafe Your Personal Finance Documents!” was published at this carnival.
Listed below are our favorites from the Carni…
January 28th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Nneka
I wish you well with your vision for the future. You certainly have a lofty goal, which is great to see.
February 7th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
[...] What Would You Do With A Billion Dollars? [...]
August 27th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
[...] What Would You Do With A Billion Dollars? [...]
May 9th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Check out the democratic free school movement. The oldest is the Sudbury Valley School at http://www.sudval.org
A beautiful place, centered on respect for all human beings. The only thing I would love to add to this is whole family involvement — they had to kick the parents off the campus long ago, because they were all hanging around and bugging the kids!
July 4th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
[...] a huge number for the number of daily transactions to take place. Think about how much a trillion dollars really is and then times that by two, and this is the money that is changing hands every [...]
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:50 pm
I already work over 100 hours per week so that I can sustain Table Talk Ministries, we make free home repairs for the elderly and the disabled.
First, I would eliminate the waiting list, we currently have 36 on it.
Then I would purchase a couple newer trucks with tool beds and trailers so we could be more effective in our work.
Lastly, I would be able to start a proper ad campaign to bring in donations, (they’re tax deductible).
I actually, might splurge on a vacation/honeymoon, I haven’t had a vacation since 1982, I got married in 2002 and we never got to go on a honeymoon.
I would continue to work until I knew for sure that Table Talk could become self-sustaining.