Alexander Gordon-Brown asked this question on the Facebook group:
Not-so-hypothetical question*: If you acquired a large sum of money**, what would you do with it?
In the name of epistemic modesty, I want to start getting opinions on this. There is a boring 'donate it to the best place' option, closely followed by an equally-boring 'save it and donate it later' option. It may well be the case that the boring options win, as I think they do for smaller amounts. However, it seems plausible that some ideas have increasing returns as the amount grows.
For instance, one idea I've floated to myself is effectively running a public giving game of some kind. There are lots and lots of ways this could be structured, with different upsides and downsides. I have some thoughts on this specifically, but I'm really just canvassing for others' thoughts.
*I almost feel bad for spamming the main forum with this. I'm doing it anyway because I'm not going to be the only one with this decision, and it's recurring (for instance, this is the approximately the situation for every finance earning-to-give EA once a year).
**I want to put exact amounts to one side, but lets say between $20,000 and $200,000 for the sake of grounding the discussion.
This question sounded like it would be easier to answer with threading and upvotes! Post your ideas for what a large EA funder might want to do below.
Note: Please post one suggestion per comment so that upvotes can be used as precisely as possible. Thanks!
What do people think of: buying a property that you will live in?
It has the advantages of giving later - as you can always sell the property - but has other advantages like significantly reducing living costs so that you could concentrate on entrepreneurial endeavours or EA entrepreneurial endeavours with a degree of financial stability and without eating through your savings etc.
Is the idea that buying is significantly more cost-effective than renting, so this'll let you donate more in the future? I believe whether thats true depends on which property market you're in.