The Concept

What is the Million Dollar Experience?

First of all let me describe what it is not.  It is not a get rich quick scheme.  It is not a cash and dash idea to get easy money via the Internet and disappear. It is a simple idea that I believe will make for good reading over the next year.

The concept is basic.  Give our typical, Midwest family a million dollars and see how it changes our lives over the course of a year.  (Sounds like a pitch for a reality TV show, except I don't want cameras following me around for a year!)  I know what you are thinking, heck yeah, give my family a million dollars!  But my vision is to answer the questions that people ask each other when discussing scenarios like what they would do if they won the lottery.

 I will blog our daily activities for one year, detailing how the money affects our decision making process and daily experiences.  I will attempt to answer all the questions I have listed below, and any others that my readers come up with through the course of the year. I will look to answer the question, does money make people happy?  And is a million dollars a blessing or a curse?

Let me say that I am not a professional blogger.  I have never written a blog or created a web page.  I do not have a facebook, myspace, or any other social networking account.   I am computer literate and will work very diligently on my posts.  Blogging will definitely be a learning experience.  I will answer as many questions as possible each day and respond to as many comments as I can.

How do I plan to get someone to just give me a million dollars?  Good question.  I don't really know.  I guess I will try to sell it as an investment.  An investment into a year long "What would you do?" story.  A way to be a part of the journey of our family as we figure out what unexpected money means to us and how important it actually is or should be.

I will provide more information about our family as time goes by, but for now I would like to list some of the questions that we will be attempting to answer over the course of the next year.

What are the tax ramifications of receiving a million dollar gift?


Would you or your spouse quit your job?

Would you spend more time volunteering?

Would you buy your parents a new car, house, etc?

Would you buy a new house or fix up the one you have?

What is the first thing you would buy?

How would the money change the relationship between you and your spouse?

What would a financial advisor recommend doing with the money?

How much should you invest?

Should you set aside college funds first and foremost?

Would you/should you pay off your mortgage?

Would you exercise more?

Would you eat healthier foods?

Would you pursue graduate degrees?

How much would you donate to charity?

How would you go about choosing charities to donate to?

Would you set up trust funds for your children?

Would your attitude towards paying taxes change?

How does this change the way you teach your children the value of money?

Would you spend more time with your spouse/children/extended family?

Would you travel more?

What luxury items would you indulge?

How would relationships with friends change?

Would acquaintances you haven’t heard from in years show up and ask for money?

Would you become more politically active?

Would a blog experiment become an eventual invasion of your privacy and a really bad idea?


So there it is, the basic plan.  I know it sounds crazy, expecting someone to just offer up a million dollars.  But there are companies and individuals out there that have so much money, one million would not make a blip on the radar.  If you know of someone who may be interested in this concept, send me a note and I will contact them.

Thanks for stopping by,
Jason