If you had Billions of Pounds - what would you do?

Maybe similar to Gregory Carr, a philanthropist who has been working over the last 15 years towards the restoration of Gorongosa National Park (Mozambique). Amazing!

Gorongosa National Park is at the southern end of the Great African Rift Valley in central Mozambique, Southeast Africa, decimated by Mozambique's brutal civil war.

The Gorongosa National Park is now an international leader in conservation, biodiversity and ecotourism. Brilliant.

All my charitable donations are to animal charities - and that’s where the bulk of my money would go. Some to my son too of course.

Keep quiet until I'd decided what to do.

I would get a little cottage in the country with an acre of garden and restore it. Plant an orchard and grow native species, have a small wild flower meadow and grow lots of herbalists plants like pot marigold. With the rest of my money I would buy rundown houses, shops and factories and re-purpose them for young people/families who wanted to make a go of buying their own place/starting a business and rent them out at favourable rates with the end purpose of the young people/families being able to buy them at reasonable rates once established. Oh, and I would definitely support my local animal shelter to help with wildlife and rehoming dogs and cats whose owners had died and needed a happy retirement during their final years.

Too much for me. Think five million is as much as I could cope with nowadays (or want to) but.....I'm always willing to be proved wrong!

I would buy my own island and have everything flown in so I didnt have to put up with any bl***y neighbours.

Keep quiet about it, charitable donations would be made on a strictly anonymous basis.

Set up trusts for AC and GC

Wouldn’t move or exhibit any outward signs of wealth as there are too many tykes around looking out for things like that.

Would buy DH the car of his dreams (only after the garage has been cleared out and it can be stored safely inside).

Would buy a villa on Ibiza big enough for family holidays and set up a company /trust to ensure it could be used for years to come without it costing the AC/GC anything.

With a billion £s I dare say there would be enough left over for a ski chalet also, probably in Champernay (sp) in the French Alps.

I d do my poor old house up, set the kids and grandkids right, then do something memorable like build a home for street kids or a hospital or something needed in a country that was in need and I d also do something for my town
But they re just passing dreams aren’t they i ll never have any money

Germanshepherdsmum

All my charitable donations are to animal charities - and that’s where the bulk of my money would go. Some to my son too of course.

Mine too, after making sure my immediate family were sorted, of course.

Tell virtually no-one! And swear those few I did tell to absolute secrecy! I'd then employ a top tax accountant to make sure that all my family were sorted as efficiently as possible, and make major donations to my preferred charities, e.g. Cancer Research, MacMillan Nurses, RNLI, NSPCC, RSPCA, Barnardos, PDSA, and the Sally Army. Then its game on as regards the bucket list. Overseas homes in the Austrian Tyrol, Singapore and on Cape Cod, New England for starters, and as regards U.K., luxury, architect designed bungalows in Northumberland and Norfolk. That'll do for now....

If we’re talking billions - then I’d see to the family first, make my own future secure, then employ a manager to research and administer donations to various causes - some Worldwide, some National, but small stuff like new false legs for a child stuck on an NHS waiting list, or replacing a village playground, destroyed by vandals or providing a mini bus to a club for the elderly - that sort of thing.

I certainly wouldn't be taking any submersible trips, that's for sure!

Other than putting the children on their feet and Trusts funds for the grandchildren. I would also make sure we would have enough to be comfortable in our old age.
Then speak to someone reputable who could give me ideas on charitable things. I like the idea of the train that goes around India mending cleft pallets I knew someone who did and the photos were a joy or the women mentioned the other day with Gyni problems that make them pariahs. I would also make sanitary protection free in as many African countries schools for young girls to be able to go to school.
I think of some more.

After helping the family pay off mortgages I would give money to cancer research, look after orphaned children in Africa and definitely no trips in a submersible!

Give up work!
Hire a nanny for the GC
Buy houses for DD’s
Buy a lovely house for me and DP
Have a luxury holiday
Hire a gardener full time for my wonderful new garden
Help family and friends with money probs
Give local to me charities a big boost
Buy land nearby for a children’s playground
Then, sit down and have a good think about how to help the community and national charities.Am soooo looking forward to it😃

I reckon it would be impossible to keep a huge influx of wealth quiet. Back office staff in banks, accountants and the like would get to know and ignore client confidentiality for a payout from the tabloids. I couldn’t bear the resulting begging letters.

Oreo - let us know when you receive the billions! Enjoy!
Lots of good ideas on the thread so far. I realise I'd have to focus even if I had multi billions . But there are some famous very rich people - Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and probably more - who really do use their money to make the world a better place. Impressive ! I doubt if having even one super yacht (and some of them have more than one!) actually makes billionairs happy - or any happier than the rest of us when we see our friends and family. And we don't have to worry about the butler stealing the spoons!

Like everyone else I would make sure my family was secure, buy a cottage with a small garden for us and the dogs then charitable donations.
The Salvation Army has always impressed me with the work it does so they are top of my list followed by Sense and Dogs Trust. There are so many people needing help out there it's difficult to know how to begin.

biglouis

I would buy my own island and have everything flown in so I didnt have to put up with any bl***y neighbours.

My thought as well, and have as many big dogs as I want

I also think help for children overseas with cleft palates, eyesight problems that could be rectified with a bit of money, wells for clean water, overworked donkeys in hot countries…..all sorts of stuff like this.

Give the RNLI a shedload, with quite a lot specifically targeted at swimming lessons in Pakistan and Bangladesh, where 40 children a day drown.

Create a genuinely significant high-risk social investment fund, targeted at filling the current development gap, but give it to one of the existing expert organisations to manage. I may have to commission someone to check my forecasts on return on investment first…

Invest more in micro-finance initiatives in developing nations, particularly those focused on supporting women entrepreneurs, and education

Work with some specific funding bodies, in this country and elsewhere, to allow them to further test different grant funding models, particularly core and long-term grants.

And invest a couple of million Euros in Cyprus, as it has the fastest investment to citizenship, and thus EU rights, programme.

LRavenscroft

I would get a little cottage in the country with an acre of garden and restore it. Plant an orchard and grow native species, have a small wild flower meadow and grow lots of herbalists plants like pot marigold. With the rest of my money I would buy rundown houses, shops and factories and re-purpose them for young people/families who wanted to make a go of buying their own place/starting a business and rent them out at favourable rates with the end purpose of the young people/families being able to buy them at reasonable rates once established. Oh, and I would definitely support my local animal shelter to help with wildlife and rehoming dogs and cats whose owners had died and needed a happy retirement during their final years.

You’re thinking like me, except for the country cottage. I’d also start a charity to support teenagers who are leaving care and going to University.

Help my family and people who have been good to me over the years. Buy a little house in a pretty area. I would give to the charities I support now - The Teenage Cancer Trust (since we lost our nephew), Cancer Research as cancer is such a scourge, RNIB and the NSPCC. I would buy made to measure shoes! Then have a think about what else to do with it.

DH and I used to speculate about winning the lottery and how we'd keep it quiet but somehow do the things we'd like to see happen.
We had got as far as reopening the railway when we realised we wouldn't have nearly enough.
However rich individuals are, the big important things need government backing.
I guess joining a pressure group would be a start and as I've supported sustrans
sustainable transport since its inception, I look at the results of where my small contributions have gone and am usually pleased.