If I had a billion dollars...

I was reading this article online today about how with projected tax cuts and spending staying where it is we will increase our national debt by 69 billion dollars. How the heck much is a billion dollars I wondered, so I decided to put it into something tangible. I could buy the following and barely scratch the surface of a billion dollars...

First things first. Homes. Of course now that I've been to Hawaii, I want a home there. I figured that would be the most expensive place I could end up buying in, interestingly enough I was wrong. Of course I stuck to Honolulu so maybe if I had gone to one of the smaller islands I could've spent more. So this is my winter home in Hawaii. It only cost $20,500,000.

My 2nd home I wanted to be in a city on the east coast. I couldn't find a lot that was expensive on realtor.com in NYC (surprisingly enough) of course I just did a cursory search and the pics were bad of what I did find so I headed a bit north to Boston. It is close to Vermont and I could visit Kate if I lived there. This condo (penthouse) on the water would only cost me a cool $9,250,000.

Now so I could be near Michelle and my beloved Disneyland I figured a home in LA would be necessary. This was the place I also found the most expensive homes (of the cities I looked in. I have no doubt that I could find more expensive places elsewhere). This little beauty will cost me $53,000,000. So now I have bought 3 homes in fairly expensive places to live and yet I've only spent $82,750,000 leaving me with $917,250,000 left of my billion dollars.

But of course... I need CARS in my cities. I decided on this ferrari convertible for Hawaii. You have to drive a convertible there! I think it is a state law and wouldn't this be sporty to take around all the curves there. This bad boy is only $207,199 with the options I put in it, and you can be sure I picked all sorts of options.

For Boston, I picked this car. A maybach (Michelle mentioned it once in a post on The Peevery and it has been fixated in my head ever since). I don't know what makes it so snazzy but it does look sedate and the kind of quietly flashy car you'd see there. I could have it set up so that I have a driver and I like that idea. I hate to find parking in the city. With all the options I picked (including a playstation, I gots to have my entertainment) it came up to $495,145.

And finally for LA. This is a Mercedes of sorts. Michelle recommended it to me. Of course I went for all sorts of bells and whistles on it as well. It also is sporty and given an entirely clear PCH I could imagine how fun it would be for Michelle to drive it up and down the coast at her breakneck pace. (I've gotten to be a wuss about driving so when not in LA, I'd let her drive it and when I visited she could just drive me places because I'm a big baby. :) ) This bad boy with all the extras (including extra large seats for my extra large ass) came to $511,478. So the grand total on cars only came up to $1,213,822. Leaving me still with $916,036,178. Not even cleared 100 mil yet. I'm bad at this!

Now if I'm living this high life, do I really want to have to travel with the rif raff on the airlines schedule? Of course not! So I looked into private plane ownership. This little jet could carry 12 people which is perfect. I would have to hire a pilot to fly me around, but that's okay. I'd keep him on retainer so he could fly me anywhere anytime. The price tag on the plane alone... $21,000,000.

When I'm in Hawaii, I may want to visit other islands or just get away from all the doldrums of possession ownership. What would be perfect in Hawaii... a sailboat. Isn't this one gorgeous. I found it on a yacht website. Sailboats aren't terribly expensive. This one was only $25,000,000. It is kind of ugly, and I think I'd prefer one that was more schooner like, but I went for price and luxury not something I like the looks of. :)

I'm still not spending money well. I've still got way too much, not even 1/2 a billion spent yet. Then I find this yacht. Ugly (to my eye) as hell, but luxurious beyond belief. I think it would be my LA yacht. I'd let charity groups hold functions on it. Well, when I'm not using it to zip up and down the coast. Price tag for this... $173,384,550. I couldn't believe it when I saw it either. Over 100 million dollars?! Amazing.

Finally, the last thing thing that would make me happy. A little cottage in the woods on a lake. This one is even in Washington. I'd probably spend most of my time here (oh do I need to now search for a WA appropriate car? :) ) This little place only runs $789,000. The cheapest of all my homes. It is on a lake, though, so that would make me happy.

What did I learn from this experiment? A billion dollars is a buttload of money. All these things could be purchased and I would be barely spending money. The grand total of all the things I purchased: only $304,173,320. And if I hadn't found that yacht I wouldn't even be 1/2 way there. A little freaky to me... how much a billion dollars really is. Even freakier... how much 69 billion dollars is.