What would you do with $10,000?

[lulzfish]

If I wasn't getting the motorcycle I already mentioned...

Pandora pre-order ($340)
Peltier chip from United Nuclear
TF2 Scout costume
T-shirts

For $10,000, and if I could negotiate a decent price from, say, Sam's Club, I could probably get like 6000 or 7000 bottles of SoBe.

[LuNatic]

I would buy a top of the line gaming rig with 2 - 3 monitors for Dwarf Fortress of course. Also, I would not pirate stuff as much.

Eyefinity Dwarf Fortress? I'm interested!

Since the OP has banned charitiballeyness(I henceforth declare this a word), I suppose I would throw down a third on an epic holiday, a third on an epic home entertainment setup, and save a third as a basis to get a loan for a car.

[CHR1110]

Or less boringly, a fab new synth keyboard like maybe one of these.

If you were going to dump that much into a synth, I'd go with one of these. Sure, it's not analog, but that's not even noticeable with the current tech. that's out there. I own the one I linked to, and I can't tell the difference between it and any analog synth I've played.

IDK, just my opinion.

As far as instruments go if I had $10,000, I'd definitely be ordering a complete custom job from Jackson's Custom Shop out in SoCal.

[dubsola]

--Rent the services of a group of little people, have them dress up as oompa loompas, buy all the clothes necessary for a Willie Wonka outfit, and run around a large city handing out chocolate for kicks.
--Buy a hot air balloon, redecorate it to look steampunk, then land it in the center of my college campus dressed as a 1920's businessman.
--Have a large statue in my likeness created.
--Hire Morgan Freeman to do the message on my voicemail/answering machine.
--Buy thousands of small plastic balls and ball-pit the library overnight.
--Hire a sled dog team and then create a sled that can be used on asphalt. Proceed to head to Miami or possibly San Fransisco or any other very warm city and travel around the place, dressed as an explorer from the 1800's.

Promote this man!

Me: holidays and audio equipment.

[Grop]

I would buy a full/queen bed (~$500), a new laptop (~$1200), a nice used car (~$5000), and a new phone (~$100), all things that I've been really wanting and unable to comfortably afford. I'd put the rest into savings, to replenish what I borrowed from it last year when I was jobless.

This is pretty much what I would do, except for the bed.

[RetSpline]

If we're in the land of fiscally-irresponsible, I'd prolly take about $2k of that money to buy a new computer and miscellaneous small things, and take the remaining $8k and buy as many books and bookshelves as I could. Honestly, I don't think there's $8,000 worth of books I'd really want to buy or ever get around to reading, which would probably leave me some left over. Honestly I'd love to open up a small store or something, probably a book store, but $10k and my terrible business sense would never be enough.

[Dream]

Or less boringly, a fab new synth keyboard like maybe one of these. Some home recording/messing-about gear, starting with a dedicated Mac, would be sweetness incarnate.

You have excellent taste I would do something similar, except it would be to improve my mobile performance setup. One of these. Given the exchange rates, that's all of it taken care of right there.

[MidsizeBlowfish]

Buy book, lots of books, and spend a long time reading all of them.

[Velict]

Tough call.

Realistically speaking, I should save/invest the money for college or grad school. Since this is a hypothetical, though, I would get 2-3 suits made, and buy a stereo system with the leftover cash. I can always use a few more suits.

[Sharlos]

After buying a new computer and mobile phone, I'd invest the rest of it for a couple years until such time that I finished studying and had a semi-stable job. At which point I'd start looking at getting my own house.

[Dason]

I'd buy me a bear. Or a kangaroo.

[Mokele]

In the absolutely real world, save it for buying a house.

However, in the slightly less real world (or a future world where I already have a house), It'd *definitely* go towards something fun. Possibilities include:

A very large, temperature controlled greenhouse for my carnivorous plant hobby.
A very large, very well-filtered aquarium/terrarium for a small species of caiman (related to alligators).
Loads of cages & setups for various other animals on my wish-list including chameleons, monitor lizards, tree snakes, frilled lizards, frogs, salamanders, geckos, etc.

[Midnight]

markbass combo, mesa titan with a 4x10 + a 2x15 cab, and with the remaining 5k buy a custom warwick.

[elminster]

"no stock answers, try to be original."

I'd buy some stocks (sorry) and shares. In reality, $10k doesn't go awfully far in the long run in the UK, so investing would be wise.
Other than that: pay off student debt, skiing holidays, a good used car, a well made suit, construction tools to make my own designed computer case (Several months in planning, but been on hold for some time).

[Bluggo]

I'd buy ~20 bottles of high-end wine to put into my parents' cellar and use for really special occasions.

[Armadillo Al]

How quickly can I be on a plane to Vegas?

Once I get that out of my system, I'd probably take a decent sum of money to learn how to actually hit a golf ball (as opposed to the flailing I usually do), and golf in really nice places (as opposed to the par-3 course I usually slum around in). Either that, or I might start playing Magic again. You can still buy both a Standard and an Extended deck for $10,000, right?

[Essah]

hmm put some money aside for a car and then i would go travel
Canada, England, Italy Australia and a lot of other places.
oh, and i would give some money to my parents (its not a debt cos i don't have to pay them back)

[FreeFall]

Convert it to franks and go and give the LHC/CERN a vist =D.
Convert what ever i have left into sterling and put it aside for a car or just blow it all on a fender '52 telecaster and a bad ass PA system .

[LuNatic]

I'd buy me a bear. Or a kangaroo.

Hire an evil scientist to make you into a Beargaroo.

[Rilian]

I don't know how far 10.000$ would go, but I need land and a house. And a DDR machine.

[Plasma Man]

I'm going to be another boring one. I'd clear my overdraft, then put some towards a deposit for renting a better flat and save most of the rest to put in my deposit for a mortgage fund. Fun things? I'd probably have a couple of big nights out and buy a couple more hats.

[TheKrikkitWars]

And a DDR machine.

A machine that replicates the Deutsche Demokratische Republik? What are you up to? Planning an english dubbed remake of Good Bye Lenin?

[Chris Dude70]

Humm...

$2000 on a date with a special lady I have my eye on. You may consider this a little much, but it's my $10,000 and I can do what I want with it.
$4000 on a high end laptop.
$1000 to buy a very large amount of Tic-Tacs (y'know, the mints?)
$3000 on an entertainment system.

That is how I would want to spend it. Chances are I would actually save it or invest somewhere. I might still do the date though.

[femtometer]

Put it towards my student loans.

A laptop that will last me a couple years without becoming a fossil

A trip up to Canada to visit family, and oooh! I can go to Europe too!

Probably at least a bit of a shopping spree to replace some of the ol' duds...

Darn it, it's really hard to do this! All I can think of is bills and "practical" stuff. Oh god I'm getting old ;_;

[Amie]

I'll invest some money. With the rest of it I shall buy:

CHOCOLATES!

*om nom nom nom*

I'm already fat, so don't bother telling me

[Dason]

I'd buy me a bear. Or a kangaroo.

Hire an evil scientist to make you into a Beargaroo.

You deserve some sort of prize.

[blue_eyedspacemonkey]

Boring: Pay off some of my student loan, put some into savings. Probably but £1000 to one side as money I can spend on me (get a new mobile, some clothes, etc).

Not so boring: I'd still have to put at least half in savings. I can't feasibly spend that much money in a short period of time. It could go in savings to accrue some interest first Erm...still go for phone and nice clothes. Also, a new laptop. Give some to the SO to do with what he likes. Go for a few posh meals out. Buy lots of things for the kitchen and spend an inordinate amount of time cooking new things. Buy a theremin, just because I can. Yeah...spend a lot of time going "...wow...th-that's all mine?"

[Cloud Walker]

House payment. If that's not allowed, then split between materials/equipment for artistic endeavors and car mods.

[Khafji]

If I lived in a place for more than a year at a time with access to proper aquarium stores, I'd sink it all into a nice 90-gallon corner tank modeled after a southern Florida mangrove edge and seagrass bed.

Since I don't have that living situation, I'd drop it into a moderately high risk set of mutual funds, probably mid-cap growth across the board with at least 30 percent emerging markets, and then when I actually live in a place with aforementioned access, whatever the money has appreciated to (or with whatever is left) I use to buy the largest tank I can afford.

I miss my aquarium.

[Arancaytar]

avoid lame answers - no paying off your debt, giving it to charity, or lending out to someone. Investments are acceptable, but borderline.

That kind of narrows it down. Which is the response you want to see? Buying some expensive luxury items? That's a lot less lame, indeed.

[Dasboard]

avoid lame answers - no paying off your debt, giving it to charity, or lending out to someone. Investments are acceptable, but borderline.

That kind of narrows it down. Which is the response you want to see?

"I'M BUYING MYSELF A FRICKIN' LASER TO CONQUER SINGAPORE SO I CAN USE THEIR ROBOT TECHNOLOGY TO BECOME AN IMMORTAL MAN MACHINE WITH FIVE LEGS AND A GOOD HAIRCUT."

[EmilyR]

Some combination of...
add it to our "renovate the third floor" fund (where "renovate" entails knocking down as many walls as possible without the ceiling collapsing in order to make a single big room)
and/or...
add it to our "sort out marriage party/legal fund"
and/or...
redecorate my dance studio, replace our spa pool & install a new sauna and/or steam room

[MikeBabaguh]

"Only" ten grand? That's nowhere near enough to pay off my credit cards and student loans.

[emceng]

avoid lame answers - no paying off your debt, giving it to charity, or lending out to someone. Investments are acceptable, but borderline.

That kind of narrows it down. Which is the response you want to see? Buying some expensive luxury items? That's a lot less lame, indeed.

I had to put in that qualifier. Otherwise I would get a bunch of "Ohh, I would totally give it to xxxxx charity no one else have ever heard of. " or " I would pay off xxxx." I am looking for responses as to what people would actually do, without the unrealistic altruism or boring debt payoff.

I could easily say something about paying off my student loans, pay down my mortgage, or something like that. I want thoughts! Ideas! What would you like, that with a small, practical amount of money, you could achieve?

I haven't come up with anything good to contribute to the thread. I was thinking a motorcycle, but I've never ridden one - so maybe lessons first. Maybe a vacation, hot air balloon ride, see the Krampus festival, fire a flare gun, go skydiving, visit all 30 NHL arenas, or all 50 states.

[Rilian]

And a DDR machine.

A machine that replicates the Deutsche Demokratische Republik? What are you up to? Planning an english dubbed remake of Good Bye Lenin?

No, that's the deh-deh-err.
I'm talking about dee-dee-arr.

[Khafji]

... fire a flare gun...

Mmmm.....$10,000 gold-plated diamond studded flaregun firing, worth every penny of that $10k.

Oh, I suppose you meant you'd do that in addition to other things.....well that's not nearly as interesting.

[Dream]

I'm talking about dee-dee-arr.

Ah yes, the late, lamented Piramone.

[stevey_frac]

I would pay off debt, and take the newly freed payment capability, and put it towards other debt.

This would allow me to pay off a lot of other debt faster. Eventually, a few years from now, I'd be debt free other then my mortgage.

Then i'd take out a loan to build a steam boat.

[Dave_Wise]

Firstly, I'd take care of number one. A van (investment, useful for all sorts of things, home at a pinch) and a triumph thunderbird motorcycle. Then I'd invest in my friend's plan to set up a dial-a-beer service in Carmarthen. With the winnings from that, I'd set up my 'free internet access for a lifetime in exchange for market research' program. With that sorted out, I'd start thinking of bigger things...

[LuNatic]

No, that's the deh-deh-err.

Deh-deh-err? I 'ardly know 'er!