You're offered one and a quarter million dollars but....

LordAo · February 11, 2019, 10:49pm

Internet will not be around forever. I am sure it will be replaced with something better/more sci-fi. Quantum entanglement maybe.

Haveaheart · February 11, 2019, 10:57pm

Yeah but the deal is now! And if the example of burgeoning tech follows its current course, then 5G mobile will last over 20 years as its predecessor lasted 20 and 3G swung like 12 years in its heyday and 2G almost made it 10 and so on. So what’s the point of waiting until even 2035 with the money? You can’t invest it to grow it, as all of that is on the internet.

KingJamezJr · February 11, 2019, 11:19pm

UHHH stop crushing my dreams of shoehorning Garfield kart into all of chrono

LordAo · February 11, 2019, 11:48pm

Pretty sure 4G came out in 2009, not 1999.

Yes you can. You put the money in a savings account or ladder it in term deposits. You walk in with the money and tell the bank what to do.

How the BANK deals with your money is up to them. The BANK can use the internet.

Uhhhh…retire?

Given that @xist quoted 1 million GBP, the equivalent in Australian Dollaredoos is $1821185.05.
Say I put that into term deposits at 2.75% (our banks are shit), that would result in interest at maturity of $50,082.59.
Take off 30% for tax, $35057.81.
Less conservatively priced fees, $34057.81.

Seems low doesn’t it

But look at this page. Best Places to Retire in 2019: Annual Global Retirement Rankings AU

coralinecastell · February 12, 2019, 1:10am

That’s one silly government you got there, Mister!

Thanks for sharing (:

@LordAo but what about inflation?

hivefleetbothan · February 12, 2019, 1:38am

Does this mean that devices I buy will have to be disconnected from the internet, or do I have to self police. In other words, if I buy something (say a TV) that would normally come with a smart adapter or some similar thing, does that device never function for some reason (say manufacturer would remove it prior to delivery/installation) or do I simply need to prevent myself from accessing the internet. The only reason I ask is there is a lot of grey areas. Can I walk into houses/rooms with some room monitoring equipment (smart TV’s, Alexa, Google voice etc)?

Depending on the answer to this, I actually may be more interested. Nothing wrong with a cabin in the woods.

Haveaheart · February 12, 2019, 1:41am

I don’t think that’s accurate.

If you hand your phone to your mother and ask her to look up a recipe while you look over her shoulder, you are not physically manipulating the internet. But you can’t say that you did not use the internet because you benefitted from the internet in the form of accessory to your mother’s usage.

If you hand your money to a bank and they make a gajillion dollars auto trading and deposit it into your account, you benefit from the internet. Even loaning the money to a friend and them investing is using the internet by proxy.

Fraggles · February 12, 2019, 1:44am

The issue with this question and a ‘cabin in the woods’ scenario is that a mil £ is not really live in luxury for the rest of your life kind of money. It’s certainly a great start towards investments that’ll let you be comfortable for the rest of your life.

But for the investments to work you need to not spend it all on starting a new net-free but still fulfilling life. So you pretty much end up, at the start at least, with you current drab and pointless existence just made more so with the deprivation of the internet and all it’s conveniences.

If it was enough money to buy myself a private island and anything else I’d wish to make it a paradise for me to live in then I could see myself opting out of the internet. But for a mere mil £ it’s probably going to spell disaster.

hivefleetbothan · February 12, 2019, 1:45am

Who said anything about luxury. I was gonna just live alone in the woods. I like ants… I am pretty easy to please.

Fraggles · February 12, 2019, 1:49am

Not sure exactly how much buying a cabin and enough land to live off of will set you back, certainly depends on where you want to live. What money is over is still not going to last you a life time, even if you’re happy to toil the land and hunt for your subsistence and that’s going to be a hard life. You’re going to need to interact with society on a fairly regular basis and that means everything the internet does these days.

Nigrescence · February 12, 2019, 1:55am

A million is absolutely enough to live in luxury for the rest of my life. I have simple tastes and luxury to me is not that expensive. Sure you aren’t going to be buying gigantic yachts or obscene mansions or private jets, but luxury is much more accessible than those silly levels of excess.

You could easily buy a cabin and a fair amount of land for well under 500k. You could do it for under 200k for sure, but I’m just being more restrictive to show how reasonable it is. With your own building and hunting for yourself for meat (which would otherwise be somewhat expensive depending) and without spending so much on internet nonsense that’s out there, money would be saved and you could easily live in luxury for between 10k to 20k per year, depending on how lavishly you wish to spend on food. That’s just covering for sustaining yourself. If you want to hunt you can sell the game meat for money. If you practice and get good at skinning you can sell skins. Practice leatherwork and you can even sell leather goods for a nice return, too. There is plenty of opportunity away from the internet. And frankly the most expensive things that most people waste money on are tech-related and internet-based services anyway. The other expensive things are quality goods that people buy to last decades. But despite being expensive initially, with care they last a long time and work out to be fairly affordable over time.