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‘Money No Object’ Thought Experiment

A thought experiment to imagine what it means when someone says Money is No Object, or a hypothetical source of money that lets you stop worrying about money, with some weird rules.

  1. A multi-billionaire has died, and for some weird reason, he randomly selected you as the beneficiary, but no direct lump sum of money is directly transfered to you.
  2. Instead the main benefit is a special credit card / Venmo / Paypal / checkbook that is paid off by the trust, which can only be used by you and a legal spouse. They are under all the same rules, non-disclosure, etc.
    1. The credit card has a daily limit of $250,000, and cannot be used to extract cash, only to reimburse for purchases with receipts shown (cash back of < $500 a day is allowed, for tips, gifts, etc.). The CPA will turn down the reimbursement of purchase of equities, funds, money, investments, etc.
    2. Only purchases of goods and non-financial services are allowed, as well as donations to charities, Kickstarters, GoFundMes, etc., but the CPA will be checking to make sure you are not using it to get the money back as cash, or transferring it to someone else, to transfer it back to yourself, etc. Any such shenanigans will suspend all benefits.
    3. There is also a rule that once a year (resets after 12 months of triggering this rule) you can make a $2,000,000 purchase in a single day; just call a certain phone number and talk to a CPA/lawyer guy and he will make the payment. (No boats, yachts, rockets, or jet airplanes are allowed. If you get a pilot’s license, a small airplane is allowed. Ask the CPA/lawyer guy for the rules for that.)
  3. If you get divorced, you both get the same benefits (which WILL NOT transfer to a new spouse, for them; again no spreading money streams on and on). Don’t worry about them being left in the dust if you split, and don’t worry about staying together to keep the money train going. Your marriage should be about your relationship, not about the money.
  4. You cannot hand the money down to your children, but you are allowed a college savings account for each child, with limits based on the most expensive universities in the world. Don’t try to cheat the system with this exception or your experiment is cancelled.
  5. If you sell a property purchased by the trust, the title stays in the name of the trust (to avoid transferring wealth to others), so the money goes back to the trust, so you also cannot use real estate to start stockpiling money.
  6. If you sell a business you have to put the money in a joint account which is zeroed out. You can still work but you have to have your paycheck direct deposited to a joint bank account, which is emptied to zero by the CPA/lawyer guy. If you make money renting a real estate property, the revenue goes into an account that is zeroed out.
  7. There are severe non-disclosure rules. You cannot tell your friends and family about any of the details, or you derail the money train. You cannot make payments on their behalf, except for paying off one mortgage per person, but other purchases are not allowed, to avoid raising suspicion. You cannot become MrBeast and make videos about giving things away. Avoid raising suspicion.
  8. You can make purchases to support your loved ones, such as buying paintings from them, but they have to be legit works of art, not some tossed off slop that is really just a way to transfer money to your friends and family, to create a clever loophole.
  9. The rules are not here to cause you stress, so if you have a question, especially if you think something you want to do will make the CPA/lawyer guy penalize you, you can call and talk to him 24/7 and he will probably approve the payment. Ask for permission, not forgiveness. He isn’t here to breathe down your neck, he’s just trying to remind you that the money is to make your life better mainly, and not to breed resentment with close friends and family because of money transfers, or other such fraught actions.
  10. The CPA/accounting team will do all the tax work for you, so you don’t even have think about it, just live your life. Again you don’t manage this money, watch it go up and down, or update spreadsheets, or count your money, or add up numbers, or budget, or anything, you just spend when you need to. If you would like, the CPA/lawyer guy can give you a spreadsheet showing recurring payments, and how that impacts your $250,000 a day (he can give you a percentage of regular/recurring payments if you like, or you can tell him only to bother you if it goes above 25%, etc.). There is a special app on your smartphone that you take a photo of a receipt with, then toss the receipt in the trash. The full-time, well-paid CPA/lawyer guy will take care of everything else.
  11. There is also a provision where the trust will use the money you did not spend to create a trust for a new, anonymous, lottery-chosen person, so you don’t have to feel like you need to spend the money or it will “go to waste” or just make some already large pile of money larger. You get an annual or biennial report saying when a new anonymous person won this strange lottery, and began this new life journey.

What does your life look like, one year from now?