I should have set up a will a while ago but haven't. But I will soon. So I've been thinking about it and have decided that my immediate family isn't deserving of the material possessions they stand to gain when I die, and I'm looking for meaningful alternatives.
But this is with an admittedly strange caveat. I don't like charitable organizations. I don't like them a lot. Barring suggestions that I leave all of my stuff and money to charity (or you), anybody have any cool ideas?
Posted by MattP (Member # 10495) on :
Why don't you like charitable organizations? I'm just curious.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
Create a scholarship? Leave it to a particular institution (not necessarily a charity) like a zoo or Carnegie Hall or something you want to support? Create a prize of some sort that someone has to earn? Do what that one children's book author did and write a book with clues in it and use your money as a prize for the person who deciphers the clues.
Have your assets liquidated, and instruct the executor of the will to take it all to Vegas and put it on black (or red). Go double or nothing Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I'll erect a statue of you for a nominal fee at the public space of your choice...
Has no one ever contributed someting to your life that you'd like to give back to?
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
If you don't think your family deserves it and you don't like charities, why do you care where it goes? You'll be dead.
Write a deliberately contradictory and unenforceable will in hopes that all your assets will be eaten up in legal fees.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
Instruct your lawyer to split the money into even chunks of some size and send it to many random people.
Designate it as a grant to the further research of something you feel is important.
Edit: For extra frivolity, have it used to buy virtual Gold in World of Warcraft and other online games, and have it given out to the nicest players the executor meets.
Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
Put in your will that your possetions are to be liquidated and the money is to be buried with you. Maybe a nice jewel encrusted coffin.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
If you dislike charitable organizations and your family, perhaps you might consider giving your friends a windfall -- or even buying an XBox or something for everyone on your block.
Posted by Zamphyr (Member # 6213) on :
Leave everything to the Nigerian Prince email spammer. I'm sure he'll provide your attorney with a bank account number.
Everything except your gun collection. That will be sent to pro-democracy Cubans. Viva la revolution!
Posted by brojack17 (Member # 9189) on :
Or the people who you talk to on a forum. I'm just sayin'.
Edit: a response to TD's post.
[ April 29, 2008, 10:29 PM: Message edited by: brojack17 ]
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Heck, in all seriousness, if you leave me all your money when you die, I'll name my house after you. Maybe even my next kid, assuming you're the right sex and your real name isn't too horrible.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
If it's enough money, I'll name my kid "airmanfour" Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
"Eirmanfooer? Is there an Eirmanfooer Cow here?"
Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
If you don't want to donate to either your family or charitable organizations, consider a donation to evil.
For example, negotiate with some reputable companies to have a series of evil things happen to people you dislike. Perhaps an airdrop from a C-13 consisting purely of marshmallows above a rival's house Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
National debt is a good one. If that doesn't appeal, perhaps you could give the money to a university? They're not by any means charitable organisations. If it's a largish chunk, you could try setting up a scholarship for some class of people you like, veterans perhaps? Or to be boring about it, you could maybe just leave it to your best friend.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
I don't know how much money you have, but you may want to consider a gigantic statue. You rarely see Colossus of Rhodes type statuary put up any more. I think we could do with more of that.
Alternately, set up a trust to build and administer an off-the-wall tourist destination in the heartland: Gerbil Land, The World's Largest Frisbee, etc.
Posted by hansenj (Member # 4034) on :
Oh, how I love Hatrack. Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
I'll name my kid after you regardless of your name or how it sounds.
I can always give the kid a nice middle name. He'll forgive me when he sees the size of his college fund.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Step One: Get yourself a cat.
Step Two: Leave all your estate to the cat.
Step Three: Die.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
Buy a bunch of land and then turn it into a preserve, or leave it to the state or a city with the provision that it must remain parkland or else it reverts to someone else's control.
Or buy a piece of land and will the land to itself like that tree that owns itself down south somewhere.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
Better yet, spend it all while you're still alive. No estate, no worry.
Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :
How about to NASA or CERN or a University... something that might benefit Humanity into the future.
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
quote:Originally posted by The Pixiest: Put in your will that your possetions are to be liquidated and the money is to be buried with you. Maybe a nice jewel encrusted coffin.
Along the same vein, you could always go out like Hunter Thompson.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Give it to kiva. It's not a charity, it's all about hard work and self-reliance.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Use it to buy gold dust and have the dust scattered into the ocean.
Spend on a series of ads in the New York Times filled with your favorite limericks.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
quote:Originally posted by The Pixiest: Put in your will that your possetions are to be liquidated and the money is to be buried with you. Maybe a nice jewel encrusted coffin.
Frederick Fosythe wrote a great short story called "A Careful Man" about a rich man with an undeserving family who took it with him.
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
Commission new episodes of MST3K.
Posted by Mama Squirrel (Member # 4155) on :
I don't know who all you are including in your immediate family. Do you have neices or nephews for whom you could set up a college trust?
I also second the scholarship idea. Maybe at your high school? I had neighbors whose 23 year old son was killed in a car accident. They used the insurance money to start a scholarship at the hs he went to, specifically for math/science students (his area of interest).
Posted by Miro (Member # 1178) on :
Have there been any organizations that helped you out or that you personally saw doing good? Anything from your old schools (particularly if you went to public school) to programs for military folk. I don't know you well enough to suggest anything else specifically.
Posted by LadyDove (Member # 3000) on :
Or maybe a fabulous teacher who gave you extra time and helped mold you?
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Choose a random four-digit number and create a lottery specifying that anyone with those four digits as the last 4 of their SSN can enter, and a drawing will leave everything to the winner. Designate some money for publicizing the lottery.
Posted by Fyfe (Member # 937) on :
I support scifibum's MST3K idea.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
quote:Originally posted by LadyDove: Or maybe a fabulous teacher who gave you extra time and helped mold you?
Do you really think we ought to advocate rewarding someone so instumental in warping airman's young mind?
Posted by anti_maven (Member # 9789) on :
I am wholly uncharitable and completely disorganised. You could leave the money to me and I'll fritter it away on toys and sweets.
Maybe there is some local 'widows and orphans' group you could subsidise. I'm sure they woudl be grateful, and if the organisationis local, the chances are the money woudl go to the needy without being absorbed in operating costs or similar.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
The Air Force has it's own widows and orphans charity. But insofar as airmanfour has said he doesn't like charities, I don't know. I may have felt similarly at certain times of my life. Those were not my happy times, though.
I used to really dislike my family of origin, and I hated the children's songs about families that they sang at church. But a few years ago, as I was helping my own children brush their teeth, I realized that I do like my own children, and then I gave myself permission to not be bitter about the whole concept of families.
Sorry if that's too preachy. May you never die until you have someone you will miss when it happens.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Hear, hear, pooka! If your family of birth turns out to be dysfunctional, there's no happier answer than to grow up and make a better one of your own.
My family's mission statement: The family unit is for the growth of the people within and the continual increase of their joy.
We're not perfect yet, but we're headed in that general direction. Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
quote:If your family of birth turns out to be dysfunctional, there's no happier answer than to grow up and make a better one of your own.
AMEN!
That's why I was careful choosing who I married, and made sure it wouldn't be someone who would let me repeat my parents' mistakes.
Posted by brojack17 (Member # 9189) on :
airman hasn't posted in this thread since he started it. I know he doesn't get to check that often. I wonder what he's going to think of when he does check again. Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
That we're all nuts, probably.
Which is probably why he asked us in the first place. Posted by airmanfour (Member # 6111) on :
quote:Originally posted by brojack17: airman hasn't posted in this thread since he started it. I know he doesn't get to check that often. I wonder what he's going to think of when he does check again.
I check pretty regularly. The ideas are all supercreative and excellent and I didn't want to break the creative strain by posting.
Please carry on and I'll eventually let you all know which suggestion strikes me the hardest.
Posted by Alcon (Member # 6645) on :
quote:That we're all nuts, probably.
I think every genius ever has been considered nuts by someone somewhere. Usually lots of people everywhere. This is totally something to be proud of
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