What would u do if u had alot of money?

I am going to becoming across hundreds apon hundreds of thousands of dollars if not pass the million mark, here in the next year or so (offshore lawsuit), and i am tring to figure out what i should do with it. I thought about moving up to PA and opening a sonic since there isnt any, have also thought about buying houses and renting them, and have also thought about stocks and bonds. These are all good ideas, but i want something that is going to make me money and be a safe investment, if u know what i mean. I dont want to piss all this money off because i will not have an opportunity like this again. So, if u people could give me some ideas on what it is u would do with it i would very much appreciate it.

ok for all of u people who r not understanding this. i am not asking how to do something, i am asking what would u do

Well, congratulations! You are wise to realize that wealth can fade away easily if not managed wisely.

To me, first answer to your question depends on your interests, skills, and temperament. Are you an entrepreneur who can manage a business well and make it succeed? Then maybe the Sonic or some other business is best. Do you have an interest in real estate and can you be a good judge of what properties are good values and rentable, then hold them and be okay with paying taxes, insurance, and maintenance while collecting rent and dealing with other issues of property management? Then maybe real estate is best.

But for the average person who doesn't want to make a career out of whatever they invest in and/or doesn't have the drive, time, and interest to give a good effort in managing their investments, I recommend the stock/bond route. It is very easy to invest in stocks and bonds, especially via mutual funds. Transaction costs are low and trade times are speedy. Liquidity is excellent except in rare cases. On the other hand, the other options you mention require alot more effort, time, and cost to buy/sell/rent.

In terms of stocks/bonds, you have choices as to how to approach investing. If you want professional advice and really prefer to have somebody else managing it for you, you can go with a financial advisor. If this appeals to you, I would recommend Merriman Capital Management, which can be found at http://www.fundadvice.com/mcm.html

There are also do-it-yourself options:

Do-it-yourself option A - if you prefer to just invest it somewhere and be done with it, then invest in mutual funds (you can do this directly, online and/or over the phone). I recommend T. Rowe Price or Vanguard - they both have low costs, strong performance, and many choices to choose from. If you go this route, I would select one of each of the following and divide the money evenly between them:
a. US 'total stock market' fund - invests in a way that represents the entire market
b. US small cap fund - invests in small companies
c. US value fund - invests in companies regarded undervalued by market
d. International 'total market' fund - see a. but in non-US companies
e. International small cap fund - see b. but non-US
f. International value fund - see c. but non-US
g. Emerging markets fund - high risk / reward but at your age plenty of time to realize the reward even if some declines along the way

Do-it-yourself option B - if you are interested in learning how to better invest and manage your own money and want to take a more active role in selecting the companies/funds in which you invest, there are many free and low-cost resources available to you: American Association of Individual Investors (AAII), FundAdvice.com, Morningstar.com, Yahoo Finance, MSN Money, etc. Sounds like you have time to check out these and other resources before you receive the money - so you can take advantage of that to learn enough to be able to begin investing on your own.

P.S. No matter which of these you choose, I strongly recommend also doing the following - give some of the money you receive to one or more worthy causes. You have been tremendously blessed with this windfall, now become a blessing to others less fortunate.

there is speculation in everything, so if you diversify as you suggested you should be alright. Sure, buying homes and flipping them (if the timing is right), renting homes is good for a retirement nestegg, a Roth retirement savings account is good, investing in some good stocks and not bothering them for years, or invest in mutual funds...investing in education is good as well. You can always have some kind of trust fund wherein you lend money to people....but in all those you really need to know what you're doing...so read up now.

For sonic you may want to check out http://www.sonicdrivein.com/business/fra...
If you havnt yet.

I don't know the economy of PA and what it can or can't handle So I can't say if sonic would be a good or bad option. Sonic itself may have a reason for having no stores in PA or there just may not be much interest.

buy and renting out houses can be a great investment. There are always people in college towns looking to rent.

I do think another option would be to buy crappier houses and fix them up. At this point you can either sell or rent. The biggest thing though is that the house's value has gone up and you have gained equity. There are capital gains to paid.

For stocks and bonds you can go it alone or you can goto say edward jones and they will help you out. I don't know what commisions are but they are still pretty repuitable. If you want a more go it yourself check out charles schawb or scottrade

You can also goto vse.marketwatch.com and play a stock market game and test your stock picking abilities.

some of the safest investments you can do is CD's and Money Market Accounts or a Money Market Fund.

Cd's and MMA's are 100% safe and are FDIC insured. Money market funds though are still extremly safe may lose some value.

One thing I would suggest that may help out is take some business courses at a college if you havn't already. Personal Finance would seem to be a good one. Personal finance isn't about getting rich by making a lot of money its about gaining wealth through saving, investing, and protecting your assets. One book I may suggest is Essential: Money, everything you need to manager your personal finanances wisely by peter sander.

I suggest you invest in what you're good at and have a passion for.

The best thing you could do would be to buy government tax lien certificates. They are 0 risk and have huge rates of return.
http://bstsystems.taxliens1.hop.clickban...

I have great business idea, lets go into business together and make me rich and you richer.
Or, you can always do real estate, people alway need a place to live.

I would buy a townhouse on CPW, and lease a slip at the W79th Street boat basin, a boat (of course), and a summer house in Newport, RI. I would commute on my boat back and forth between my pied-a-terre on W79th and Newport while smiling a lot.

Good luck to you and your fantasy.