What If You Had Endless Money Forever

Oh boy. You find yourself in the mysterious ruins of an ancient city. You’re the only member of the expedition who has managed to make it here. You’re walking through a dark maze when you accidentally activate a trap! Whoa, that’s a strange sound.

Suddenly, a huge rock starts rolling towards you down the hallway! You run as fast as you can, jumping over debris. A final dash, and... Phew! This room looks like a treasury! Gold coins and gems are scattered everywhere.

You go wide-eyed with astonishment. That’s enough money to live a life of luxury for decades on end! But it’s not the shiny gold that interests you. It’s an old lamp that lies in the rubble. As soon as you pick it up, the lamp starts shaking, and a huge genie jumps out of it!

“You have one wish!” Yes, just one. Because it’s a lazy genie. No problem — you ask for so much money that you’ll never be able to spend it all. The genie claps his hands and disappears.

Ding! This is a message to your phone. Your bank account has been topped up by one, zero, zero, zero, zero... 100000000! Boy, that number doesn’t even fit on the screen!

You go back to the surface and pull out your phone. You’re gonna check who’s the richest man on Earth now. Ah, here you are, at the top of the page. And again, the number ends in three dots. It’s time to go home and start spending your money! The first thing on the list is a plane ticket. An extra legroom seat? Nah, too cheap. First class? The same.

How about your own plane? Something like an Arabian prince would own. You opt for a huge Airbus 380 converted into a private jet. There’s a spiral staircase, an elevator, four VIP rooms, a concert hall, a Turkish bath, and a parking lot.

You press the “pay” button, and your plane’s waiting for you on the landing strip. You check your bank account, and the number hasn’t even changed! So, the genie didn’t cheat. As you fly home you wonder about other ways to spend your endless supply of money. A car? A house? You need some more time to mull it over.

You land in your country, and now, you need to get home. Taking a bus or catching a cab is out of the question. You walk up to a newly purchased Bugatti. This car is one of a kind and costs $18.6 million.

Your small apartment doesn’t suit you anymore, you need something bigger. A skyscraper! So, the world’s most expensive skyscraper has been the Abraj Al Bait in Saudi Arabia that cost $16 billion to build. But you invest $20 billion to break the record.

The construction has started, but you still need somewhere to live. You buy a penthouse at 172 Madison Avenue in New York City for $100 million. You’ve already spent $17 billion, but it doesn’t seem your bank account has changed.

You feel bored, and you decide to entertain yourself by buying the costliest things in the world. A watch with a bunch of the world’s rarest diamonds — $55 million. Got it! One more car — this time, an “old-school” Ferrari worth $70 million. It’s yours!

A baseball card that costs more than $3 million? Why not? A $450-million painting created by Leonardo DiCaprio. Oops, I mean Leonardo da Vinci! It goes to the basket, too.

Wow, this shopping is so exhausting! Time to relax, which means... a private island! $610 million is the price of a huge island in Hawaii. It’s the size of a large city, and now it’s all yours!

You aren’t going to board your “old” plane to get to the island. Uh, uh. You’re buying a new one! It’s a Boeing 747, the model presidents use when they need to fly somewhere. $660 million, and now it’s all yours! Sitting on a luxurious plane, with a large team of flight attendants at your service, you feel like the world’s number one person.

And you already imagine sailing around your new island... Right, how could you forget about a yacht?! The world’s most expensive one is plated with gold and reportedly has some T-Rex bones in the bedroom. It took three years and ten tons of solid gold to build. And you buy it for almost $5 billion.

Hmm, the island looks deserted. There’s nothing here but golden beaches and lush greenery. But aren’t you the richest man in the world? You decide to build yourself a palace. Click, and $3 billion Buckingham Palace appears on the island. And one more for your guests, please.

Now you’re actually traveling around the beautiful island on your own yacht. But your face doesn’t look happy. The entertainment for the rich is rather boring. You look up at the sky and think about flying to the stars. And here you are, standing on the launch pad near the rocket that’s about to take you into space. You’ve paid $52 million to do it!

But the International Space Station seems to be filled with nothing but research labs — not too exciting. That’s why you build a new $150-billion space station with lots of fun stuff and even a spa! You’ve already spent more money than all the richest people on the planet ever have. But your bank account still hasn’t changed whatsoever! Your imagination is running amok.

Mars! You spend another $2.5 billion and become the first person to set foot on Mars. Well, red sands, steep mountains, craters... But there’s nothing to do — even for you, the man with an unlimited amount of money. So you slam your rocket’s door closed and go home.

All your skyscrapers are already built. New York City with your “house” in the middle looks very different now. You’re lying in a giant bedroom with marble floors, ancient Chinese vases, and... a fountain? Your money can buy anything. But you’re lonely.

So you have another skyscraper built next to yours — this one is for your friends. And one more — for your family. And, of course, your beloved cat also deserves a private penthouse. You’ve run out of free space. It’s time to build your own city. You choose a place that used to be a scorching desert with nothing but sand for miles on end. But you pay trillions of dollars — and have a city built from scratch.

There’s a chain of restaurants with your name on them. There are billboards with your face in the streets. And a giant statue on the tallest building in the city looks exactly like you. The city is almost empty. But you drive through its streets escorted by security guards in extravagant cars. For dinner, you buy the most high-priced fish in the world. It’s the Bluefin tuna for $3 million.

And then you decide it’s time to make a movie about yourself. The most expensive movie ever made cost $400 million. You pay $1 billion and hire the world’s highest-paid actors. But when the movie’s ready, the only audience watching it is you. Mostly because you’re in your private theater. When the credits are rolling, you start to throw popcorn at the screen. You didn’t enjoy the show.

You walk down a long corridor with the most expensive pictures in the world. Next to them, you see the rarest archaeological finds and... Is it another fountain? No, you’re not okay. You’ve spent trillions of dollars, but you haven’t got an ounce happier. You decide to go back to where it all began.

With a torch in your hand, you return to the ancient ruins. There it is — the treasury. You find the genie’s lamp where you left it. As soon as you pick it up, the genie appears in front of you. He laughs at you because you’ve fallen into his trap. He gave you an infinite amount of money so that these riches drove you crazy.

But you pull out your phone and press the “Donate All” button. In that very second, your money goes to charity accounts all over the world. Now, scientists have more opportunities to work on new medicines. Ecologists have found more funds to use while saving our planet. And every person on Earth has enough food now.

The genie gets angry because you’ve tricked him. He’s about to strike you with a lightning bolt. But you grab the lamp and confine the genie to it forever.

When you get home and turn on the TV, you see your face on every channel. You’re called a hero, the savior of humanity. You get thousands of thank-you letters from people you’ve made happy. You smile and feel better too. Apparently, helping others is the best thing you can do.