I wrote about If I Were Rich Today! almost a year ago, and while the post is still true today, my thoughts about the effects of being personally rich would affect my community.
If I were rich today, I would try to make a larger impact within my community. Not necessarily for fame, but to make it better for all of my neighbors and the community in general.
One of the main things that I would do is create funds to help certain areas in the local community where I live. But the funds would be different in that the principal would not be touched. Instead, just the interest and dividends would be used to help certain programs and goals. That way, the funds would get bigger each year as other community members contributed to the principle base through an annual fund-raiser. Of course, I would seed such funds with the initial investment of monies! I would have such funds for such things as school sports and special programs offered as classes (perhaps an aviation class would be nice).
I would also put more time into getting to know the other contributors in my local community. Perhaps even creating a special group to try to think about community problems and opportunities. I believe such a group could enhance the entire community in general, and create some great programs to make the place better all around.
All of the community enhancements and community funds would be possible if I were rich! Being rich would give me the resources to contribute back to my local community (and perhaps even some of the surrounding communities if I were rich enough).
Being rich would enable me to have a level of freedom that I cannot fully understand currently. It would be a world where I wouldn’t have to work for money anymore because my money would be working for me. This, in turn, would mean that I could help others in my local community by enabling me to provide more time focusing on current problems and opportunities within the community.
How would you help your community if you were rich?
MR
Great post,
yea I will give back as much as I can. I am a real advocator of the person trying. I hate “askers”, people who ask and get stuff while the quite honorable people get nada.
I know what you mean. And the ones that ask “a lot” are usually not as bad off as the silent honorable people.
This is such a great idea! I always thought there was a better way to help the community. Imagine if everyone put in 1 dollar to a fund such as this in each state, and that fund’s interest payments were used to help the homeless and those less fortunate. I see that as a much better way to allocate wealth.
Feeding the homeless and those less fortunate is a good goal, but I would even like to improve those individuals in addition to giving them food and shelter.
I know that much in society is perception, and especially self perception. If we have more broad exposure to such skills and trades in schools, perhaps we could find a perfect area for the homeless to thrive in before they become homeless.
You don’t have to be rich to help your community. You can find rich people to fund your ideas.
I’m on the volunteer board at work, so I help figure out how to allocate my company’s money to the community. The only cost is my time.
I’m also on the board of our local STEM chapter (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). Again, the hard part is figuring out what we want the plan to be. Fundraising is the easy part.
I would love to do that kind of stuff full time. My biggest issue is not the money, but the time. I think there are plenty of rich people out there looking for creative and effective charitable uses of their money. It’s the ideas and measurement of what’s working and what’s not that is lacking, not necessarily the money.
My godfather was/is the same way. He was on the board of a dozen community organizations. You’d be surprised how unorganized people are and many of them just need a good project manager to implement good ideas (which he did). He was never rich, but he contributed a lot to his community.
That’s my 2 cents. If that’s your dream, you can do it today without millions but you do need some time. I do probably 3 hours/month right now. Luckily the work volunteer board is on company time, so that makes it a little easier to manage.
I agree, when you aren’t financially independent you aren’t truly free to share the increasingly valuable personal time.
You do make a great point though! There is nothing stopping me from doing as you say, and I would even be willing to spend some money to get it going.
Great add First Gen!!!
I would start a tutoring program of some type for inter-city kids. The schools in Detroit have so little. I would also set up a scholarship fund for the high school I attended. Where I grew up, people were never expected to go to college and kids don’t really know where to turn.
Sounds like some great ideas!
I think a lot of inner city kids don’t see college as a possibility from a financial perspective. Doing as you suggest might make that option visible!
Great ideas!
I would be donating money more than usual to the community if I were rich. But you really do not have to be rich in order to help your community. Sometimes, volunteering your personal services are much better. Volunteering your time is quite similar to donating money since the community can save a lot in wages and can use that money somewhere else.
Donating time is good too. But I would like to actually enrich my community for introducing something new and benefitial. Or personally help families do things that they could before because of costs.