Ask Lemmy

2002… uff, that would be hard. As a ten year old there is so little you can do!

I guess I would steal an identity and get some ground breaking research out on a quicker time scale. In particular trying to get ahead of the climate deniers. I would invest in some whatevers that made it big as soon as possible, then during the 2008 crisis, then Bitcoins.

I would find it impossible to not look for my friends and family, even just stalking them from afar. That would probably drive me insane.

I’d use my wealth to lobby hard for climate justice and climate research. Probably still hide my true identity. I’m not American, so I would need to think really hard if preventing Trump is worth it, but I would lobby for a quicker energy transition and for a better social net. I’d assume with the knowledge I have at hand, I could even tweak the end result of the 2008 crisis… but that would be a massive butterfly to introduce.

On a global scale, I would think that some properly timed interventions in Africa could have dramatic impacts both socially and ecologically, but I’d have to study more to figure that out.

The billionaire one is kinda easy

Sports betting to get your base funds up to a decent level then buy the shares in the successful tech companies post dot-com crash. Wouldn't hurt to buy some gold and bitcoin too.

Sports betting would continue helping you live a lavish lifestyle until all the investment income gets to a good level.

If you do well enough, you should be able to amplify what you've already made to acquire an absurd amount of wealth on the subprime mortgage crash in 2008.

I was in college in 2002, so I would go there and tell myself what is going on. That shouldn't break the rules since nobody but me would know what was happening (just a different version of me). Working together with a blueprint of the next two decades, it would be trivial for college me to make money in the stock market. I would raise as much money as I could before the 2008 housing bubble bursts so I could buy up a lot of property cheap.

From there I could use the information on close elections to politically swing things the way I want. 20 year old me would practice writing so I could get into writing newspaper editorials, building my reputation as someone who has exceptional ability to predict political and social trends. This reputation would give me a foothold to get to speak to and advise people in power, further allowing me to shape the direction of politics. With this money and influence, I could make sure COVID was handled properly, that the war in Ukraine never happened, and that climate change was addressed with the seriousness it deserves. I could save hundreds of millions of lives and nobody would ever know.

2002? Damn, too late to warn everyone about 9/11.

I'd go befriend my brother. I like that dude.

Well, my immediate problem is the general lack of memory and personality change (can't really rely on a 10 year old's diary.) So... I'm probably going to need some sort of convincing injury to blame.

After that is the hard choice. I could toss the USB and just live. But the nature of the situation suggests I'm supposed to do something. At minimum I'd want the means to investigate the scenario. Running away has merits, but this sounds like a safe, stable situation, and it seems wrong to abandon the family this kid belonged to.

I'll need a side hustle that works for a 10 year old... maybe trading cards or something along those lines. The money does not matter as much as the hustle and laying the ground work for an early interest in business and money making schemes. After that, retail arbitrage, then a bigger payout. Cashing in a big prize for a discovery or winning the lottery would draw too much attention, but sports betting could work. Then use that to move into financial markets. Moving slowly but setting things up to ramp gains by 18. I know that misses the goal, but doing it earlier depends entirely on the family situation. 20 is probably more doable.

All y'all just want to be rich. Pathetic.