Merry Christmas Everyone!
I hope you’re having a great holiday. Are you going anywhere this year? Unfortunately, the RB40 household is skipping Christmas this year. I’m in Thailand this year to help my parents. Mrs. RB40 and Junior were going to visit her parents, but our son got sick. They had to cancel the trip and spend Christmas at home. This Christmas isn’t very jolly for us. At least, we already got gifts for Junior. Anyway, I hope you are having a better holiday than us.
On to the bucket list! I like to review my bucket list during Christmas vacation because it’s the end of the year and we have a few days off. I can go over the list to remove or add new goals as needed. 2022 was a transition year. Finally, life returned to normal. Unfortunately, I didn’t make much progress with my Christmas bucket list. 2022 was just too eventful. Mrs. RB40 took a sabbatical and we traveled all summer long. Alright, let’s see my bucket list.
Financial Bucket List
My main long-term goal is to simplify our finance and generate enough passive income to cover our cost of living. We did okay in 2022. Our FI ratio is well over 100%. Our income was down, but our spending was under control. It worked out.
Here is my financial bucket list.
- FI Ratio > 100% average over 3 years (Still good!): The FI ratio is our annual passive income divided by our annual expense. For this goal, I average it over 3 years instead of looking at just one year. This gives us a better picture because things can be lumpy from year to year. For the last 3 years, our average was 127%. That’ll work. Now, I just need to keep it up. You can read more about how we generate our passive income here.
- Mrs. RB40 retires early: Originally, we thought she would retire in 2022. However, Mrs. RB40 isn’t ready to retire yet so she took a sabbatical instead. She had a great time, but she decided to go back to work. She plans to retire when our son goes off to college in 2029. Financially, she could retire in 2022 if she wanted to.
- LWR > 100% (Done in 2020!!!): Check out my Lifetime Wealth Ratio post for more detail. Basically, this is our net worth divided by cumulated earnings. It’s ridiculous, but we earned more than $3 million over 30 years of work. That’s a lot of income for 2 people. Our LWR crossed over 100% at some point in 2020. Unfortunately, 2022 was a pretty bad year for our investments. Our LWR dropped quite a bit, but we’re still above 100%. Whew, let’s hope 2023 will be a better year.
- Become debt-free (2029): A few years ago, we had 3 mortgages on 3 properties. We consolidated a bit. Now, we have 2 properties and just 1 mortgage. Our ultimate goal is to have no debt at all, but that will take a while to accomplish. I don’t think we’ll get rid of the mortgage until we sell our home. It’ll probably be after RB40Jr goes off to college.
- RB40Jr graduates from College (2033): We want to help RB40Jr graduate from a 4-year public college with no debt. If he wants to go to an expensive private college, he will have to get some scholarships and/or student loans. Gosh, I just realize I’ll be 60 by 2033. That’s what happens when you put off having kids.
- Net worth > $10 million (2040): Ten million dollars sounds like a lot of money, but we still have 18 years left to work on it. If we can increase our net worth by 10% per year, we can get there. I’m optimistic about our chances.
Fun Bucket List
Whew! Now you see how a personal finance blogger (ex-engineer) thinks. Yes, I’m a numbers nerd and I’m quite happy with that. After all, it helped me retire early. Of course, life isn’t all about numbers. That’s why I have some fun stuff on my bucket list, too.
Let’s see… I already tried skydiving, bungee jumping, snowboarding, surfing, riding an elephant, white water rafting, shooting a gun, and a few other fun activities. I’m glad I did these when I was young. Right now, snowboarding doesn’t sound fun at all. My right knee is gimpy and I can’t handle the cold anymore.
Here are my fun goals.
- A total solar eclipse (Done in 2016!): We experienced totality in 2016 at the beach in Oregon. It was such a powerful experience, totally awesome. It made me feel like I’m a part of the universe. Everyone should experience totality at least once. It was so much better than a partial eclipse. I’ve seen many partials and wasn’t impressed.
- Hot air balloon ride (2023): Mrs. RB40 has always wanted to do this. I think this will be a fun family activity once RB40Jr is a bit older. He’s not a big fan of heights at this time. We’ll try to do this next year. I think Junior is ready.
- RTW trip (2030): I want to take a year off and go on a family trip around the world. I figured we could take RB40Jr out of school after 5th grade and just go. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. Mrs. RB40 isn’t ready to retire and RB40Jr has problems at school. We need to keep a stable schedule until our son graduates from high school. We’ll put the RTW trip off until 2030.
- Take Mrs. RB40 and Junior on a long road trip around New Zealand (2025): I drove around New Zealand for two weeks in my 20s. It was so much fun and I’d like my family to experience it, too. I’ll try to get this done by 2025.
- Ziplining (2023): We missed the chance to try ziplining when we visited Costa Rica in 2015. RB40Jr was too small. He’s braver now so we’ll try to do it next year.
- Live in Thailand for a few years and explore SE Asia (2030): I want to live in Thailand for a few years and explore SE Asia. I think this will work out nicely because I’m very familiar with Thailand.
- Live in South America for a few years and explore (2035): After we get bored of SE Asia, we’ll go live in South America for a few years.
- Swim with whale sharks (2040): This sounds like an incredible experience. Is it worth $2,000 for 30 minutes of fun? I don’t know. I’ll try to get this done by 2040. Background here – Am I depriving my family?
- Visit space (2040): This is a stretch goal. Hopefully, space tourism will be somewhat affordable before I’m too old. If not, maybe I can get my ashes shot off into space. It’s the final frontier, right? Why not? This is my stretch goal.
Ultimate Goals
Here are my life goals that didn’t quite fit the categories above.
- Stay married: Mrs. RB40 and I have been married for over 22 years! I think that’s a huge accomplishment. We have a great relationship and we need to keep it up. My goal is to stay married to Mrs. RB40 until I kick the bucket. Who else would carry my weight? 😀 We had a good year in 2022 despite the pandemic. She worked from home and we spent a lot of time together. We went out to date lunches and enjoyed ourselves. Life was good.
- Build my RB40 Villa (2050): I want to buy 3 to 5 acres in Hawaii (the Big Island) and build a family compound. It’ll have a large communal structure – kitchen, eating area, workspace, crafting area, BBQ area, and a nice garden. We’ll build several small huts, just a bedroom and lounging area. Families and friends can visit the RB40 Villa and hang out as long as they want to. We can put these dwellings on Airbnb when they’re available. I don’t know if I can achieve this pipe dream because there are a ton of obstacles. Hey, a guy can dream, right? I might have to change the location to Thailand because it’ll be a lot cheaper to build there. This is also a stretch goal.
Some Easy Goals
I need to add some easy goals so I can cross them off the bucket list occasionally. All of the above goals are very difficult to achieve. It’s no fun when you can’t achieve anything…
- See the Olympics in person (2028): The Olympics are coming to Los Angeles in 2028! It’d be a ton of fun if we can see a few events. Mrs. RB40’s family lives near Palm Springs so we could make it a family visit.
Goals I gave up on
I removed all of this stuff from my bucket list. There were too many things on it and these aren’t important to me anymore.
- Learn Tai Chi: I just not interested enough to put time and effort into it.
- Join the Peace Corps: probably not realistic. Mrs. RB40 doesn’t want to do this anymore, either. She already volunteered in her 20s and doesn’t want to deal with that kind of stress at our age.
- Join Toastmasters: I haven’t been able to work TM into my schedule. It’s probably because I don’t really want to do it.
- Become a Buddhist monk for a season: I’m too materialistic to become a monk even for a few months.
- Learn to speak Mandarin: I doubt I’ll put the effort into this unless I go live in China for a while.
- Build an outdoor pizza oven: I rolled this into my RB40 compound goal.
- Build a treehouse: This will be at my compound.
- Volunteer to help recent immigrants: Maybe I can do this later when I’m not stressed out all the time.
- Ride in a fighter jet: I might get to this someday, but it isn’t a high priority.
- Own a convertible again: Not a priority right now. Maybe when we move to a sunny location.
- Live in Santa Barbara for a while: Not a priority anymore. We’ll probably just visit.
- Various travel goals: Pyramids, Eastern Europe, Vietnam, etc… We’ll get there when we get there. No hurry.
Whew! My trimmed-down bucket list is still pretty big. I’m happy with it, though. Most of these goals are realistic and I can work on them a bit at a time. I will get them done and update this post every Christmas.
What about you? Do you have a bucket list? Please share some of the things on your bucket list here. Don’t wait until you’re 65 to make one because cliff jumping at Rick’s Café in Jamaica won’t be so appealing anymore (done).
Happy Holidays!
*Sign up for a free account at Personal Capital to help manage your net worth and investment accounts. I log in almost every day to check on our accounts. It’s a great site for DIY investors.
Passive income is the key to early retirement. This year, Joe is investing in commercial real estate with CrowdStreet. They have many projects across the USA so check them out!
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I’m happy to see that the Hawaii compound isn’t completely off the list. I had thought that with the progress on the Thailand property you’d put focus there.
I know Energy Gal (my wife) would be all in on the Hawaii compound idea. It could be a good partnership down the road. We’ve got time, right?
Unfortunately, there is zero progress at the Thailand property. My dad is too busy right now. Maybe in a year or so.
Sure, I think it’ll be great to partner up. Let’s talk. 😉
Man you pushed her retirement out to 2029.
I suspect you aren’t married. If you are, you would know who’s the boss. 😀
Great Bucket list Joe, especially the Hawaii compound, sounds like a great idea. Not sure about swimming whale sharks, or really with anything big enough to swallow me whole. Anyway, I hope you had a good Christmas and things are improving for you in Thailand! Safe Travels!
Nice that you want to live in South America for a few years. If you ever decide to settle in Brazil for a few months let me know and I can help you around. Not everyone speaks english here or have heard of FIRE so here you can find a friend who has both!
Cheers
Love your bucket list, Joe! Sorry your Christmas wasn’t more fun this year…
I’ve got to ask, is there any way you’d consider enabling RSS for your site? Your blog is one of the few I can’t add in my RSS reader, which means I often forget to check for new posts!
I love your list. I used to set achievable new year goals – like “go to the beach more often”, or “camp more this summer.” I haven’t done that in a while and you’ve inspired me. 2021’s been difficult with a detached retina and eye surgeries limiting travel. I can’t go anywhere and I’m stir crazy. I should be released in March but to pass the time and have an experience I got a part time job, which has exposed me to so many people of other races, religions and nationalities. It’s felt like an international trip all while staying here in the metro area. For me, 2021 I’d like to get to Chiapas and ruins, a Mexican state I’ve never been in. I know it’s doable after the doc says I can, I just gotta set it as a priority. Thanks for the ideas.
I’m sorry to hear about your eye surgeries. Retina detachment is a big issue. My doctor warned me about it.
For New Year goals, you should try to make them measurable. Camp more is hard to measure. You can say something like go camping 7 times in 2022. That should work better. Good luck and Happy New Year!
Lifetime Wealth Ratio > 100% is an incredible accomplishment. It really shows the power of investing over a long period of time. Thanks for sharing!
Give me a shout in 2035 when you come to live in South America. I can show you around here in Brazil and perhaps have you talk to some of my students on the financial education for middle/high school project I run here.
I would like to travel around the country in an RV with my kid. She’s 2 now, and I’m 42 so yes we waited a while too. I wonder what age is the best for a kid to do this and not miss out on school? Living in Asia for a year would be a great experience too, I’m Filipino.
I think I’m going to copy your goal of having your kid graduate from college debt free or close to it. That’s a great gift to get them started in life. What’s the goal $ amount for that? I have 10k so far in her 529 fund
I think you should do it before the kid starts high school. The school will be more serious then.
Elementary school is pretty basic. It’s good for kids to learn to socialize.
You can use various online calculators to see how much college would cost for your daughter.
It looks like $65,000/year for tuition + room and board at a UC, instate, 2036.
Here is my post about it.
https://retireby40.org/529-saving-plans-college/
Good luck!
Hoping my comment isn’t omitted this round. I’ve left several in the past; alas, they have not appeared! (And they were so complimentary!) Just want to reiterate, Joe, you strike me as a humble, down-to-earth person. Also, in tandem, quite likeable! This shines through in each and every one of your posts, explaining the vast commentary from your fans. I look forward to reading your contributions. Wishing you and your Family a Happy, Healthy New Year – and beyond!
These are great. I’m envious because I still need to come up with a good bucket list. I don’t have the same desire for travel. Maybe once we going I will, but, like you, we need my wife to retire to have the time.
That’s really great about the net worth growth and LWR. I haven’t looked at LWR in a couple of years. I think it’s interesting but it’s not a core financial ratio that’s helpful to me.
Nice list, especially choosing to stay married! I like that you want to help your son graduate debt free too.
Happy holidays to you all!!
I love bucket lists. I really need to start on one.
This past year, I’ve put a few minutes (literally 5 or less most nights) learning Japanese with Duolingo. I can’t say that I can speak a lot, but I can identify a lot of characters and several phrases. Duolingo seems to think that I know 300 words, but I doubt it. Anyway, it’s a fairly low time investment while the kids are asleep. Duolingo does very well to remind you each night to keep up the streak. I haven’t been able to make any habit stick except for this one.
My point is that you might be able to make baby steps like I am, while keeping the door open for bigger gains down the line (as time permits).
That’s a great idea. I’d love to learn Chinese for future travel. Although, 2020 might be a bad year for this. I’m spending a lot of time with my new XBOX. 🙂
—Live in Thailand for a few years and explore SE Asia (2030)
I assume you have a green card (so do I). How are you planning on pulling this off if technically you can’t stay more than 6 months living outside the US?
Fortunately, I’m a US citizen now. You should think about it if you want to travel. A US passport is very good for that.
i would love to live in santa barbara for awhile. my good friend was in grad school there and i dated a girl from there long distance for a short time. i like south america but i think we’ll live right here in the u.s. it’s a good idea to do some of those bucket list items when you’re young. i’m glad i got a lot of stuff out of my system and would rather reminisce about those times than try and relive them. my body wouldn’t hold up!
best goal in the whole post is to stay married. i hope you’re enjoying the holidays with family.
SB is like a fantasy town. It’s really neat, but it’s so expensive now. I guess we could live outside of town. That will be a bit cheaper.
Staying married is a good goal to have. Congrats on 20 years!
I don’t have a bucket list to do this or that or to go here or there. I have goals for my finances, my family, and my faith. I wouldn’t call the goals a bucket list, per say. I’m thinking that people should have bucket lists of things they want to do AFTER they have a certain amount of money, because I think most people don’t save enough.
That’s a good way to look at it. These are just long-range goals.
Vietnam is my bucket list except I am a vegetarian! I doubt I will find a variety of options for me.
I love living vicariously through your post though. 🙂
They must have some vegetarian food. Thailad has a lot of vegetarian options.
I’ll post our Hanoi trip soon. 🙂
Whaaat?! Vietnam IS the place for vegetarian food. The BEST place. The have vegetarian opstions everywhere and completely vegetarian places. I always dream of Vietnam and their food!
OH! I want to go to the 2028 Olympics!!! We went to the 2012 in London and it was awesome!
The 2028 Olympics will be the most convenient location for us. I hope to take a week off and go see a few events.
Enjoy your short trip this Holiday! You guys already went to Thailand, where the weather is warm and the food looked delicious! That would definitely be tough to beat this time of year (even in California).
Regardless, enjoy the trip!
Oh, and thanks for sharing your bucket list! 🙂
It’s great to see families and friends. CA weather is much nicer than Portland, but there are just too many people here. Super busy.
Why is everyone moving to Hawaii haha. Btw if you have time when in the Bay Area let me know via email and we can catch up.
We’ll only be here for 2 days. No time to do anything. 🙁
Your list is so eclectic, it seems to have all sorts of things on it. Some pretty big ideas too, but as you say, a guy can dream.
I’m going to have to look at my list. I made one, but never remember to check on it. Heading off to have a loot at it now.
Retirebyforty,
It was wondering if I could use this write-up on my other website, I will link it back to your website though.
Great Thanks.
Of course, feel free to link to this page.
“Learn to speak Mandarin: ??”
Aha did this never happen?!
No, RB40Jr has a hearing impairment so we’re focusing on English for now. We’ll try other languages later.
What an awesome list. There really is such a variety of things you wish to do. I am still a long way away from having the freedom like that so I will keep my head down and keep working to make it happen! Happy new year!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in 2019 to you and family.
Glad to learn your mother is doing better in Thailand. We have some in-laws who are German, and they are in their 80’s. The Grandmother, who used to speak English quite well, now forgets most of it and speaks and writes only in German now. Just can’t remember the words and phrases, similar to your mom.
Just finishing up two months of selling wine at Costco during the busy Holiday Season. A great, fun gig meeting so many friends wandering into my department. I don’t mind the six hour days but the eight hour ones standing on concrete floors are a challenge. But feel blessed to be in good enough health to compete with the young bucks.
Have a great trip Joe. Best to you and family.
David Michael
Happy holidays to you as well. It’s great Ethat you’re enjoying work at CostCo. Eight hours on your feet sounds tough. I’m impressed.
My mom is much better in Thailand. Hopefully, this will last a while.
Best wishes, -Joe
Very nice Xmas post with a lot of insights on what to add in the bucket list (and before 65!!)
Sorry for your mother condition…hopefully she will have a blast with you and kid in Thailand!
Hi Joe,
I hope that you will be able to achieve most of your bucket lists in time to come.
WTK
Hi Joe, Merry Christmas! Hope you folks have a great time in Thailand. Good to hear your mom seems liking there better. Hopefully she settles down there happily.
Once a while I dream about joining the Peace Corps. But I’m not sure if I really want to do that, as the material comfort seems more important to me than experience. Skydiving and bungee jumping sounds a lot of fun. Did you like it?
Merry Christmas to you and your family. I’m happy to hear your Mom is doing well in Thailand, at least for this short time. Enjoy it while you can.
I know this post is combined from 2013 and now, but I wanted to mention that my husband and I practice Tai Chi every day. He started in 1998 and I followed in 2004. It is a great practice, especially as you age. You get a meditative quality, gain balance, flexibility, learn to move your core/center, get those joints flowing and you can practice even when you have a small injury. I recommend it. We find it helps to be able to do other activities even when you aren’t “in shape” for them as the practice keeps you ready in subtle ways. I can point you to some resources if you’d like.
Thank you! I need to find a Tai Chi group in Portland that practices at the right time. Early morning is tough for now because I have to get RB40Jr ready for school. Merry Christmas!
Great list!! I especially like the stretch goals and a few easier ones… you’re right it’s not fun not crossing stuff off your list!
That pic looks like Maya Mall! It’s so festive there!!
My wife and I was in Chiang Mai a couple of weeks ago. We were there for about 2 months. We were in Vietnam (Hoi An / Da Nang) for a week and are now in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.
Have a great Christmas and enjoy your holiday!!
Ernest
Thanks! Yes, it is Maya. My dad’s condo is close by. Enjoy your travel. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas Joe. That is wonderful news that your mother is doing better with familiar surroundings and being with her family there.
I flew to Bali and it was about 24 hours of air time and feel your pain. Well worth it though if it makes your mom feel better though.
Wishing you and your family a wonderful new year. Safe travels my friend
So glad you survived the flight. Sounds like you made the best decision at the right time for your mom.
I honestly don’t know how you would pull off the “round the world” thing at this point. You have too many holdings/responsibilities on the home front now. Maybe, if you let it all go, ha,ha.
So funny about Mrs. RB40 loving Snoopy. She can have all my Snoopy stuff….. fat chance! Ha,ha!
Happy, happy holidays to you and the RB40 crew. A year of great posts. Thank you!
Thank you for your support this year. Your comments have been very helpful.
I don’t think we can do the RTW trip anytime soon. Maybe in 5-6 years.
Mrs. RB40 loves all things Snoopy. I found a couple of things for her on this trip. I think she will be very happy with them.
Happy holidays!
Joe, so glad your mom is doing well after the long journey back to Asia! I’ve taken my mom back the last two years as a winter getaway as well and Mental health is equally if not important as Physical health. How to Live long and prosper: https://youtu.be/ptIecdCZ3dg
Love your dream bucket lists! Always add new ones and don’t be afraid to cross things off (or better yet even, do them early!)
Unnecessary prerequisites and pre-conditional timetables:
Years ago, I promised myself I would tour Europe and see Wimbledon and French Open once I got married… Well at 26, I got impatient and finding a woman who will put up with all my tennis habits and share the same adventure travel desire can be near impossible! So with $1000 and 2 weeks sabbatical between jobs, I took it upon myself to go – literally, one of the best investments of my life. It opened up the world, the cultures, the opportunities I would never have found sitting and daydreaming at my desk. I saw Spain, UK, France on my first Euro trip and was hooked: https://www.jctennis.com/2010/07/road-toward-rafas-renaissance.html
Having a company mission is important – but having a Life Mission is paramount!
Invest in yourself, your experiences, your education, your memories…I’ve never regretted it.
Now, after 15 years of work in the IT industry – I quit my job this week. After years of prep and months of getting past cold feet, I have finally decided to enter my FIRE phase at 36 instead of 39 (saying you retired by 40 sounds good, but it’s only as arbitrary as any numerical “Base 10” milestone, 40, 55, 65, etc if you think about it 🙂 ). Sunny Cali, here I come…
If I can only leave one thing to my coworkers, it is that one must have Courage of Spirit and a desire to grow, learn, expand, explore in order to escape the rat race. They may try to move your cheese, but they can never move your heart. – JC
Congrats on a great Christmas and year! My wife was a Peace Corps volunteer in Uzbekistan too!
I tried uzbek plov first time after reading your post. It tastes very similar to Biryani a popular dish in Indian restaurants. Delicious 🙂
I love that RB40JR wanted Sushi! We just had our little baby boy last month… I wonder what he will want for the Holidays when he is old enough to eat!
Love that you have a bucket list you review every year Joe! That’s a great idea!
I’ve never been a bucket list kind of person, but if I was, I would definitely copy this idea!
Happy Holidays!
So you live in Portland and want to live in Santa Barbara – I’m from Santa Barbara and currently live in Portland. Maybe we should hang out sometime. 🙂
Santa Barbara is so much better than Portland in the winter. I love that area, but the cost of living is so expensive. Maybe we can just move down there and enjoy life for a year or two. Rent and just kickback.
Very cool list. Our bucket list is a goal to go one new domestic location and one new international every year. A bit more general but the locale list is otherwise a mile long. So far we have an international planned for next year.
That’s a great goal. We might take 2 international trips next year. A week in Mexico and another trip. 🙂
RB40 –
Pretty awesome and love the continual updates! Pumped for you to start knocking more out and seeing the bold “DONE” at this time in 2017. Congrats on the year and best of luck ringing in the new year!
-Lanny
Thanks! I’m looking forward to crossing more items off the list too. 2017 will be slow, though. I think 2022 will be the big year. That’s when we plan to do our RTW trip.
New Zealand has recently been added to our ever-growing list of places to travel to. Looks very cool. For a while now, I’ve had going to Vegas during March Madness on my bucket list. I also want to visit the baseball hall of fame in Cooperstown. Long-term goals include becoming a millionaire by 40 and reaching FI by 45.
Good luck with your goals! New Zealand is a lot of fun. It’s much more relaxed than the US when I went.
You should try to catch the steam train in Fort Bragg when you are in the bay area. It’s a great ride with beautiful scenery.
Great list Joe. I can honesty say I’ve never had a bucket list before. Perhaps that’s because I only just came up for air a month ago.
If all goes well with recent endeavors (and the stock market doesn’t tank for the next 20 years), maybe I will give it a go.
That’s a pretty comprehensive list!
I think I might do this soon but I don’t think there would be as much on it as you. We’ve done a lot of travelling already and I feel like I am getting into my “settling down” stage of life 🙂
Oh yea Croatia is a stunning country… really different scenery and the islands are fantastic! Czech republic also very nice! Not been to greece though. Any particular reason why you picked out those few European countries? If you are in the area I’d also check a few of the other eastern European countries such as Slovenia and Hungary both of which are pretty cool. I’ve heard Serbia is nice as well but can’t vouch for that one. I expect all of them have very interesting places and lovely scenery but haven’t done them all myself either.
We stopped traveling for 4 years and no we are ready to get back to it. Have fun with your list!
WOW do I agree with you on Jiro’s. That man is unique and astonishing, and won’t be around much longer. His son does seem ready to take over the reigns though. They mentioned in the documentary that the michelin judges were served food made by his son during some of their visits. He reminds me of the ideal of the samurai, focusing your life on doing each task to perfection.
Jiro is very admirable. I would be happy to be served by his son too. It’s too obsessive for me, though. I’d rather enjoy life and families than obsessing about something. It’s good that someone is that dedicated.
Just wanted to say that this year might be your year for a championship Trail Blazers game!
I hope so, but they always choke at the finish line…
I hear great things about the French Laundry. I live relatively near Napa and would love to save up the money to go there, but I’m afraid the whole experience has already been over-hyped for me.
We didn’t know much about the French Laundry when we went so it was a great experience for us. It’s hard to overcome the hype, but I think you’ll be satisfied. 🙂
Awesome list! I’m considering doing a vow renewal for our 10 year anniversary (married 4 years so far!) as we did the small courthouse wedding as well. I’m a big fan of small weddings, but I would like to have a nice party with good food and drinks to celebrate that milestone.
My bucket list (all in my head, not official) is made up of lots of traveling and starting a family 🙂
10 year anniversary would be a great time to do it. Have fun with your bucket list!
“Have a 20th anniversary vow renewal. We just went to the courthouse when we got married 15 years ago. We need to have a big celebration and invite all our friends and family since we never had a wedding.”
Joe — this brought a huge smile to my face 😀
Having an excellent marriage is key. I think it’s awesome that you have prioritized this item on your list. All of the travel sounds like a blast as well – go forth and conquer!!!!
I really need to plan this. Hopefully we can do it in Hawaii or perhaps Santa Barbara. It should be a lot of fun.
When you come to the Big Apple you have to reserve space for pizza at a few different places! One does not just have ONE slice of pizza from ONE place in NYC.
Reserve? Can’t I just walk in a get a slice? I’ll try to get in a few places and some delis too.
Looks like a good list, Joe. One that should keep you busy for a couple of decades at least.
Neat to see Argentina on your list. Definitely worth a visit. Buenos Aires is a beautiful city.
I haven’t put together a bucket list yet, but I really should. Most things I would want to add would be adventuresome and should probably be done sooner than later! (Like hiking the South to North rim of the Grand Canyon! – Did the south twice when I was in my early 20’s.)
You really should. It will be fun to cross off.
Have you seen Gravity? **** space travel.
Hahaha, I haven’t seen Gravity. I figure space travel will be a space shuttle ride up and down. I’m pretty sure we won’t have to spacewalk.
Your list totally sounds like my dream year (or 2 or 3 years) if I were to win the lottery tomorrow. My wife and I love travelling, but the one place I want to go that she has no interest in is space. That is a definite bucket list item for the ages. I’m right there with you. Hopefully in 30 years, it will go from being 250k to maybe 25k, which even though it would be for about 30 minutes of enjoyment, is totally worth it to me.
Good luck! My list will take forever to finish off. Yeah, winning the lottery would help a lot. 🙂
Wow you are pretty adventurous! I want to visit China too. It’s my all time dream. I really like to esperience their culture and visit the historical places.
China was great. One trip isn’t enough and we definitely need to go back.
That’s one hell of a bucket list, Joe. Way to swing big. You can’t hit a home run unless you do.
Well, I think the only one that seems out of reach is the space. Hopefully the price will come down in 20 years or perhaps I’d win the lotto. 🙂
Great bucket list! And if you get to visit Eastern Europe (Greece is actually considered here part of Southern Europe), make a sure to have a few days in Romania too, I am sure you will like the country as well. As for Turkey, a summer spent at their all inclusive resorts will surely be great!
I’ll add Romania to the list and will drop by to say hello. 🙂
Lots of cool items in your list. When you live for 6 months in Central America, stop by Guatemala, you can hike the Pacaya volcano and see the melted lava a few meters away from you, and do the helicopter ride to see other active volcanoes in eruption by night. That is pretty impressive.
That sounds like a great plan. Thanks for the tips. 6 months in Central America is probably 20 years away though…
It seems that I have quite a bit in common with your wish list. Travel is also my highest priority (I am currently traveling in Spain’s Andalucia region for the winter holidays) and I plan to explained my horizon with time. New Zealand’s south island is on top of my travel list and so are all the east European countries that you mentioned. As of now, I will restrain my ambition and keep the space travel away from my check list!
Just curious, I see you have been to French Laundry; what’s your impression on the same? Is it worth the money? I guess, when you visited French Laundry, you were not tracking your daily/monthly expenses that rigorously. One French Laundry visit per family will cover up the lion’s share of the monthly expenditure.
I love Granada and Sevilla, but wasn’t impressed with Barcelona. Enjoy your trip!
We went to the French Laundry years and years ago. It was definitely worth it. We enjoy good food and it expanded our horizon. I don’t know if we’ll go back though. It’d have to be a really special occasion. Once is good. 🙂
Great idea for a tradition, Joe! Good list, too!
Next year we can try to meet at the property I own near Portland and you guys can go crazy. We have lots of trees.
Isn’t Jiro getting kind of old? You might need to rush that one. I wouldn’t worry about rushing skydiving, though. My grandfather went skydiving on his 70th birthday. (:
Have a great Christmas!
That’s be great. Let us know when you’re coming down. Yeah, Jiro is getting kind of old, I’d better move that one up the list.
Have a great Holidays!