Things to do before I die...

[dory36]

... I have enough on my list of "things to do before I die" to last until I am about 120.

Other than the boat, which seems like a great idea and grandparenting, which I know is wonderful, what's on that list? Just some of it, and just curious.

I can make a short list, like (a) travel to Tahiti, (b) Learn Spanish (c) Read a book each week. Nothing really exotic, but several posters have mentioned their "things to do list" and I'm wondering what's on yours, and others for that matter.

I'm expecting to mostly stay put geographically for the next decade, while grandkids get big enough to participate. Sometime in the 2007-2010 timeframe, I'll get another boat, take my time fitting it out, and then eventually start spending about 1/2 time cruising again and half time on land. We still haven't explored much of the Caribbean, the Atlantic shore north of the Chesapeake, the US and Canadian inland rivers (as in "Honey Let's Get a Boat", but not the race-pace that they followed), the Pacific Northwest, the Pacific Islands, or the Mediterranian. If I'm physically able to do all that, it will take me until I'm probably mid 70's.

There's a start -- what do others have on their lists?

 

[OldAgePensioner]

Rough (African Queen type) boat tour up the Amazon.  8)
Hike up to Machu Piccu. 
See the Egyptian pyramids.


EDIT: Learn to spell

 

[Sheryl]

You probably don't really want to know!

My "list" is what keeps me going toward ER.   In the computer it is titled "30 Things" but that is sort of cheating because Thing One is "Travel" with a sub-list of 24 countries or areas of the world I want to spend time in.

Things Two thru Thirty fall into general catagories:

Health/Fitness/Sports
competitive running (want to get to a half-marathon)
hiking, backpacking, scuba, mountain climbing, etc.

Education/Personal Development
Continuing to study chinese and spanish, learn more about investing, get my pilot's license, read the classics, etc.

Creative
Gardening and landscape design, home decorating and remodeling, drawing, and painting

Professional and Community
Various volunteer endeavors I have already been or hope to be involved with in the future.

Actually as I review the list,  I feel pretty good about the fact that I've been able to do many of these things already, I just see ER as a way to make them my life, rather than something I squeeze into free moments.

Sorry you asked??

 

[grumpy]

My list includes:

Pet a tiger
Take a hot air balloon flight
Fly in a glider
See the pyramids
Visit Machu Pichu
Have grandchildren
Drive a formula one car
Learn to play an instrument
Win a poker tournament

 

[Danny]

My list includes:

Pet a tiger

grumpy - Do you want to pet a wild tiger? If you do, will that be the last thing you do?
And If you're never able to get close to one - does that mean you get to live forever?
I do like your list
DanTien

 

[retire@40]

Dory, thanks for bringing this topic back to life.  I started a topic like this about a year ago and I enjoyed reading other people's lists.  I even put some of those things on my own list.  This is probably my favorite FIRE topic since it goes to the heart of why most people want to FIRE.

These are some of the things on my list in no particular order

Travel to:
   - Spain (Madrid, Barcelona)
   - England (London)
   - Italy (Sorrento and Amalfi)
   - France (Paris)
   - Switzerland
   - Austria
   - Australia
   - New Zealand
   - Cuba (after Castro dies)
   - Germany (Oktoberfest)
   - Galapagos Islands
   - Canada (Toronto, Banff)
   - Africa (photo safari)
   - Arizona (Grand Canyon, houseboating)
   - California (San Diego, Napa Valley)
   - NY during Christmas
   - Kentucky (Kentucky Derby)
   - Texas (San Antonio, Houston)
   
Swim with dolphins

Tuna fishing

Catch a Marlin in Florida

Deer hunting

Drive from coast to coast

Run the Boston marathon

Make beer

Learn a third language

Learn another instrument

Join a local orchestra

Whitewater rafting in different parts of the country

Write a small book

Make more oil paintings

Horseback riding in different parts of the country

Get a low-level job at Walmart to see what it's like to work for somebody, then quit after a day or two.

Scuba diving in different waters

Read books in my book list

and the list goes on.....

 

[Nords]

I have a list...

I started a "goals" list in December 2000.  You guys reminded me to take a look at it, which only seems to happen every 12-18 months. 

This timeframe was originally in weeks-months but now it's mostly in years.  Time has dilated in retirement.

Things that I don't think I need to work on anymore are stricken.  And I admit that some of the items are beginning to look a little pathetic, but it's a snapshot of a guy entering his 40s.

Very short range ("the next couple months"):
- Do well on the big inspection
- Start investing in the stock market
- Finish unpacking boxes
- Reorganize the garage
- Make a tickler on Outlook Calendar?
- See "HoneyDo" list and work tickler
- Work out at least 3x week (with spouse!)

Short range ("less than three years"):
- Retire
- New screaming computer
- Paint the house
- Clean out file drawers (home and work!)
- New HoneyDo & home maintenance lists
- Donate blood regularly
- Visit grandfather
- Complete revocable living trust estate planning
- Complete "what to do if I wake up dead" list & passwords
- Re-evaluate non-profit Treasurer & Board member after one year

Medium range ("three to five"):
- Grow a ponytail
- Start a workout program with spouse?  (Walking, weights, swimming)
- Volunteer at school (grading papers, math tutoring)
- Chaperone all the field trips that school will allow
- Learn to surf
- Tae kwan do or karate
- More beach time
- More diving!
- Balance O'Neill's "CANSLIM" & IBD software against discounted cash flow (see articles in "Investments" folder).  Try $50-100K on 10 stocks for a year.
- "Hike of the Month" club
- Water conditioner & solar water heater (2003 for Hawaii tax rebate)
- Maintain at least 10% investment IRR/annual return.  2002 2003 2004
- Investigate nutritional balance ("Estimation of Energy Expenditure" article)
- Investigate caloric restriction (download Walford's calorie software)

Long range ("life"):
- Be a good spouse
- Be a good parent
- Net worth higher than lifetime earnings
- Collect more retired Navy pension than active duty salary
- Great Barrier Reef & Pacific atoll diving
- Spend a month in Thailand
- Join the top ten on "Oldest Living Alumni" list
- Join the "Centenarian Sailors" listing on Navy's retiree magazine

 

[Andre1969]

I know this is probably pretty tame compared to some of you, but I want to hike to the top of Mount Whitney in California! When I was 12, back in 1982, my grandparents took me on a trip out West, and Mount Whitney was one of the many places we went to. I remember that we drove as far as you could up the mountain, and then we went about a mile up the trail. In retrospect, it's pretty obvious that a 12 year old kid and his grandparents weren't going to hike to the top of it (I think the trail's about 12 miles), but I wanted to do it soooo bad!

 

[dory36]

I forget the name ofthe fellow on the old TMB RE forum who said, in a similar thread, "Meet my great-great-great-grandchildren".

 

[REWahoo]

My list includes:

Pet a tiger

Guess you saw this....

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/18/tiger.attack.ap/index.html

 

[Mr._johngalt]

I forget the name ofthe fellow on the old TMB RE forum who said, in a similar thread, "Meet my great-great-great-grandchildren".

Hi Dory.  Man that is not on my list.  

Here is mine, off the top of my head and in no particular order:

Have decent health for the next 15 years at least.
Visit Key West.
Reconcile with friends I left behind and relatives who are estranged.
Get back into hunting and shooting to some extent.
Spend more time with my grandkids.
Make sure my parents have the best life possible.
Maximize my time spent in warmer climes, at least in the winter.
Become an expert musky fisherman.
Maximize my time on the water (fishing and boating).
Arrange our affairs so DW did not have to work so hard.
Have one more major move or big adventure before I take up the rocking chair.

That's it.  No mountain climbing, bungee jumping or drag racing.

JG

 

[grumpy]

grumpy - Do you want to pet a wild tiger? If you do, will that be the last thing you do?
And If you're never able to get close to one - does that mean you get to live forever?
I do like your list
DanTien

DanTien,

No, not a wild tiger. I didn't get to FIRE by taking big risks and I don't intend to start now . I have always been fascinated by cats, both large and small. I have had cats as pets for 30 years. I love the fact that they are barely domesticated and retain many of their wild instincts and behaviors. I think tigers are the most beautiful animals in the world.

Grumpy

 

[sgeeeee]

DanTien,

No, not a wild tiger.  I didn't get to FIRE by taking big risks and I don't intend to start now  .  I have always been fascinated by cats, both large and small.  I have had cats as pets for 30 years.  I love the fact that they are barely domesticated and retain many of their wild instincts and behaviors.  I think tigers are the most beautiful animals in the world. 

   Grumpy

Hi Grumpy,

I have to tell you this story because it involves two of the things on your list. About 8 years ago my DW and I were in Cairo, Egypt. We had gone to the pyramids in the morning and went to the zoo that afternoon. As the zoo was closing, we were walking out and one of the zookeepers called us over to the back of the tiger cage. One of the tigers had given birth a few weeks earlier and he wanted to know if we would pay him 5 pounds (about $1 at the time if I remember correctly) to go in and pet the tigers. We said yes, paid him, and he opened the cage and let us in. We didn't stay too long because the young tigers were actually in the same cage with the adults, but we got to pet the tigers.

 

[grumpy]

((^+^)) SG,

Wow! A two-fer. Maybe I should learn to play an instrument while riding in a hot air balloon over Machu Pichu! That would be a three-fer. I'm envious of your experience.

Grumpy

 

[Arif]

Hear are some things off the top of my head:

Drive a formula one car

Me too me too
Dive both the Atlantic and the Pacific ocean in the same day (can be done in Panama)
Go to the Festival of Speed in Europe (Britain I think)
Visit the factories of supercar makers (Ferrari, Lambo, Porsche, etc)
Travel to Greece (again)
Italy
South Africa
Germany (run flat out on the autobahn)
Build my son's first car with him
Accumulate over $10M in networth

Am I showing my age with this list

 

[HFWR]

Live? 8)

 

[sgeeeee]

. . . Maybe I should learn to play an instrument while riding in a hot air balloon over Machu Pichu!  That would be a three-fer.  . . .

Now that's something to dream about. I hope you get to do it.

 

[REWahoo]

Kept my eye on the responses here and it probably surprises no one that the level of adventurousness of the lists is, for the most part, inversely proportional to the age of the poster. Guess that's to be expected since the longer you've been around the more on your own list you should have been able to accomplish. (That's assuming you haven't lived a life of self-deprivation in your pursuit of FIRE and have found some sort of reasonable lifestyle balance.) Add to that the wear and tear on the old body over time and the reality that climbing Mt. Everest probably just isn't in the cards any longer, and the list of things to do shrinks.

I have a more items checked off my list than items remaining, but that's not a bad thing. I've had the opportunity to do and see things that were pretty far out there, especially when you look at it from the perspective of growing up in a small town in "The Rest" category of Wildcat's Family Background poll.

Here are a few "to do" items remaining on my list:

- Attend a Shuttle launch
- Attend a siege engine "punkin chunk" contest
- Take an Alaskan cruise
- Spend time visiting the Intermountain West and the Northwest, including Canada
- Erect a windmill next to my water tank
- Stay connected or reconnect with old friends and extended family
- Stay sufficiently invoved in the lives of my grandchildren (camping, boating, fishing, attending school events, & just 'being there') so that they think grandpa is "cool" ("gnarly"?)
- Arrange our financial and other matters to minimize burdening our children as we age
- and (to quote HF, WR), Live

REW

 

[grumpy]

Here are a few "to do" items remaining on my list:

- Attend a Shuttle launch

Better try to do this one soon. NASA may retire the shuttles sooner than planned to free up budget to build the successor launch system. Even without this, the shuttles are scheduled to be "retired" in 2010.

Grumpy

 

[REWahoo]

Better try to do this one soon. NASA may retire the shuttles sooner than planned to free up budget to build the successor launch system. Even without this, the shuttles are scheduled to be "retired" in 2010.

Grumpy

Yep, I may have to modify this to "...Shuttle or it's successor." I mentioned in another thread a while back the disappointment of being stationed in FL in the 70's and being off somewhere 'saving the world for democracy' when the Saturn 5's were launched. Never got to see one.

REW

 

[REWahoo]

An Alaskan cruise is a good thing to do. My wife and I are leaving for our 2nd Alaska cruise in 3 weeks!

So we can anticipate more of your fantastic scenery photos? REW

 

[Dreamer]

Cut-Throat,

You and Mrs. Cut-Throat are my new heroes! You guys are traveling constantly, which is the main thing that I am hoping to do in my retirement. So many places to go and so little time. Anyway, just wanted both of you to know that I think you rock! Hopefully, you will be able to get some more pictures to post. I really love seeing them.

Dreamer

 

[dory36]

...
-  Attend a Shuttle launch
...

Aargh!

We tried to watch a launch 4-5 times. Got the boat to just off Cape Canaveral, as close as they would allow, and waited. Every (&*%) time, the launch was delayed again and again, and finally delayed indefinitely, so we left. So we never saw/heard/felt one up close.

But we saw 3-4 from a distance, where we could see it but not hear it. Still pretty awesome.

Here are shots from the ill-fated Challenger going up, taken from about 75 miles south. According to the timestamp from the camera (which may have been an hour off, or maybe not), these were taken at 6:20am, on 3/1/02.  First is the launch itself, at pre-dawn. Second is the separation of the boosters. Hopefully I have reduced them so as not to clobber those on dialup, but not so much that they are too small to see.  Slightly out of focus, as they were taken from a slightly shifting boat...

 

[REWahoo]

Aargh!

We tried to watch a launch 4-5 times. Got the boat to just off Cape Canaveral, as close as they would allow, and waited. Every (&*%) time, the launch was delayed again and again, and finally delayed indefinitely, so we left. So we never saw/heard/felt one up close.

Know a guy who had the same experience, but he & his spouse were staying in a hotel. Waited for days and still no launch. Left without seeing anything. We plan on taking the TT and waiting 'em out...within reason.

REW

 

[sgeeeee]

Yep, I may have to modify this to "...Shuttle or it's successor."  . . .

You don't want to be too slow to do that. With all these MEMS and Widebandgap breakthroughs the government is funding, how far can we be from, "Beam me up Scotty."? No more launches at all.

I never traveled to Florida to see a launch, but once when I was flying in from Phoenix there was a launch of a military mission. I happened to be on the right side of the plane and had gotten stuck with a window seat so I got a decent view.