Experience provides insight. Exposing yourself to many different things is the best way to find your path and purpose in life. I also believe in living a life that’s balanced between relishing the experiences this world has to offer and pushing yourself to your potential.

So this bucket list is going to make up for a variety of both experiences and developing skills.
Career goals
Skills or hobbies you’d like to learn
Life goals
Fears to overcome

Financial

☐ Become Financially Independent

I decided that this had to be pretty high up on the list because money provides the resources to do everything and the time to say no to the stuff you don’t really want to do.

There are so many ways to become financially independent, but the key lies in creating passive income streams. The other part of the equation is your money habits.

If you get the passive part dialed in, you’ll be generating income while you sleep. This takes the pressure off needing any other pursuits to make money. That’s a game changer.

My initial goal is $1,500 a month because that’s how much we need to cover our living expenses. I plan to grow that up to $3,000 to expand my pursuits and still have enough to reinvest to keep growing.

✔ Buy A House

Most people have buying a house on their bucket list. I’ve bought 2 so far in my life and 2 additional pieces of land.

I’ll tell you right now, that home ownership isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. There are so many things you don’t realize until later.

If you’re considering buying a house, you may want to know about a few things before locking into that huge 30-year obligation.

✔ Have A Rental Property

Every playbook for financial freedom includes owning a rental property. While this can be true, there’s more factors you need to consider. Buying with a mortgage makes a huge difference, so does your tolerance to dealing with renters.

Yes, it’s great having someone else pay for your mortgage. But for me, it’s not worth the headaches that come with tenants. And when you don’t have a big profit margin, it doesn’t make sense to hire out the stuff you don’t want to do.

I discovered that I have a very low tolerance for “neediness”. Simple questions from my renters annoy me. They make dumb choices that put themselves at risk of not having their rent money. They’ve also created spiteful neighbors that have led to zoning issues and fines.

My issues are nothing compared to Tim’s tenant nightmare. You’ll hear more if you talk to other landlords. There may be better ways to rent like doing an AirBnb. I like investing in REITs. You make a higher ROI and have none of the headaches.

☐ Flip A House

I bought my condo with the intention of renting it out, but a month after purchase, a toilet connector failed and flooded 3 full floors over a 7 hour period. That turned my condo into a flip property after realizing how bad the bones of the structure were.

I didn’t want the headaches of further rehabs down the road. During that time, I also realized how I’m not suited to being a landlord. That made the decision easy to sell and invest the profits.

☐ Design And Build A House

I’ve helped my dad build a house from the ground up and have done my fair share of renovation projects. So technically I’ve done this, but I’d like to design and build something that’s specifically tailored to what I want.

I plan to be a nomad for a long time. When I get the urge to settle down, it would be amazing to build a tiny cottage or cabin somewhere with lots of greenspace. In the meantime I’ll be getting ideas from other builds through my travels.

☐ Run A Successful Small Business

My goal here isn’t to make a crazy amount of money for any personal gains, it’s more to build something helpful for many.

I’m going to start out small and work my way up. I’ve been getting some awesome ideas that could positively impact many people’s lives.

Travel

I had to reduce this section to a manageable number of items. Otherwise, it would be so unruly. I’ve actually created another website just for my bucket list travel items.

☐ Explore The World

I want to see the world. Adventure to far off places and immerse in the sights, sounds, tastes, and experiences of new places. I want to experience and introspect on different people I meet and their cultures.

Because there will never be enough time to do it all, I had to find a way to narrow the list down. So I do a ton of research to find the top places and experiences across the globe. I build maps and itineraries. And when I get there I take photos, videos and relay information.

If you’re interested in travel, visit Wanderlust Travel Life.

☐ Become A Nomad

The only feasible way to explore as much as I feel pulled to do is to live a nomadic life. My love for travel has been a fairly recent discovery, but I wasted no time planning and buying a van.

This was the most affordable way to change my lifestyle in a short period of time. As my passive income increases, I’ll be staying in some interesting AirBnbs and other unique places for the experience.

Unique Experiences

✔ Whale Watching

☐ Attend The Top World Festivals

Albuquerque’s Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, Mardi Gras and Burning Man are the big ones in America, but there are others around the world. I’m not a fan of crowds but some of these look incredible.

☐ Go On A Safari Expedition

☐ Watch A Meteor Shower

☐ Experience A Total Solar Eclipse

☐ Swim With Dolphins

This is a big one for me as I have a fear of water.

☐ Gem Hunting

☐ Polar Bear Plunge

☐ See A Tornado/Hurricane

☐ Dive With Sharks

☐ Wing Walking

☐ Dine at a Michelin-starred restaurant

look into other experiences involved in food like Attend a British afternoon tea.

☐ Watch Celestial Events

meteor shower

☐ Explore Ancient Ancient Plant Medicines/Psychedelics

☐ Participate In A Tribal Ceremony

☐ Experience Zero Gravity

Learning And Skill Development

An innate part of myself is driven to collect information and skills. The more useful and practical, the better.

I consider knowledge and skills to be the necessary foundation of an extraordinary life. The more you know, the more capable you are. Obstacles become blips on the journey.

Survival Skills

We lead lives of comfort and convenience, but what if shit hits the fan? I’m not a fatalist, but you really never know what’s going to happen.

With the kind of adventures I like to go on, I tend to get stuck in some sticky situations. I’ve been caught in unexpected snow storms, had hypothermia scares and been rescued off the side of a mountain.

☐ Water Collection And Purification

☐ Hunting/Fishing

☐ Foraging

☐ Navigation – Star and Sun

☐ First Aid and Plant Medicine

☐ Food Preservation

☐ Cooking

☐ Making Fire

☐ Knot Tying

☐ Self Defense

Archery, guns, knives, telescoping baton

☐ Bushcraft

Survival Challenges

Until I get more training, I’m not sure yet what’s going to be allowed. I’m hoping I can achieve these challenges with nothing more than a knife.

☐ Survive For 1 Week

☐ Survive For 2 Weeks

☐ Survive For 1 Month

☐ Find My Way Out Of The Wilderness

Body Skills

I wish I would’ve known about these when I was younger. To this day I’m mesmerized when I watch skilled body performances. These are areas I want to become proficient in so I feel like I have body mastery.

☐ Calisthenics

Here’s a list of the things to strive to accomplish to attain mastery in calisthenics.

☐ Martial Arts

Get a blackbelt in my chosen MA.

☐ Acrobatics

☐ Parkour

☐ Dance

☐ Swimming

This is going to be a big one. I feel so deficient in water. I used to love being in water but after having tubes put in my ears twice when I was a kid, it feels like my ear drums leak.

Physical Challenges

Here are some practical ways to challenge myself based on the underlying conditioning I hope to achieve through the above body skills.

☐ Complete RAGBRAI

☐ Hike The Pacific Crest Trail

I really want to test my fortitude and experience a long distance hike to see if it changes my perspective as so many have claimed from hiking the AT. Of the big 3 in the US, the PCT has the most varied scenery and grandeur according to my research and other’s experience. I’m all about biggest bang for my efforts.

☐ Paddle 100 Mile Wilderness Everglades

☐ Climb Everest Equivalent

Several ski resorts across America are hosting a climbing challenge that’s the equivalent of hiking Mount Everest. You climb up and ride the gondola down a number of times until you complete the challenge over 3 days. This can be replicated without the high price tag and glitz, which I prefer anyway.

☐ Complete A Triathlon

☐ Be Able To Do Front And Side Splits

☐ Handstand

☐ Planche

☐ Human Flag

☐ Standing Backflip And Frontflip

☐ Get Body Fat Under 20%

☐ Complete a Tough Mudder

May want to consider other physical challenge courses like Warrior Dash.

Adventure Sports

I want to at the very least try out a wide variety of action sports to see what I like and what would enhance my life experience and explorations while traveling.

✔ Kayaking ☐ Open Ocean ☐ White Water Kayaking

I love being able to get out and explore bodies of water and shorelines you wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach on foot.

We’ve used rigid kayaks and blow ups. Believe it or not, the blowups are our favorite for recreational activities. They’re much more comfortable, they’re easier to paddle and they pack away smaller for transport.

✔ White Water Rafting

✔ Ziplining

✔ Cliff Jumping

✔ Skiing

☐ Sky Diving

☐ Free Diving

☐ Scuba Diving

☐ Paragliding

☐ Horse Riding

☐ Rock Climbing

☐ Mountain Biking

☐ Abseiling

☐ Canyoneering

☐ Mountaineering

☐ Surfing

☐ Kite Surfing

☐ Sailing

☐ Bungie Jumping

Action Sport Challenges

This is going to depend on which one of the activities I want to push further. I already know that flying is something that calls to me and so does mountaineering.

☐ Technical Climb The Highest Peaks In The World

☐ Create Best Places To Do My Favorite Action Sports

Vehicle Skills

This section applies to anything that’s considered to be a man operated vehicle, preferably with some sort of powered engine for heightened thrill seeking. I have an innate love for tools and that extends to vehicles of all kinds.

☐ Learn Performance Driving

I used to be really into cars, but it got harder and harder to enjoy speed and handling with the ever-growing populations and law enforcement. So my thrill seeking morphed into a practical understanding of cars.

I dated quite a few mechanics because of the shared interest (and education) that provided. That knowledge has been so useful for helping fix and maintain my own vehicles over the years.

Look into bucketlist items for car enthusiasts.

I’ve always been interested in learning the type of driving skills they teach in the military without needing to enlist. There are courses that test your reactions in unpredictable real world situations like StreetSurvival. Another option is Road America.

I’m not sure if this is enough or if I’d need to take a EVOC or an actual evasive driving class. Maybe even racing driving training would be interesting. (maybe just do an EMT ride along?)

✔ Get My Motorcycle License

☐ Fly A Hot Air Balloon

☐ Fly A Plane

☐ Fly A Helicopter

☐ Ride A Jetski

☐ Drive A Power Boat

☐ Ride A Dirt Bike

Languages

Even though English is one of the most spoken languages, everyone should be multilingual. It’s a shame that America doesn’t put as much emphasis on this as other countries.

My goal is to become fluent in a few languages that are spoken in the most countries, especially the ones I want to explore.

During my research of languages, I stumbled onto Esperanto. The concept of a universal auxiliary language is an amazing idea! I’m excited that it may be on the verge of a resurgence in popularity.

☐ Esperanto

☐ Spanish

☐ Russian

Chinese, French, and Arabic or Hindi may make sense when we get to Asia and Africa. Esperanto is the top priority because it’s quicker to become fluent and makes learning other languages easier.

Musical Instruments

I used to play the clarinet but I didn’t appreciate music like I do now. It might have been because I was playing the wrong instrument. I’ve since discovered that percussion really resonates with me, but so do a few other instruments, particularly base.

☐ Drums

☐ Handpan

☐ Singing

☐ Cello

☐ Base Guitar

PowerVehicles

Vehicles

Look into bucketlist items for car enthusiasts.

Drive A Supercar

To fully enjoy this experience and the power one of these cars has, I’d want to get some training and practice. I’m not sure if I’d be content to stay on a track or if I’d want to take one of these on the open road.