My story started in a small, suburban American town, with a pretty standard inside-the-box view of this world. More and more steps outside of that box, though, has always left me wanting to see and do more. I hitched a ride on the back of the US Marine Corps for 13 years, which showed me a lot of the world, the good and the bad. From patrolling the streets of Fallujah, Iraq to providing diplomatic immunity to visiting US Navy vessels into Croatia as the senior US Navy/Marine diplomat. Add to that the personal travel destinations I was able to reach: Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Germany, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Poland, and the UK.
After the Marine Corps, I find a passion and hobby in coaching CrossFit, which opens an opportunity for me years later to focus my coaching into gymnastics in CrossFit, joining a team that travels and provides weekend seminars all over the world. From Montana to Arizona, Missouri, and so many states, plus Puerto Rico, all the way to Amsterdam, and then recently to South Africa, where our entire global team came together for a week of team-building and coaching development inside our niche of gymnastics. (We are lucky to have a team media guy, and he put together a very cool 6 minute video of our trip here.)
A recent post from a bright mind in the financial planning space (Carl Richards) that simply said “Experience > Money,” to which I said to myself, “hell yes!” The experiences I’ve had have all cost money, that’s the nature of it. But isn’t that what the money is for?
Sure, we cannot carelessly start checking all of the items on our bucket lists off – please DEFINITELY keep reading if you thought that’s what I was saying… But we can consider this:
Looking at your bucket list of experiences that you’ve accumulated over your lifetime, which decade of your life would each of those experiences be the most enjoyable / impactful?
This idea is from the bookDie with Zero by Bill Perkins, where he outlines a concept that sits opposite the idea of building generational wealth. Die with Zero suggests that the traditional retirement dreams of spending your golden years using the money you spent a lifetime accumulating has an alternative: prioritizing lifelong memorable experiences.
And while not all experiences require equal amounts of money, time, and physical/mental capacity, some do require more in one category than the other.
Hike Mt. Kilimanjaro? Slim chance that can wait until your 70s once you’re retired – you better keep that body prepared!
Jump off a dock into crystal clear water at a resort in the Maldives? Unlikely that’s within the budget of a 20-something, nor easy to do w/kids in your 30s/40s – maybe bookmark THAT one for the later years.
The critical piece, though, is planning. Understanding what experiences require from you, and then planning for those experiences in a way that best compliments your life. Your advisor can help you create a plan, make an investment bucket for each big-ticket item in your life, and fill those buckets with regular contributions and investment growth over the long-term.
If one of those items of importance on your bucket list is “passing money on,” plan for that too, and consider the timing of when that inheritance gift might be best received. Your daughter’s young and growing family might receive an inheritance with a greater impact during the earlier years, instead of when their kids are grown and gone and the house is paid off. The timing of passing down generational wealth is surely a bit unconventional, though sensible and practical if done with a plan.
Here’s the best part: you don’t have to navigate this alone! There’s tremendous value in bringing in an advisor to best strategize how to align the timing and best use of your money over your lifetime. They’re your dollars, and you’ve worked hard for them. But don’t let those dollars collect dust.
