A Bucket List is a fairly popular concept to most people.
This was definitely on our bucket list.
Figure out a bunch of awesome things you want to do in your lifetime, write them down and then tick them off as you achieve them.
While not everyone has a physical list, most have an idea in their mind of at least a few key things they want to do in their lifetime. Many will then make attempts to fit in all of these items around their day jobs, ticking them off slowly over a number of years.
For us, who don’t intend to have day jobs in six years time, our list is slightly different. It certainly holds the big ticket items we want to tick off before we die, but it also holds some very normal and unexciting items that we want to tick off when we retire.
We thought it would be fun to publish our list, and continue to add to it as things come up. We’d also love to hear about items from your own list in the comments below!
The AwP Retirement List
- Walk the Camino
- Spend three months in a canal boat, sailing around the UK
- Drive a campervan around New Zealand in slow time
- Learn to play properly the piano (me) and the guitar (Poopsie)
- Holiday at this amazing resort in Fiji
- Visit Paris together
- Go to all four Tennis Grand Slams (we’ve already done one)
We’ve been to the U.S Open.
- Become fluent in French (me)
- Make our home fully sustainable (Poopsie)
- Live in the UK for a year (on land, seperate from the canal boat trip)
- Visit Ayers Rock together, followed by a slow time tour of the Northern Territory
- Visit Disneyworld and Harry Potter World (me, but I will drag Poopsie along)
- Spend a month or so travelling around Tasmania
- Write a book (me), whether published or unpublished
- Paint a painting I’d be happy to hang in our home (me)
- Grow tomatoes (we intend to grow many other things, but tomatoes continue to allude us year after year)
- Camp our way along The Great Ocean Road
- Take up yoga
- See the Grand Canyon (me, Poopsie has already seen it)
- Go skiiing together
- Climb Mt. Kosciuszko
Have a penguin as a pet should also be on my Bucket List… one can dream right?
- Visit Machu Picchu
- Visit Antarctica (where I may kidnap a penguin)
- Work in a library (me)
- Become a qualified tennis coach (me)
- Hike the Kokoda Trail (Poopsie)
- See the Northern Lights
- Learn to knit (me)
- Walk along the Great Wall of China and see the Terracotta Warriors
- Attend a summer Olympic Games
- Go on a cruise on one of the Queen ships
- Learn to use chopsticks
Keep checking back in as we will continue to add to this list.
We’d love to know, what’s on your Retirement List?
Ever since retiring, I’ve wanted to meet Mr Money Mustache and personally thank him for pointing me in the direction of early retirement. I get to do this next month in Ecuador!
Awesome!!
This is the best goal ever and I am so excited you’re getting to do it!!! Please say hello to him from me! I am a massive fan girl when it comes to him, just yesterday I said to Poopsie “MMM is just so amazing.” He didn’t seem to share my sentiments so much 😉
Great list! I’ll have to write one too.
Most of mine would be travel related and then on the home front learning how to grow my own food and raise chickens. If you’ve seen any of my plant posts you’ll know I kill everything!
I’d love to see this updated and get crossed off as you go 🙂
Look forward to seeing your list too, Miss Balance. Oh yes, chickens is definitely on Poopsie’s list!
Oh I love this post – I love seeing what other people’s dream goals / bucket lists are. I agree with many of them including seeing the northern lights – quite high on the bucket list, that!
Glad you enjoyed the post, Pia. Would love to see your full list on your blog!
What a wonderful, inspirational list. I’m like most people in that I haven’t written it down, ideas are half-formed in my head. There’s some cross-over, though. I also want to:
* Drive a campervan around New Zealand in slow time
* Climb Mt. Kosciuszko
* Visit Machu Picchu
* Visit Antarctica
* Work in a library – I applied for a library job a few years ago, but I’m not qualified! I did see that a library in the region next to ours was looking for volunteers, so that would be something I’d like to do.
* See the Northern Lights
Hmmm, mine are all all travel related. Seems I need to put some thought into creative or personal improvement items for our bucket list.
Also I warn you, a month is definitely not long enough to do Tassie properly. I would recommend the same approach as you plan for New Zealand, given that time isn’t going to be a problem!
And as for walk the Camino – have you read Miss Mazuma’s recent posts on this?
Isn’t it crazy you now need a degree to work in a library! I don’t want to go back to uni, so my dream will probably eventuate in the form of stacking shelves, perhaps even on a voluntary basis!
I haven’t read that post yet, but I did see it linked to on Go Curry Cracker- it’s on my to do list to read. My mum did the Camino about four years ago, returned to Australia and retired at 54. She had an epiphany on it and decided she couldn’t go back to sitting at a desk all day. Inspirational to be sure! Ever since hearing her stories, I’ve wanted to do it.
Wow, good on your mum! I like hearing those sorts of stories. The post I linked to is actually an add-on to the Go Curry Cracker one, so make sure to add that to your list as well. Although, you’ve got your mum’s experience to call on directly. That really must have been amazing for her, to make such a shift to her life when she returned home.
Maybe I should tell my mum about this blog and get her to write a blog post about her Camino. It literally changed her life as, before she went, there were no plans for her to retire.
What an interesting list!
When I started my first job after school, I’d sit and think of all the things I would do when I retired. After reading an article about seizing the moment, I decided to sign up for an art class that was held every afternoon on a Wednesday for a month (as that was on my “when I retire” list). My coworkers didn’t smile when I told them I had taken my time off and split it up into half days for the month so I could go to a class, but it was very much worth the frowns.
I try to sneak them in whenever I can. My list is really nothing places I want to go and things I want to learn how to do. I too would love to see the Northern Lights and walk along the Great Wall.
Hi Ashley, thanks for stopping by. Your comment really hit home with me.
Sometimes (often) I fall into the trap of putting things off until retirement. And of course we shouldn’t do this. First of all, while we’re planning on six years, a lot could happen to push that number out. And second of all, apart from sleeping in til midday, most of the things on our list are thing we can do while working. Sure, some of them might take a bit more effort, but some of them will easily fit into our current lifestyle.
Thanks for the inspiration to get cracking on things now!
There are a fee items in this list that are also in mine! We definitely want to walk the Camino, too. And yes to working in the library! I had a smile on my face while reading this post. Maybe I should post my list, too!
Yes, you should definitely post a list, I’d love to see it!
I love this bucket list! Thanks for posting it. It’s given me inspiration to make one myself.
Thanks Jane, and we’re glad you feel inspired by it. I’d love to see what’s on your bucket list!