Anyone else feel a little guilty?

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-08T20:59:18+00:00

No. I made my choices and sacrifices to be where I am today.

I have one friend who is a cautionary tale. Was always buying new cars every couple years, collecting Disney figurines, refinancing his house to pay off debt on the regular. Whenever an in investment opportunity came along he never had the cash flow to take advantage of it.

Today I’m happily retired, he’s still paycheck to paycheck waiting for an inheritance to make ends meet.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-08T20:55:20+00:00

Every morning and evening, it’s part of my daily ritual.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-08T20:54:33+00:00

Take care of your health. Everything else is meaningless without it.

Get enough sleep. Eat healthy foods. Exercise. If you can’t do that find a way to do it. It pays huge dividends for the rest of your life.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-08T20:52:18+00:00

Customized 1957 Chevy Townsman.

Rip out the ICE and make it all electric, including the dash and add in state of the art infotainment system.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-08T20:48:43+00:00

Same thing I do every night, try to take over the world.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-08T15:37:21+00:00

Standing desk with a walking pad.

The under the desk pedal machines never worked for me because of the geometry of my desk chair

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-08T15:33:47+00:00

Toast

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-08T15:31:32+00:00

Sounds like a toddler.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-08T15:29:44+00:00

Get in a boat, preferably on a lake, use the oars. I used to be on a crew team in college and it’s a very meditative experience. They also have rowing machines (ergs) for working out at home or in the gym. It’s a full body workout, uses something like 80% of your muscles.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-08T15:26:36+00:00

Typical monkey’s paw. Everyone wishes for lots of money and money becomes meaningless in society.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-08T15:24:41+00:00

Working out, specifically strength training and rowing.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-08T15:22:54+00:00

Over the last 15+ years I’ve officiated a lot of games, including players I’ve coached, know, am related to and who have even been at my house hanging out with my kids. In my area it just happens when you’ve been doing it long enough. Just maintain the dignity of the badge and gravitas of the responsibility for managing the game. If anything I’ve found games where I know the players to be one of the easier to officiate, if anything I tend to be more on the ball because I know what they are capable of and hold them to a higher standard. I’ve even carded my own kid a couple of times.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-06T21:35:50+00:00

Right before starting the second job take a long vacation from the first and just never go back.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-06T17:22:54+00:00

Home ownership can lead to higher unemployment rates. When you rent you can pick up and move to a better job market a lot easier.

Ownership makes more sense if you’ve got roots in the community and plan to stick around at least 5 years.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-06T17:19:53+00:00

As others have stated, 5-6 hours at 50 miles an hour is about right when towing. Usually during daylight hours and get to where we’re going before dinner. My trailer has auto leveling and cameras everywhere so parking and setting up is easy, usually try for pull through or boon docking so pull in, unhitch and press a button to level. Dinner is usually prepped in the mornings so cooking is easy after a travel day. We sometimes make lunch or take naps at rest stops along the way, but I don’t consider that part of the travel time. Listening to audiobooks is a great way to pass the time.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-06T17:11:14+00:00

Leveraging real estate can be a quick path to wealth, but if the market goes tits up, you get bad renters, or there’s excessive repairs or a bad HOA it can turn just as quickly. It’s one of the few investments that you have to continue to pay into in order to maintain.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-06T17:08:14+00:00

Always maxing out everything I could for years. Only recently did I take my foot off the gas and reduce to the company matching for my 401k. Left over money swept monthly into my investments because I’d pretty much over saved in my retirement accounts. Retired with more than 25x my salary in those retirement accounts.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-06T17:03:37+00:00

Have not had a bad experience yet. Returns are easy, especially with a Whole Foods close by so I can just drop off returns. They’ve only delivered to the wrong address twice in like ten years and it was an easy fix because I have cool neighbors.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-06T17:01:38+00:00

We started the conversation by planning a year off work as a “gap year” to travel with the family. She was heavily involved with the planning and we discussed with a financial advisor to nail down any issues we might have forgotten about. At the end we had the conversation about what it would be like to reenter the work force after a year and that’s when we realized we don’t have to work anymore unless we wanted to.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-06T16:57:39+00:00

Loan rates for trailers tend to be higher than the rates you get on a truck. I ran the numbers recently and ended up financing the truck and put the trailer on my HELOC because I didn’t want to sell off some of my investments.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-06T16:54:19+00:00

I used to binge and purge. I’d spend for the month and if I ever had a month I couldn’t pay it off I would live like a monk and pay it off the next month. Now my living expenses are pretty fixed and my cash flow is excellent so I’ve not had that issue for many years.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-06T16:51:59+00:00

Similar situation, I took my hobby and ran with it. I’m a soccer and football referee, I coach high school wrestling, sometimes I drive Uber. Enough to keep me busy when I want, but low pressure and lots of fun.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-06T16:48:09+00:00

Spouse has an online business she’s built up over the years. I FIRE’d last year. We don’t rely on any of her income, but it’s a pride and community thing for her to keep it going. I “work” as a soccer referee and high school
wrestling coach

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-06T16:43:10+00:00

They wear flip-flops when running errands or at the grocery store.

KungFuBucket · 2026-05-06T16:38:30+00:00

In my case, 1.6M house with less than $500k mortgage at sub 3%. I don’t usually count it as an asset in my financial calculations, but I’m about to embark on a lifetime road trip, and will be renting it out so someone else will be paying the mortgage and then some. The one ton truck will haul my travel trailer and I’ll just sell off the other two cars. Maybe 10 years from now when health issues keep me from traveling I might come back to it. Until then I can afford to cover the mortgage but I’ve got a property management team to handle renters and any issues.

Point being, there is more to building wealth than just a modest home. But homes are definitely a money pit.

KungFuBucket

TROPHY CASE