Building Your Bucket List

You can count on two sure things - death and taxes. In the movie "Bucket List," Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson make a list of all the things they want to do before they "kick the bucket." When people near the end of their life they are more often concerned about those things they did NOT do rather than the things they DID do. Make sure your life has no regrets. The most comforting thing you will have in your senior years are memories. Make them good ones. In life it helps to have concrete goals and to design a plan on how to accomplish those dreams. Here are my top five things that everyone should do before they die, no matter what age you are now, and how you can accomplish those goals too.

SEE THE WORLD/TRAVEL
Everyone should experience what life is like outside their own homeland culture and the more third-world, the better. My thirst for experiencing first-hand, what I only knew beforehand in books, was essential. There is nothing like walking through the museums, eating the native foods, smelling the exotic air, learning the language, meeting the interesting people. It is a small world after all and air travel is cheaper than ever. You can go with an educational or cultural enhancement group, church group, or the Armed Services. Do not dismiss the lowly road trip North or 3-day cruise South, you gain just as much from these adventures as you do going overseas - maybe more since there are so many to meet along the way.

LOVE AND MARRIAGE
Hopefully commitment has not gone out of style. If you really love that person, you should be committed enough to make it binding and legal, just like everything else in life. Even your family pet wants to be licensed in case of loss. You can give as much love to others as you wish - there are never guarantees on the amount you get in return. Love anyway - commit anyway. Marriage gives a sense of appreciation, shared values, security, legality, finality (hopefully) and spiritual conviction, not to mention solidarity to one's children that no other institution on earth can provide. Good places to meet others: School, job, church, sports, kid events, neighborhood walk, bike trails and restaurants. Become the kind of person you would desire to marry and take home to the folks to show off. Do not be high maintenance nor needy. Bring to the relationship your own solid sense of self, money, career, friends and outside interests. Make sure your significant other is trustworthy, true, available and without too much baggage. Communicate. If it has been longer than 3 years without a commitment, move on.

FINISH YOUR EDUCATION/GET YOUR DEGREE
WIth online courses at just about every major college these days, it is about near impossible to find an excuse not to finish or start a college degree. Many employers help reimburse for job-related coursework and there are always student loans, grants, need-based funds and scholarships specific to your areas of interest. If you are in school, get those grades up so you can qualify for a scholarship. Talk to your school counselor and let them know your financial needs.

OWN A HOME AT SOME POINT IN TIME
There is no place like home. Owning one's own land and buildings, doing your own customizing and reconstruction, having no noises inside but yours, having a place to fix the car, plant the garden, let the animals run crazy, take a dip in the privacy of your own pool - there is nothing else on earth quite like it. Forget all the hype you hear about investment values, credit equity, foreclosures and make this dream a reality for yourself. If you are a Vet, First Time Buyer, work for an employer who loves your skills enough to move you over to their neck of the woods, there are many ways to get that down payment made. Credit advisors can help you dust off before the big loan process. If you are working couple, try living off one spouse and bank the other's income solely for the house. Begin in a starter or fixer-upper home or condo to build equity. Make friends with home builders. Become a forest ranger or campsite conservator, minister, house mother, or Armed services officer for a free or reduced fare home.

OWN YOUR OWN BUSINESS AT SOME POINT IN TIME
Nothing will give you a greater appreciation for a boss than to be one's own boss some day. Then you get to deal with finicky employees, expenses, advertising, marketing, making everyone happy (impossible) and be stressed to perfection. The upside is doing what you love to do, the downside is figuring out accounting. Before you check out of this one life you have been given, everyone - not just Britney Spears - should be able to enjoy the experience of making it or breaking it on their own gumption and personality. Watch tax trends and see where the incentives for new business are going. Educators get a break in 2008.

SAVE A LIFE/MAKE A DIFFERENCE
I mean this literally. Veterans, emergency personnel, police officers and firemen and women understand what giving one's life for others means. Altruism and heroics are so rare these days, but everyone has the ability to make a difference either financially, emotionally, spiritually or physically. Every person should have their name in the newspaper at least once for having done something important, special or good for the community at least once in their life. Give blood, donate your organs, child-care, protest a death sentence or abortion by someone close to you, intervene in a domestic dispute, call the authorities about the drug sale, clean up your environment soil, water and air. Quit smoking, drinking, driving fast or over eating (I am still working on this one) and make your own life longer. Remember, even chaplains can save a life by simply holding a hand and comforting the soul.

MAKE PEACE WITH GOD
Soul-searching, retribution, redemption, forgiveness are better resolved on this side of the great divide. Now is the time to decide what your convictions are and to stand by them. That does not mean you cannot change your mind over time, but it definitely will behoove you to find God in this life to make the ride easier.