21: Normalize Wanting More Than a PTO Day and a Patio Set

 Welcome back to Broke is Boring, and today's topic is normalize. Wanting more than a PTO day and a patio set. Oh my gosh.

This title is ridiculous, and also that used to be my freaking bucket list that is as big as I could dream, right? Is getting the next day off work the next federal holiday how to celebrate Columbus Day. For my long weekend, three day. Come on. My God. Remember you used to try to like, strategically match, like get yeah.

Get your Friday or your Tuesday so you could have an extra day in there Now. I literally don't even know what day it is. I don't get, it doesn't, it's today. Okay. Okay, so I have a story. So I actually used to have like a real bucket list, like I used to like write it down and have it on my refrigerator.

Did you ever like have this? Absolutely. It had like 300 things on it. Of course, I would love to find that it was on a piece of paper, piece of fun, right? So I was in Amsterdam with Mark. We have a lot of fun stories from Amsterdam in this particular tale. We are on a boat, one of those like touristy like boats through the canal.

We've been to Amsterdam like 20 times and finally we're like, oh my God, we've never actually done that. Let's go do that. Okay, so we're on the boat. We're going through the canals. Fun way to see Amsterdam because it's just so like unique and being on the water and looking up at all the crazy architecture is just really fun.

Okay, mark is looking out the window and we had been living in Italy. We had been checking off a bunch from that bucket list, and we were living the dink life. And he says, we have too many checks on our bucket list. We need a new bucket list. And in the moment I start giggling. And I go, oh, I'm taking a picture of this right now because I will never forget this moment for the rest of my whole entire life.

And I did. And I took a picture of him looking out this window and saying, we have too many checks on our bucket list. We need a new bucket list. And we're like 29 years old. It was just this moment that was just like, oh my gosh, how did we somehow get here Where. We have this list of things to do that are just like such big dreams and we did them.

And also we're not willing to just go, huh, alright. We did it. I guess. I guess that's how that story ends. No, the story keeps continuing. Add another chapter that's this occupational hazard in the travel business because you book these incredible trips for people and then you're like but I wanted to go, I wanna do that too.

So now my bucket list does not have a new patio set or a how to maximize my next PTO day. I no longer have PTO days. I just have days and actually I don't even know if there's anything tangible on my list at all. You have anything tangible on a, on your bucket list? Oh, yeah, you do? Let's talk about it, baby.

Okay, so my. Old bucket list was all destinations. Like I don't care about phones and cars and things like that. I just like to travel. So until now they've always been travel related items and I still have places I really wanna go. I wanna go to Antarctica and I'd love to go to Nepal. I wanna do, I'm not gonna climb to Everest Space Camp, but, but I'll do like a helicopter ride around.

So there's definitely things I wanna do. But. One of those is get European citizenship. That's something big on my list right now because we just love having options and so. Our family is in this transitional phase right now where we're moving to Ireland and we bought a home there last year, which was, it's a great home.

It's, it's not the shiny object home. It's a nice four bedroom, three baths, detached home in, in walkable to town, a nice little suburban neighborhood. It'll be perfect for us, but I found my dream house. Like probably four or five months ago. Okay. So we were actually on the world cruise. We were on our cruise, and I said, oh my God, bakers, look at this house.

And they were like, yeah, that's a sick house. And I could not get it out of my mind, like I. You know, when you like see yourself somewhere and I'm like, I wanna be making french toast in that kitchen and I wanna have coffee and drink it right there, and I wanna do all of these things like, you see yourself in that house.

But it was, it's expensive. Like it for us, you know, it's expensive as relative for us. It's, it's an expensive house. And so I, I let it as a pipe dream to just say, okay, one day I wanna live in a place like that. And it, it sat for a little while and then it went under contract and I felt, I, I, I felt like a gut punch.

'cause I was like, okay, that house isn't gonna be mine, but maybe in five years when I'm ready, that house will come back up on the market and I can buy because there's truly nothing else like this house. And then. A, a month later it went back on the market and I said, oh my God, Dan, that house again.

I just, I couldn't get this place outta my head and I said to him. Like, Hey, could we actually look at this? Like, is this a huge stretch? And, and I know how to work my husband, right? I got that pitch deck ready to go. I, I know how to, you know, make him, make him see the value in it.

And he was on board and I, at first, I couldn't even believe that he was saying yes to it. I mean, Tiffany, this place has an indoor pool. A sauna, a steam room, hot tub. A gorgeous view of the countryside. Like this is a dream. Oh, let's not forget that it has a full en suite for myself. Yeah. Two, two guest, a whole guest wing.

Essentially, I get my own wing. I, I approve of this purchase. The view, like it has all the things yeah, so, so Dan was on board and we were standing in our kitchen and we were about to make our offer and figuring out our offer with our realtor.

And our realtor texted us , so it's a go question mark And I asked Dan, I said, so it's a go. James is asking, and Dan. Like he just let out air like outta his mouth. He didn't, he didn't say yes or no, but I, I just thought that was a yes. Like so I texted James. Yep, we're in. Go, go make that offer and.

And then James comes back to us an hour later and says, we're sale agreed? And Dan goes, what? I, oh my God. Wait, I didn't say yes. And I said, oh, but you grunted. Like that was a yes. Right? So now we're making the biggest purchase of our lives with a grunt. And it's, it's crazy because. I never, ever imagined I would have a home like this.

And, you know, we're, we're under contract. Maybe by the time everything is said and done, something will happen and this will not be the home for us, you know? But I, I can't even believe that we're in a place where we could have a place like this. Like the fifth grade teacher in me can't even fathom.

A place like this could be mine. And so while I'm never interested in like materialism or things that don't actually amplify my life, like this house, I don't see it for the size and the pool. Like I see it for the memories. I see it for our friends gathering there, for our family, coming for holidays, for all the birthday parties we can have there.

It's the memories. With the people we love at such an amazing home like this, it's not about the status for me. And I just, I can't, I can't tell you like how incredible it feels to have something you work so hard for, just be yours with your name on it. I wish I could like capture how excited you are.

Like your face is just like lit up talking about this big smile, bright eyes, just so excited. And that's what money can do, right? You, you can frivolously spend money on stupid stuff, or you can be smart with it, save it, and then find that thing and have. The money to do it, like to make this purchase that with intention is going to add so much value to your present and future life.

I'll be in 40 70 though, that's for sure. Every time I fly I'll be in the back of coach. To clarify, it's gonna be a highlight of my life as well. So big fan of this purchase. Fully approved. Pays to have good friends, love a good friend with a mansion and a boat. Right. You know, when I was thinking about like what our bucket list includes, of course, same thing that the travel side, we, we certainly have places that we want to go, but we've been so many places.

Actually, when we went on the last world cruise and booked it, my mom was like, where are you guys gonna go when you actually retire Mars? And I was like, is that an option? And the thing is, it's just like everywhere's on the list, right? I wanna experience everything. So for us, from a real estate perspective, we actually want to just spend a stupid amount of money on renting Airbnbs 60 to 90 days at a time.

And I, we'll get there like I think in the near future, but being more nomadic and also just having that flexibility. To chase Summer, to chase, spring and fall, and run very far away from winter for the remainder of our days. Do you remember that reel that I sent you about winter? No. That I, when I was growing up, I, I loved winter and hated su, or I loved Summer and hated winter and.

Then I realize that if I have money, then I can just go fly to summer all year round. And so now, instead of just loving summer, I just love money the end. So what is on your bucket list, right? What are those tangible. Places that you really wanna visit or things that you really wanna do and have, and it's not a patio set and it's not figuring out how to maximize those PTO days to get that bonus, extra day.

It's, it's a lifestyle design, as Tiff says, design your life and go live it. So your bucket list is not something that should be pushed into the future and kicked down the road. It should be something you're tangibly working on now. I love having these stretch goals in our bucket list. You know, like how you talked about your, big house in Ireland, even in this moment feels like a stretch goal and it's so close, you can taste it.

It's so exciting for us. I'd also like to lean into our travel business and start selling, or continue, frankly, selling world cruises to other families, to other even single travelers, retirees. And allowing them to see the world in a really cool way that we've seen it. And I think that the coolest part about that is you don't need 50 or 70 grand upfront.

You need money for a down payment, and then this, this cruise is gonna happen in a year, 18 months. You have a long time to figure out the remainder of that balance and then go on this crazy experience that could change your life and make. You have lifetime, lifetime friends that have a mansion in Ireland, for example.

For example. So on the Instagram page for broke is boring. I'm gonna post the picture of Marco in Amsterdam looking out the window from this boat where he says we need a new bucket list.

Alright, thanks for being here. For Broke is boring. We'll see you next time.

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