What’s on Your Bucket List?

July 16, 2025 — Maybe you’ve seen the movie “The Bucket List”, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. In the movie they each have less than a year to live. The plot unfolds from there, as this odd duo goes on a road trip trying to accomplish as much as possible in the days remaining before they “kick the bucket”. Its premise is so applicable to those of us who are starting out in retirement. Although we are luckier than Nicholson and Morgan in that we (hope!) we have more than 1 year to accomplish our list, that also carries the danger that we have so much time left that we feel like we don’t have to get started any time soon.

What’s on Your Bucket List – Please Share Below

We would love to know what is on your bucket list, past or present. Just enter your picks in the Comments secton below.

The list prepared by the Freeman and Nicholson characters was a wild one – heavy on action experiences and light on cerebral and emotional ambitions – which is probably a lot better for a movie than for a real person. Some of the characters’ last wishes: skydiving, climbing the Pyramids, driving a Shelby Mustang, flying over the North Pole, eating dinner at Chevre d’Or in France, visiting the Taj Mahal, riding motorcycles on the Great Wall of China, visiting the Louvre, and attending a lion safari in Africa. Other wishes included kissing the most beautiful girl in the world (I already get to do that every day!), getting a tattoo, and making someone laugh ’till they cry.

The good thing about developing bucket lists is that it involves planning and setting goals. These type of activities get us out of the house and keep our minds active. As we are often reminded, it is not the things in life that give us the most satisfaction, or that we remember the most fondly. It is the experiences we treasure most.

Two Types of Bucket Lists

Lists of things we want to check off before we kick off don’t just have to include exotic travel or thrills. We think there are two types, and both are important to a happy retirement.

Personal Development Lists

In our opinion we should have some personal development type aspirations included on our lists. Like learning a new language, starting a part time business, volunteering at an animal shelter, or mentoring a student or small business. These can be a great source of continuing satisfaction and happiness. My volunteering has been pretty good, but my language skills are not there yet. But one of the things that has given me the most satisfaction has been the success of my post-retirement gig, Topretirements.com, which I started in 2007.

Travel Bucket Lists

Far more emphasis gets put on the “where” or “adventure” items on our bucket lists. Personally speaking, I have been doing a better job on these in my retirement years. I have visited all 7 continents, and enjoyed experiencing many of the most exciting spots in the world – from an African Safaris to the Taj Mahal to beautiful cities in Japan. People ask what was my best trip ever, and although that is a very hard choice, I think by my backpacking trip (some years ago!) to the Alaskan Arctic might be at the top, if only for the adventure component. Many of the trips we took as well as by others got turned into Topretirements articles in the Bucket List category of the Blog; check them out for ideas about where to go and what the experience might be like.

How About Your List?
If you look on the Internet you will find several sources of bucket lists. These are great to look at for ideas. Several years ago we wrote a similar article and got hundreds of suggestions!

– What are you good at, that you would like to continue (music, art, business, sports, people, etc.)?
– What has your life kept you from doing so far? Whether it was a job or family responsibilities, now that you are freer in retirement and facing the third-third of your life – what do you want to do (learn a musical instrument, learn to play bridge, volunteer, etc.)

Life is Short – Grab it!
We are firm believers that the mere act of creating a lifetime bucket list will help make you a happier person. Once you’ve got your list, the next part is a little harder – developing a plan for how you are going to start ticking off your goals. And you also need to develop your annual performance appraisal process, measuring progress against your goals. Along the way you might have to adjust your goals – for example a bad knee might rule out running the Paris Marathon, but leave you open to a bike trip along the Erie Canal. Or a financial set back might crimp your trip to Machu Picchu, but lead to a service trip somewhere else. Whatever you do, grab your life and live it!

What’s on Your List?
Please share what’s on your bucket list in the Comments section below. We can all profit from outside ideas.

For further reading:

Bucket List category of our Blog