St. Andrews during a 2022 family trip.
A few years ago during our annual financial checkup with our advisor, Joe, he posed the question to my wife and I that went something like this:
“The end of your work life is getting closer. What do you want to do when you’re retired? I’d like you to dream a little bit so we’re able to better plan for your post-work life.”
Joe the Financial Planner
And that’s what I did. Prior to our next meeting, I pitched the idea of the “Year in Sports” to him. That is, from January 1-December 31 during a calendar year attending as many notable sporting events as possible and documenting the journey. I went on to inform him that the year was going to be 2026 because it was both an Olympics year (winter in Milan, IT) and a Men’s World Cup year (jointly hosted by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico) and it would provide the necessary time to prepare. I recall even having a rudimentary list created in a spreadsheet of those sporting events I felt could reasonably be attended.
To his credit, Joe neither chuckled, scoffed, nor dismissed the idea as foolhardy. To the contrary, he looked at me and said, “we’ll need a budget so we’re able to determine what’s possible.”
Um, OK.
Over the course of several weeks I took that skeletal list of events and began building out a multi-tabbed spreadsheet by month of the different sporting events, miles from my home, current costs of airfare, lodging, tickets, etc., and sent Joe an email with the spreadsheet attached. He politely thanked me for it and we both got busy with our lives.
I figured it was sort of a dream deferred at that point until our next quarterly check in when Joe asked what the latest was with the “Year in Sports” thing?
Well, I sent along a spreadsheet with some estimated costs. Was that not what he was looking for?
In fact, it was not!
He wanted a best-estimate budget for every event I planned to attend.
Oaf!
Upon wrapping that quarterly meeting, I reflected on what one full year would look like, the amount of costly air travel required, and the likelihood of life occuring – think this scene from “Up!” – throwing the entire quest off.
As this reflection continued, I wondered how many events I had on that initial list? Eighty-seven sticks in my mind for some reason. Why not look at this as an quest spread out over a few years, I thought to myself? It would better afford seeing multiple events that may have conflicting dates with others, allow for – you know – time for life to happen, and defer some of the expenses over a longer period of time.
One can safely assume that a trip to historic Wrigley Field made the 80 Sporting Events cut.
And thus was borne “Around the World in 80 Sporting Events.” I did some paring down (some pretty notable events are on the outside looking in) and began to build out a spreadsheet, not by month, but rather by year, and tried to be strategic with locations traveled in order to only travel out one time.
Once complete, it was time to provide Joe the budget he wanted.
Knowing that there was not an endless supply of resources – and because I was no longer confined to a single calendar year – the goal was to drive to those events that could be arrived at in a reasonable day’s drive or less.
A terrible thing (but simultaneously, a great thing!) occurred during the week between New Year’s Day and the end of holiday break: My wife tested positive for Covid-19 and isolated in the master suite. This afforded me the time I needed to build out a budget for these 80 sporting events. Burning plenty of midnight oil, I submitted Joe a full budget a couple weeks into 2024.
It exceeded the original number he provided – by a pretty decent amount – but in reviewing our financials he found an account that could handle this larger number. We agreed I’d be open to monetizing my creative work to the extent I’m able to help defray some of the expenses. (If you’d like to support this work you’re able to do so for as little as 99 cents per month here.)
In the end, it moved our retirement financial success probability from 96% to 92%.
I was an educator for over 25 years so I know that’s still an A:-)
- Next Time: What’s on the List?