Well, hello and welcome to this episode of Learn Everyday English, your roadway to English proficiency.
Hey, you've come to the right place to improve your listening comprehension skills and mastery of the English language.
My name is Gary and I will be your host today.
I'm a native English speaker born and raised in the United States and a retired engineer living in a small Texas town about one hour north of Houston.
I'm also a language learner like you.
I'm learning Spanish and have been doing so for about four years so I know what it is like to learn a new and different language.
Hey, so now let's jump right in to today's episode.
Hey, hello listeners.
Howdy y 'all from Texas.
How's everybody doing today?
Glad to have you with me on this episode of the Learn Everyday English podcast.
We're going to be talking about something, maybe a term you don't know or haven't heard before and it's called a bucket list, bucket list.
But before we get into that, I just want to remind you, you can follow me at my webpage.
Just go to www .learneverydayenglish .com, there you can listen to all the podcasts directly from the webpage or you can also find links to our Learn Everyday English YouTube channel where you can find engaging and interesting videos that will help you improve your English language skills and also you
can find a link that says podcast resources or the podcast resources page where you can find the program notes that you can download and follow along with me as I go through this episode so you don't have to write everything down.
I think that's it for now.
Hey, let's get going into today's episode about bucket list.
Let's go. Well, today's episode, we're going to be talking about a bucket list, bucket list.
Bucket is spelled B -U -C -K -E -T and a bucket can be like a container.
You can put water into or carry things in, but this is an expression called a bucket list and a definition of a bucket list is experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have or hopes to accomplish during their lifetime.
So basically, it's just things that you want to be able to do, experience, achieve, accomplish during your lifetime.
So we call that a bucket list and sometimes people will ask you, hey, what's on your bucket list?
Or do you have a bucket list?
What is it? So it'd be interesting question to try to answer and maybe a lot of you have bucket lists already.
Before I go any further, I just want to let you know I got a lot of these facts about bucket list from a website online called provisionliving .com and they did a survey that's titled, it reveals what America's bucket list items are.
I think they surveyed many older Americans or elderly or senior citizens as far as what is on their bucket list and what exactly has some more information concerning bucket lists.
So I need to give them credit for that.
So their survey, what they did, they talked to about 2000 people and this is what they found out.
95 % of them had a bucket list.
So that's a very high percentage.
21 % said that they change their bucket list at least once a month and 66 % plan on checking off an item within the next year and to check off means that they plan on completing or doing or accomplishing an item on their bucket list within the next year.
So we say they plan on checking it off.
So how does a bucket list get started when they surveyed most of these or these 2000 people?
A large percentage of them said that they started their bucket list when they got to a certain age and that was 38 % of them.
So maybe this happens when you get older, maybe you've worked for a while, you have some savings, money saved up, maybe you have more of an ability or option to travel and do certain things that you've always wanted to do your whole life.
So it seems like there is a certain age where most people then start to think about, hey, I need to put together a bucket list.
And now I'm going to go over what America's bucket list looks like.
And like I said, these were people here in the United States that were surveyed.
And I'm going to go down the list from highest percentage to lowest percentage.
And the highest item on the list was travel at 77%.
So 70 % of the people surveyed said that they had travel at the top of their bucket list.
And this makes sense because a lot of people like to travel and go to different countries, experience different cultures and food.
The next item on a bucket list was financial goals, financial goals.
And this was 71%. And this may be get a new job, be able to make more money.
Maybe you want to try to save for your children's education, whatever that may be, but something related to finances.
The next item on the list at 71 % had to do with personal development goals, personal development goals.
Like how do you want to improve yourself?
Maybe your image, your quality of life, things I could think of.
Maybe you want to try to reduce stress in your life or improve personal relationships with family and friends and coworkers.
The next item on the list at 67 % were family goals, family goals.
And this could be maybe you plan on getting married or you want to get married.
Also, maybe you want to have children one day.
So these could be certain items that are on your bucket list or maybe you want to adopt a child.
The next item on the list at 55 % were health goals.
And maybe this could be you want to lose weight.
You want to eat healthier.
Maybe you want to get stronger, build more muscle.
Whatever you do, things that can impact your health.
The next item on the list at 47 % were hobby goals.
Hobbies are also we call them past times.
Things that you like to do in your free time when you're not working.
And this could be maybe learn a language like you all are doing.
Learning English, I'm learning Spanish.
Another hobby goal could be learning to play a musical instrument or perhaps take up art, go to an art class, learn to paint or to draw or do photography.
Or also take up a sport, maybe play tennis and things like that.
The next item on the bucket list list at 42 % were career goals.
So this maybe has to do with things that you want to achieve or accomplish in your work.
And this can maybe can be get a promotion, perhaps.
Maybe you want to change careers and do something different.
Maybe you want to take some classes at a local university or community college to improve your skills or your skill set.
Or maybe just want to go to college if you haven't received a college degree.
Those are career goals.
And having a college degree can provide better opportunities for you to get a better job and a better paying job.
The next item on the list at 40 % were spiritual development goals.
And these could be maybe things dealing with religion.
Or spirituality. Maybe you want to pray more, meditate more.
Maybe attend a church, a mosque, synagogue.
Whatever you want to do spiritually related.
And the last item on the list at 27 % were volunteer related goals.
And I think this is a good item on the list.
And maybe a lot of people don't think about doing something like this.
But there are a lot of volunteer needs out there and volunteer opportunities.
For example, I don't know if I've told you before, but I volunteer once a week for a program in my town called Meals on Wheels.
And it provides meals to elderly people and low income people and people with certain disabilities where I deliver food to their door.
So it's a very rewarding experience.
So you can do something like that.
Perhaps help out at a local food bank in your city.
And a food bank is just a place or location that stores or has food.
Either where people can come and go and pick up food if they're in need of food to eat.
Or I know here too in my city, there's also a need for volunteers to help work at the local hospital to help people show them where they need to go.
Maybe to have certain tests or procedures done.
So these are a lot of things that are on the bucket list of a lot of Americans here in the US.
So specifically, let's look at the travel bucket list.
And from the survey, the average number of travel destinations on a bucket list is eight.
So the average, most people had an average of eight places that they would like to go that was on their bucket list.
And these are countries as well as states within the United States.
But let's go over the top countries that were on people's bucket lists.
And they were Australia, the land down under, Italy, Ireland, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Greece, the Bahamas, which is in the Caribbean, Egypt, and Germany.
So I find that that's a very interesting list of countries.
And also they were asked what cities were on most people's bucket lists.
And these are the cities here in the United States that people would like to go to one day.
Honolulu, Hawaii. And I'll kind of let you know some of these cities, if I've actually been to them or not, I haven't been to Hawaii.
So I would like to go to Honolulu.
Next is New York City.
I've been there once.
Las Vegas, Nevada. I've been there.
Anchorage, Alaska. And interestingly enough, we plan on going there maybe within the next month to visit family.
So that'd be my first time.
San Francisco, California.
I've been there, but it's been a long time ago.
I visited an aunt, a family member there.
Next on the list is Los Angeles, California.
I've been there quite a while ago.
I had a good friend that lived there.
New Orleans, Louisiana.
I've been there because my family is from Louisiana.
Seattle, Washington.
I haven't been there, but we plan on going there within about the next month.
Austin, Texas. Of course, I've been there since I live in Texas, and that is the capital of Texas.
Boston, Massachusetts.
I've never been there.
Denver, Colorado. I haven't been there.
Atlanta, Georgia. I've driven through there.
I haven't actually visited per se.
Portland, Oregon. I haven't visited there.
Washington, DC. I've been to Washington.
Miami, Florida. I haven't been to Miami, but I would love to.
Chicago, Illinois. I haven't been there.
San Diego, California.
Anaheim, California.
I haven't been to either of those two cities.
Finally, the last two.
Orlando, Florida. I've been there because that's where Disney World is located.
And Albuquerque, New Mexico.
And I've been there, I guess, about four, five years ago.
So now let's look at items that are on a financial bucket list or financial items that are on someone's bucket list.
And from the survey, they found that the most amount of money people are willing to spend on a bucket list item was an average of about $3 ,081.
But baby boomers said that they would spend about $3 ,204 while millennials were a little bit more frugal.
And frugal means less willing to spend money.
Or we just say they were cheaper.
And they'd spend about $2 ,959.
This may sound like a lot of money, but travel these days can be very expensive.
Once you get your airline tickets, you got to stay at a hotel.
You got to eat. Maybe you need a rental car.
So a lot of these bucket list items aren't maybe very reasonable or good options for young people just starting to work because you don't have much money saved up.
So perhaps some of these bucket list items are more appropriate for older people that have established careers and have been working for a while.
And in the survey, they also asked participants what their top financial bucket list goals were.
And the top answers were, one, to pay off debt.
And this could be debt that you have on a credit card or perhaps a car loan.
And debt is just money that you owe to an establishment of business.
The next item for financial bucket list goals were pay off a mortgage.
And a mortgage is like a loan that you have on your house, the place where you live.
You have to pay the mortgage off, the mortgage loan off.
The next financial goal that was on people's list was to retire early.
And this may be difficult to do these days because you need a lot of money to be able to retire.
Either you have to have a job that perhaps has a pension.
And if so, you may need to work a long time, maybe 30, 35 years, unless you maybe win the lottery or hit the lottery, or you have a private business that does very well.
The next item on the list was to save up for a child's college tuition.
Or if you have children, you want them to go to college, university.
So you need to really start or begin to save money when they're very young, because the cost of college here in the United States is very expensive.
It's not unusual to have to pay $10 ,000 to $60 ,000 a year, or maybe even, depending where you go, $10 ,000 a semester.
So you need a lot of money, perhaps $100 ,000, $200 ,000, or even a little bit more to send a child to college for four years.
The next item on the list for financial issues is to give to charity, to be able to give to charity or organizations that help people out.
And finally, the last item on a bucket list dealing with financial issues is to be able to buy a home.
And we say here in the States, that is part of the American dream, is to be able to buy and have your own home.
So now we're going to look at what is preventing people from being able to do the things that are on their bucket list.
Or in another way, I can say what prevents people from checking things off of their bucket list.
Remember the word to check off means to be able to do something.
So what prevents people from doing things that are on their bucket list?
And of course, you may realize this immediately, but the first problem has to do with finances.
At 57%, people said they just don't have enough money to accomplish things on their bucket list.
And that makes sense because a lot of these things require a lot of money.
The next item at 14 % was just lack of time.
And this makes sense too, because nowadays, you know, people have to work all the time.
If you have a family, the husband and wife both need to work to be able to earn enough money to support their family.
And sometimes it's difficult to just find time where everybody can be off at the same time.
The next item on the list at 11 % has to do with family responsibilities.
Again, this may have to be due to a time constraint.
Maybe you have to take care of a sick relative or parent and other issues.
The next item at 5 % was age.
Maybe there are certain things that you would like to do, but due to your age, you're not able to do them, or maybe that sort of thing.
The next item on the list at 5%, people said they prevented them from doing things on their bucket list was fear.
And a lot of times, we do not do things because we are just afraid.
The next item on the list at 3 % was health.
And maybe there are some things that you would like to do, but you can't do them because you have certain health problems that may prevent you from, say, traveling.
Maybe it prevents you from walking or walking a lot, doing certain strenuous activities.
The next item on the list, people said at 3 % was they had no one to experience it with.
That means they had no one that could go with them.
And going on, say, a trip or doing something that you really want to do and doing it by yourself is not really ideal.
Most people want somebody around with them or other people with them to share in the experience and enjoy the experience with them.
And finally, the last thing at 2 % people said was laziness.
They just were lazy.
They just never got around to doing it.
Another question they asked on the survey was, what age were you the happiest in your life?
And surprisingly, the average answer was 29 years old.
I found that kind of interesting.
So I thought that was somewhat young, but that's what the survey results showed.
But for baby boomers, which are people around my age and older, almost 59, they said they were the happiest when they were 32 years old.
And millennials, which are the younger generation, said they were happiest when they were 21 years old.
So in closing, this podcast, I thought about this.
And what would be things that I would put on my bucket list, or what are things that I have on my bucket list as goals, things that I would like to do to achieve or accomplish.
And one was just to improve my Spanish -speaking ability and comprehension ability of the Spanish language.
And I'm working on that.
The next item on my list is I would love to live in a Spanish -speaking country for a while.
And since I live in Texas, I'd like to live in Mexico because it's close and more convenient for at least three months, maybe longer.
And I can really learn the language and culture and experience the language and culture.
And I also would like to do photography.
And one of the things on my bucket list for photography is to be able to capture a good lightning shot or a picture of lightning.
That may sound kind of strange to you, but I really would like to do that.
And my favorite type of photography is bird photography.
And I would like to go on a, say, bird photography tour one day.
And the next item on my list is I would like to travel to Hawaii because I see that it is a very beautiful experience.
Also, I would like to travel to Europe, especially Italy and Spain.
I would also like to visit more U .S.
national parks here in the United States.
Also, on my bucket list, I would like to learn to play the bass guitar musical instrument.
Also, I would like to improve my health.
I have several health challenges or issues.
I would like to improve those.
I would like to buy a travel trailer and travel around the U .S.
A travel trailer is like a trailer you can tow behind your pickup truck.
You can live in, and it's cheaper than, say, staying at a hotel.
And just travel around the U .S., seeing the different things and sights.
And finally, the last thing on my bucket list was this would be to just use my talents and abilities to help other people.
I think that would be very rewarding.
Hey, well, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Learn Every Day English podcast about bucket lists.
I'd love to hear from you and find out, hey, what's on your bucket list?
Or do you have a bucket list?
Or do you find this podcast informative and made you consider or think, hey, maybe I need to come up with a bucket list.
So I'd love to hear from you.
If you have any other questions for me or suggestions for specific topics you would like me to discuss on this program, you can do all of that by just going to the Learn Every Day English web page.
Go to the home page.
At the bottom, there will be a contact form.
Just fill that out and send me a message.
I'll read it and I'll reply back to you as well.
Well, I think that's it for now.
Hey, be sure to check out our upcoming episodes.
We're going to be having some episodes, a three -part series on English phrasal verbs, because a lot of people tell me phrasal verbs are one thing that they would like to learn and know about, but also they say it is one of the most difficult things in learning English is trying to learn phrasal verbs.
So we're going to be going back over that.
So again, thanks for listening.
Have a good day, week, wherever you may be, and we'll talk to you later.
Hey, thanks for listening to this episode of Learn Every Day English Podcast.
Bye -bye.
