Tammy and I recently visited Yellowstone National Park for the first time and despite having seen numerous videos on the amazing wildlife and geographical features over the years, we were amazed to experience it all in person. I think the only wildlife we missed seeing were grizzlies, mountain lions, and bobcats. I was fine with not seeing predators such as those, and hopefully they never saw us!
Yellowstone was for the most part, BYOB: Bring Your Own Bearspray. And I did hear that in the Fall, during berry picking season, it is good idea to pin small jingle bells to your clothes so the bears will hear you coming and not be surprised. But if you do see bear scat in the area to be cautious. If you are wondering what kind of bear is in the area you can tell because the brown bear scat will have berry residue in it and the grizzly bear’s will have small jingle bells…
As we were discussing the highlights of our trip and various advice or tips we would give to someone thinking of going to Yellowstone, my wife had a great insight. She said first you need to decide what you want to get out of the trip. The wildlife? The geysers? Once you decide your focus, then you can build the itinerary that will fit best to those goals.
Which is also what we try to do with our financial planning! When you have clearly defined goals for what you want your lifestyle to look like, before and after retirement, it makes it easier to find the roadmap toget you there.
The lifestyle may be something as simple as “I want to be able to sit on my porch and drink coffee every morning without worries.” Or you may want to travel the world. But as long as the goal is defined, we can help plan for it.
And planning is its own form of Bearspray for those “BearMarkets!
