A financial goal on my bucket list

DJ told me about the notion of Bucket List and I really liked the idea. While I always wanted to do a few things before I die, I never made a proper list. I am making one now.

And the first goal I want to write is a financial goal. If you look at 43Things.com, there are few often-used financial goals and a popular financial goal is to "become a millionaire".

While it is a popular goal, it doesn't really hold much meaning for any body. Think of it this way: is it a million because its a round figure? Or is it a million because that is what gets talked about?Does it have deeper personal meaning for you? As a goal, it offers way less for you than say "run a marathon" or "ask someone out" or "back pack through europe" do.

And I would like my financial goal to mean something to me. Luckily I have been thinking about being financially independent for a long time now and I have a personal financial goal. It isn't simple like "become a millionaire" but it holds tremendous appeal to me. Before I can explain what my goal is I need to describe something called a claim check:

Claim Check (n)	1. A receipt for property that you have claim to.
	2. A numbered receipt or part of a ticket given to a passenger for claiming his baggage at the destination.

And the following quote gives a good sense of how I want to use the word "claim check":

The way I see it is that my money represents an enormous number of claim checks on society. It’s like I have these little pieces of paper that I can turn into consumption -- Warren Buffett

And my goal is to:

"Collect Claim Checks Worth 50 Years of Consumption": The idea is to have enough claim checks that can be converted to consumption for next fifty years. It isn't catchy like "become a millionaire" but it serves me well. By the time I reach this I probably won't have 50 years to go and I can choose to stop working if I don't feel like it and start doing things that I really want to.