How many do you have? Does this keep you up at night?
Over the past few months I've found myself talking a fair bit on how many bullets I have.
Although I have fired a gun a few times, I'm not talking about those kinds of bullets.
I picked up this term from Brad Owen, a pro poker player with his own YouTube channel. He sometimes goes to play with an extra buy-in for a table. That's his “second bullet” in case he loses all of his chips.
For me, a bullet is a purchase somewhere in the high-four or low-five figures, such as:
- A quality used car
- A family cruise
- A home improvement project
- A new central heating/cooling system
A vacation property is too much, and a new refrigerator is too little. Somewhere in between.
The list above are examples of bullets we've fired over the past few years. The latest one is the home improvement project (an expanded office which I'm sure will make me more productive, haha!)
Discretionary and necessary expenses
The list includes a combination of discretionary expenses (like the cruise and the home improvement project) and necessary expenses (the car and the new heating/cooling system).
Prudence would dictate having enough of the bullets set aside for the necessary expenses coming up before using them on the discretionary ones. My family could take a cruise every year but we'd run out of bullets before too long.
A bullet I dread
I didn't sleep well on Tuesday night. Wednesday I had a doctor's appointment and a dentist appointment.
I don't look forward to either of these activities. The best outcome for these appointments is that nothing's wrong. The worst outcome can be pretty horrible, or almost as bad, pretty expensive.
The doctor's appointment wasn't too bad, but the dentist was a different story.
For reference, I've had a lot of work done on my teeth. About 20 years ago a dentist told me that I was a dental cripple. After that experience, I went to a dentist that didn't insult me as he was taking my money.
One tooth (#3 if it matters) had a root canal and a crown. The tooth got infected a couple of years ago, and an oral surgeon reinforced the roots from beneath via an apicoectomy.
At the dental appointment this week, I found out that it had failed again, which means the tooth needs to be extracted. Following that, either a bridge or an implant. The dentist recommends an implant so as not to disturb the teeth on either side.
All of that to say: I'm going to need to use a bullet to get this tooth fixed. This one tooth will run around $7k, and that's with secondary insurance.
What keeps you up at night?
The prospect of expensive dental work keeps me up at night. With as much work as I've had done, it's all but guaranteed that I'm going to have to fire bullets at fixing them for the rest of my life.
Your teeth might be fine. If they are, I'm happy for you. I wouldn't wish bad teeth on anyone.
But if not dental problems, then what?
What keeps you up at night?
What's ready to turn the corner and come at you, making you expend financial rounds on it?
Looming problems like this, along with feeling tied to a job or having a mortgage to pay off before retiring, chip away at your peace of mind.
Build something that puts more bullets in the chambers
There are any number of ways to build something that replaces those bullets that inevitably need to be fired.
And the act of moving in that direction helps to relieve that stress, even if you're just starting out.
Moving toward being able to pay for just one more of those necessary expenses hanging over you is a big deal.
It's why I'm doing what I'm doing, bad teeth and all.
Want to join me?
(header photo by Karolina Grabowska)
