104. Berg’s Bucket List + Meme & Meal of the Week

Only 150 people in the world have done it. I haven't done it yet and I'll put it on my list to make sure I do it. I just need to get one and start living my life. The sooner I get it, I just got to get one. Man, that's $12,000. That's a lot of money. Oh, that just eats me up inside. I just keep waiting till it gets more and more expensive.

Welcome back to another episode of the bennetbergs Podcast. I'm Ben, your favorite high school dropout and founder of Collective Shift. Alongside me is Bergs, your favorite MBA and COO of Collective Shift, Australia's leading crypto portfolio insights company, providing professional analysis and portfolio strategies for crypto investors. Like you, we are a unique blend of the established and the self made, and we're here to break down crypto business and personal growth. We're not here just to talk crap though. We're giving you the insights you need to make better investments, build successful businesses and level up your life. And in today's episode, it's part two of the Bucket List edition. I recently gave my bucket list of Bergs, and now it's Bergs's time to reflect on his bucket list. I'm not sure if this is a new bucket list perks, or if you had this and now you're being able to just share it, but I'm keen to hear what your bucket list is in comparison to mine in the journey that you're on and the stage of life you're on compared to mine. Because I know you've done a lot of traveling, you've done a lot of stuff. So be keen to see and hear where you're currently at.

All right, mate. And where people would have already heard your episode, I gave you an absolute roasting in it. So feel free to give it back, mate. So I think I did this in two ways, like things I've already done and things I want to do. So I wrote down a couple of things that were on my bucket list that I've accomplished. I'm sure there's heaps more, but these are like the top notes. Couple of them were start a business, travel to a few places, went to Japan a few times. I wanted to keep going back there, buy a house, go to uni, then follow up with a master's, do my mba. Perfect. Napoli pizza. So making that in the pizza oven, that took ages. Have financial stability and be in a good financial position, get married, have a child, work in crypto and start A podcast. They're just a few of the things on my bucket list that I've wanted to do that I have now ticked off. And I look back on that list, I'm like, damn, man. They're like the. They're just the top notes. Like, there's lots of other things, but these ones just spring to my mind and I'm like, yeah, these are the big ones that I wanted to accomplish. This is great. Now, mate, let's get into the list. Number one, take the family to Disneyland. And this is going to be in Tokyo. It's actually nine years to the day since I went to DisneySea with my wife. I think it was on our honeymoon, I'm pretty sure. And we went to Disneyland, which is just amazing. Park in Tokyo. So I want to take the little one and go to Disneyland. Hopefully next year we can work it out and take that off the list. Because the thing with bucket lists as well is like, you can have a list, but you also got to decide when you want to do it. Like, can I do this? Is this something I have to do now? Like, is it a sporting thing and my knees and body have to work? You know, is it like wakeboarding or something? Or can I do it when I'm older? So you got to kind of adjust them as well, timeline it. Number two. Yeah, become a Krav Maga instructor. So this is really interesting. I haven't trained in Krav Maga for about 10 years. I trained by myself, but not like actively. So to become an instructor, it's probably about a couple of years of training. Then you have to do a general instructor course, which is about a week. But so much goes into that week, it's ridiculous. Like, you're tested mentally, physically, the amount of training you have to do leading up to it and the actual study you have to do is incredibly involved. And I always thought it was one of those nice to have things, but I haven't shaken it over the last 10 years. This is something I want to do. I want to have that knowledge. The main reason is to have the knowledge of being a Krav Maga instructor, being able to teach tactical self defense to other people. For those that don't know, this is the Israeli self defense system that they teach all their people. And this is the civilian application of it, not the military one. And it is so easy to learn, really hard to forget. And even the smallest woman can defend herself very, very actively. It's, you know, you know, ice strikes, kicking the balls, improvised weapons. If you get attacked in your car, what do you do? Those kind of things. And it would just be so cool in the future to have, like, small groups. And I'm thinking like business groups, like a C suite, and get them in and get them into, like, chokes, holds, teach them all that kind of stuff, really break them down. But then do business lessons and strategy as well. Like, you know, like, really bond that team, put them in a different space, but then have that real team bonding, strategic kind of angle as well. So that's something I'd like to do.

Yeah.

Next one, dunk a basketball ring. So this is still on my list. I haven't shaken recently. Recently I'm actually getting closer. So I haven't actually gone down to a ring, but lost 5 kilos recently. Put on a stack of muscle right back into my training, and this is absolutely on my list. Not letting go of it.

Next goal, live in a house by the beach. So I've always wanted to do this. I used to live near the beach in a very small unit, and that was fantastic. Just be able to walk down there, go to the beach whenever I wanted. What I'm actually thinking is maybe for January this year, I might just. Because my wife will be on leave from uni, my daughter will be out of school, I might just go hire a house at the beach for a month.

I just got to live, do it in Airbnb for a month. Says every.

Yeah. So I can still work, I can still do everything because I'm like, I don't have to buy a house by the beach. But imagine that month where, yeah, it's going to be a bit of money, but we can live there. We can have our friends over. We could just walk to the beach whenever we want and live that life now while we're still young. So that's what I'm looking at for January.

We spoke about this before. What is the point of having money if you don't spend it? Actually, you design the things you want to do. This is your bucket list, right? Like, exactly. But just your reaction that you're like, this is my bucket list item. And instantly it's like, oh, you could be the money, sort of, you know. Can I?

Yeah.

It's not that you can't afford it, but it's just the amount of. Just like, for you, I know you just don't like spending money. It's like.

Well, yeah, it's. It's coming from, like, not having much money when I was young and not wanting to be in that position or Always being fearful of the future. Even though I'm highly qualified and I'm an mba, people ask me to work in their organizations all the time. I'll never be short of a job, but still, I still have that inside me that I'm still working on, right? So I'm like, fuck it, I'm going to live now. I'm going to live my life now. And by spending money here and there, that is going to help me more by just doing the thing. And it's like if you're afraid of something, you do exposure therapy, right? Like, if you're afraid of heights, you go a little bit higher, a little bit higher, a little bit higher. Minds, like, spend a little bit, spend a little bit more, and then it'll all work out. And I'm sure the dividends I get, even friends I have, I know that have a lot of money and not much time. They won't get a cleaner for their house because they don't want to spend the money that I'm capable of cleaning. And I'm like, bro, I was the same. Got a cleaner, changed my life. Literally gave you so much time.

Yeah, exactly.

But they don't think that way because they, you know, because of the way they. And their parents, well, they learn from their parents about finance and about money and about investing. And this is the thing. It's a journey, man. It's a journey. Yeah. All right. Read books and meditate a lot. And I put this on here because this is just how I want to live my life day to day. I want to be free. I feel the most calm, the most wealthy, the most accomplished. When I'm able to just sit down and have time and read for half an hour, an hour, or meditate. If I could just meditate. Sitting in that chair back there by myself, no one bothering me. It is just me focusing on myself. All my problems go away. That is a true sense of wealth to me. How I spend my time, that is something that I want to have throughout my life and be reminded of it constantly. That's why it's on my bucket list.

And also how it, like at the energy you have throughout the day, you know, like, you know, they're more calm, balanced, energetic, clear, you know, focused person, rather than.

Cloudy, tired, miserable, you know, frustrated, you know, that, that, that, that, you know, and I think that's. I don't know if that, you know, from a bucket list perspective, it's more like a life.

Yeah.

Optimizer. It is. Or, you know, strategy.

Yeah, it is. And I put it on there because I don't want to forget it. And it's something I always want to have every day. And it's not just a one off. Next one, learn Japanese or Italian. It's probably going to be Japanese. And I remember on the flight home I was like learning a bit of Japanese and I was picking it up and I just want to learn another language, get those language centers going in my brain. I never did a language at school. My parents both spoke different languages. So I could have learned like German or Hindi at home, but my parents never taught me or they said, well, they say I wasn't interested, which is whatever. Probably not. Rather play Nintendo, go out my bike, but learn Japanese or Italian. Next, another fitness goal. Close a Captains of Crush number three gripper. So I think I might have showed you this before. There's a little silver grippers and it's just basically like that, right? So at the moment I can close a number two gripper which is 88 kilos of grip strength. The average 40 year old male has about four 45 kilos of grip strength. Right. So average is 45, I'm at 88. The Captains of Crush number two is 127. So I need to increase my grip strength by 50%. So that's at least a couple of years of training and it's been on my list for like 10 years. And I'm like, look, I just need to get serious about it and just do grip training every day. So that's something I want to do. Only 100.

What's it about? What's it about strength that is appealing?

Oh, mate. Only 150 people in the world have done it.

Oh, okay, there we go.

And grip strength is actually, it's like a measure of health, right? Like how strong you are. And I already have above average grip strength and I'm like, I might as well train this and get world certified. Like it's a full serious thing, man. So you have world class, good strength. Yeah. And the thing is it fits in with my fitness goals where I have to get significant like muscles strong. I have giant forearms in order to be able to do this. And only like three people in the world have closed the number four. That's like you have to be a strong man to do it. So I never get there.

All right, okay, cool.

This one's a bit of a funny one. I wasn't going to say it, but get a Metallica pinball machine, right? I can't shake this one either. And what's weird is this is something I could just go and buy tomorrow, right? I haven't done it yet and I'll put it on my list to make sure I do it. I've wanted a Metallica pinball machine for so long. I. I looked at it when it was eight grand and it was brand new in the box. No, it was six grand and I was like, six grand, man, there's so much money. And then it went up to eight grand and then they stopped making them. Now they're about 12 grand. I'm like, that is so much money. You've been in my house, I got a few pinball machines. Look, I just need to get one and start living my life because the sooner I get it. First of all, huge Metallica fan. Been to be to their concerts and everything. Amazing. Loved Metallica since I was like 12. I'm just about that life and when you hear that music playing through that pinball machine and the shots are insane and it's loopy and it's risk, reward and oh my God, the toys are great. It's just incredible. It's one of the best machines ever. I just got to get one. But again, it's swallowing that price. I'm like, man, that's $12,000. That's a lot of money. Like, do I want to see my man if I have to look down my $12,000. Oh, that just eats me up inside. I just keep waiting till it gets more and more expensive.

Oh, mate. Next one. In my next house have a hidden room. So this doesn't have to be like hidden panic room. But I've been watching these shows lately where it's like you got a room and it's just like a bookcase and you open and it goes to another room and it's just somewhere like nice. You can relax, you have a study, you can do a bit of work and it's kind of soundproof. That is absolutely on my bucket list. Next one, get a yoga personal trainer. So this is not. I'm going to get a personal trainer anyway. But I want a specific yoga one that comes to my house and does yoga with me and moves my body in a specific way because my body is significantly broken. And I just want someone who's an expert to have one on one training and some one on one training. To me, this is like my rich life and something that I need. I think my life trajectory is just going to change if I do this. So that's on my bucket list. Next one, travel wa in a caravan so that's quite a, like, common thing for old folks. And I could do this when I'm older, you know, rent out your house or sell it, Get a caravan and just travel around. I've seen some pretty swish caravans, man. And even with Starlink now, you can even work when you're out on the road. And just to go up the coast through wa, the first I've been is up to Calbarry, which is five hours north of Perth. You can go all the way up through like, you know, Monkey, Maya, Karatha, all the way right around to the Northern Territory. I would love to do that and take like three, four months off and just drive around wherever I feel like for that day. Go live by the beach for a while. It'd be amazing, man. Nice. Next one. Get a dog. Get a dog, mate. Bucket list. So simple. Just get a dog. I've really thought about the things I want. That's the thing I want. Right. So we've been putting it off for a while, but this is going to happen this summer and it's going to be amazing.

Next one is actually a fitness goal. Again, I thought this was a weak goal, but. And again it's like goals and bucket lists. Like, you know, they. Yeah, kind of difficult, but this is like deadlift 180 kilos. I've. This has been on my list of to achieve for like since 2007 to. No, no, 2009, I think. Look, the highest I've been is 150 kilos. I firmly believe I can achieve that goal now with the way that I'm lifting. And I just want to do it because like the, the measure of like intermediate strength. Like it used to be deadlift 180 kilos, squat 140, bench 100 and overhead press was 60. That's. So. Yeah, I could do the overhead press.

Yeah.

Oh, sorry. No, I think, yeah, that's intermediate strength.

So it's, it's. Why are you surprised by that?

Well, I'm just thinking what I. So I've just hit a PB on the squat rack, which is 100 kilos.

Yeah.

Bench press.

Wait, when you say squat rack, is that Swift Smith machine or squat rack? Like you don't have it in bars on the side. It's just you with a bar on your back.

Just you. Just me in a bar? Yeah. 100. 100 kilo.

That's awesome.

Yeah. And I, I weigh 78 kilo and that's like heavy. So when you said 160 kilos. 140 kilos, squat. I'm like, hell, that's a bit, it's a bit of a deadlift. I can't remember. I haven't done deadlifts recently. And then bench press is only like 60, 65.

Yeah, yeah. So my bench is my weakest. It's about 70. Deadlift is probably, if I tried hard, probably 130 at the moment. Overhead press is 60, so I hit that. And squat is very weak as well because.

Like, I could probably squat 100 kilos, but it's going to ruin me. Right? So at the moment I'm about 70 for my squat because my hips just don't work, which is why I need the yoga instructor, dude.

And that's a big one. Like, all right, I, I, I, I couldn't do it either until I started stretching. Like I do stretching because P.T. jordan got me onto stretching every day, mate, my hips. I was an old man, man. I fucking couldn't walk. And now stretching. Game changers. I like the yoga idea.

That's exactly it. And even now, like, I'm not going heavier in my weights. I'm staying relatively where I am and I'm getting such good gains just from consistency. Yeah. Otherwise I'll keep increasing the weights and I'll injure myself and my body's not ready for that. It's like, it's ready for the weight, but my form is incredibly poor and I don't want to have that injury. All right, two more mate on the bucket list. Live in another country for at least three months.

Nice.

So this is going to be cool. And I don't know if I'm going to do this while I'm younger or older, but I could be a cool experience for the little one as well. And I don't know where it would be. It might be somewhere in Europe, it might be somewhere in South America. I could easily live in Japan for three months just to really. Instead of just a holiday where you kind of, you know, touch a few things, but just to really take your time. Like kind of slow matting, right? Where you go around for a while, you just see you breathe everything in. You get to live the day to day. Might even be Singapore. That's going to be amazing. And mate, my last one on my list, bit weird, but I want to do it fire a sniper rifle. This is like.

I like that. I like that.

Yeah. And not, not a pissy rifle. Like a big rifle. Like, the target is like hundreds of meters away and I want to fire it until I get good and I Hit that target.

Yeah, I love that. Where can you do that?

So that is my. Oh, the. Yeah. U.S. maybe Canada, New Zealand has some cool guns as well. I don't know if they go out there, but you might be able to go to a specialized place. Yeah, but, mate, that's it. And obviously, like, you know, if I. Assault rifles, all that kind of stuff, I've only ever fired, like, pistol and a shotgun, but I would love to do that. My old man, he was great at rifles and all that. I'm not. I don't want to own a gun. I don't want to have to go the range every month. I just want to fire one every now and then. And my sniper rifle. Oh, so sick. Oh, man.

Snipes and dogs would be great, mate. That is my bucket list. And I'm actually astonished that there's no massive grandiose things here that I want to achieve. Like, crazy things where I'm like, I must do that thing. Like, you know, like the Everest goal.

Right.

Like, that's not there for me.

Yeah. And I really thought about, like, well, I could go to Everest, I could go to Antarctica. I could do this, I could do that. I'm like, I just don't have the desire to do those things. Like, if I didn't achieve them in my life, I'd still be happy. And, yeah, mate, these are the things I want to do. And a lot of those are just experiences. Learn a language and do a bit of training. That's the life I want to live, man. I'm happy, peaceful. Yeah, man.

Yeah. Yeah.

There you go. There's the bucket list. I like it, man.

Well, we can keep each other accountable, mate, over a better burger next 10 years.

Absolutely, mate. We need to. We need to. And I think we're going to tick off a fair few of these by, mate, even by next year. So, mate, let's get on to.

Meal of the week. Now, Ben, I've got your meal here. I'm going to put it up on the screen. Do you want to talk us through it?

Yeah. So this is my. One of my favorite guys, the favorite.

Food outlet in Bali. For me, it's in Canggu. It's called the Dispensary for anyone that travels to Canggu or Bali. And just after an epic healthy meal, this place is right next to Body Factory Gym. And, mate, this is just unbelievable in terms of just fresh protein, veg, a little bit of carbs. Every day I get about 200 grams of chicken, maybe some steak, 75 grams of rice and just broccoli. It's cost you like, 12 bucks. It's wicked. Bottle of water and you're off to the races every day. Just fresh. We need something like this in Melbourne. I dreamt of a business plan the other night of a business like this in Melbourne. We don't have healthy meals like this in Melbourne and I have no idea why. If someone's listening and wants to create a restaurant that's like, take away, but you can eat in healthy meals, like my Muscle Chef, but fresh, like, let's connect, because this would kill it in Melbourne and it kills it in Bali because you get the gym people and if you had this in the cbd, you get the gym, healthy people and the corporates. I want a healthy lunch, man.

This is just.

I just love this stuff. So, yeah, this is a 9.5 out of 10.

Think about your life, mate, in Bali. Wake up, meditate, ice bath, sauna, gym food, work done.

It's so easy. It's all easy. That's incredible.

Yeah, I love it, mate. I love it. Mine's on the other end of the spectrum, mate. This is a filthy hsp, mate. This is in a pizza box. This is so big, I could feel my arteries clogging. All right, so I've been playing with, with Erickson and Joe. We've been playing Apex, right? And we're all dogs. We're just like, we firing around, just playing this game, talking on discord. And all we talk about is just getting HSPs, mate. We all love them, right? And I fight it every day. So for the first 13 days, I was on holidays, I fought it. On the 14th day, I gave in. So this is a HSP from the local kebab shop, mixed meat. So you've got chicken and lamb in there, you've got really extra crispy chips and you've got four sources on there. So you got Erickson, got me onto the four sources. Chili, garlic, hummus and barbecue. Mate, this was incredible. I'll give this a 9 out of 10. If the meat had some more spices and stuff in it, it would have been a 10 out of 10. So I did share this with the miss. I didn't eat the whole thing myself because I would die, I would go to the hospital. But, Ben, this was incredible and it is my go to filthy meal. Apparently you got sick ones over in Melbourne, so I'm going to hit that up when I'm there in November.

Yeah, epic, mate.

Let's move on to meme of the week. I've Got five names of the week. First one is Dwight trying to buy bread, eggs and milk. He's like, I don't have $30,000 lying around. And I was like, oh, this just hits so hard. Oh, bro, if you can even get eggs at Coles mate. Like, or wherever you're going. Like, they just don't have them anymore because the supply chain frustration and everything's just going through the roof. I'm like, bruh, that. That just sucks. Next one.

Me. Yay. After decades of hard work, I finally reached middle class and there's like, inflation. As this guy going, I said, you, Paul, it was so good. Like, you think you've got all this money and inflation just comes in and erodes all of your capital. It was like, oh, my. Oh, whack. You sacrifice a decade of your life or two decades now you ain't got no money, son. Just erode all your capital. This one here, hard. This one here, hard. Next one is a bloke at his laptop. When you stay silent through the whole Zoom meeting, but say, thanks, everyone at the end to make it seem like you contributed. So good. So, everyone, I put this up there for everyone living in that digital world. Everyone jumping into Zoom meetings and bloody teams meetings. As soon as I see teams, I'm out. Oh, having to sit through that bullshit. I feel you. This meme is for you. Thanks, everyone.

I. This is on Twitter. This guy. Isn't it weird how we pay money to see other people? First response. You mean prostitution? Concerts or the movies? The guy's like, glasses.

To see people with glasses. So good. I love it. Oh, because I thought the same thing. I'm like, what do you mean, see other people? Amazing.

What do you mean?

And Ben, this final meme is for you. It's the headache. Me types of headaches, Small one. Migraine, the one at the back your head, hypertension. The band around your head, stress. The full headache when it's a full head. Listening to Ben's Bucket List.

Oh, man. So good. So that hasn't gone out yet, that episode. I'm pretty sure it's going out today. I hope you enjoy Ben's Bucket List. He was very kind to me. And he didn't roast me the same way that I roasted him.

Oh, no, I think. I think, yeah. My bucket list was episode. Oh, it'll be 100, 102. So, yeah, check that out.

Fantastic, mate. That brings us to the end. So they were my. They're my bucket list goals, and I'm actually putting them on my calendar. Making sure I do them, not just for a day in the future that may not happen. So I'm really excited about that, and it forces me to actually do things and achieve those goals that I actually want to do and have those experiences now.

I love it, man. It was very personal to you, and I like that. Well done. I'm putting that together and looking forward to seeing how that plays out. Thank you, everyone for listening. If you've got any things on your bucket list, all right, you go, buddies.

Yeah, we'll keep each other accountable, man. Like, we'll check in on each other and we'll also report back during the episodes as well on the things that we've done. And even if our bucket lists have changed because as you grow, you have more experiences, you think differently, those items might change.

Yeah, spot on. Thank you, everyone for listening. We'd love for you to let us know if you have anything on your bucket list that that is cool that we. That we haven't spoken about. You can tweet at us en and burgs on Twitter or you've got bergsabybackburgs, or you've got myself. Bensimpsonau. We'd love to hear from you. And as always, we'd love for you to share these episodes around with a friend or family member. It's how we grow the podcast each and every week.

And that's about it. We might wrap it up there. Thank you very. We'll see you next time.

Thanks so much, champions. See ya.