I appreciate all the responses thus far. I turned 45 last week. I think about this stuff a lot...
I'm lucky enough to have been on a decent amount of adventures with my Dad. As soon as I was out of grad school and a working engineer, we started going on a trip every year somewhere. Maybe it was Wyoming antelope, chasing elk, a bigger trip to South Africa where I filmed him accomplishing a childhood dream of bagging a sable.... Our last big adventure together was when he finally booked a dall sheep hunt in AK in 2020, his 2nd childhood dream to accomplish. I was his packer, and we weren't able to get on a legal ram. We each shot big caribou and had a great time. He has done well enough for himself working as a welder and mid level construction management, but living frugally, saving and investing all he could. Compounding interest is a wonderful thing with some time.
Now, though, after some injuries, at 72 he has been down for a few years, not very mobile. We are going to try for an Alberta moose this year in november, hopefully his nerve stimulator will allow him to walk enough to get this hunt done.
My wife and I make 2 decent salaries. We are beyond blessed in this life to live in a very nice area with great schools for my 8yr old son. It is expensive to live in this zip code. I put back a lot for retirement. The hope is that my body will be in enough shape to enjoy it once i have amassed enough to really spend it on adventures. Hell I hope to be alive, as that isn't guaranteed either. My boy loves to hunt, killed 3 deer this past fall and youth turkey season is this weekend. I am going to do all I can to take him on whatever adventures he wants.
I'm trying to stop buying rifles, I have a very hard time selling any that I really don't "need". I am not in the same boat as many on here, to me $5k is a very expensive rifle

. I don't make enough to buy a bunch of things and also hunt. Hell taxidermy from my last safari in '24 is gonna be rough! I want to take the boy to Africa in 3 or 4 years. If Dad can do anything, I want to go with him on whatever he is capable of, and hopefully his grandson can join soon.
The tough part for me is trying to find a balance. The wife wants to travel, I want to hunt, how much does one spend on both? We are also a lot of money deep into my fixer upper house. We can flip it and make decent money but just spend all of it on the next slightly bigger house. Why?...
I cannot sacrifice my 401k; but I also believe that I can work when I'm older and my body isn't able to do what I can still do at a very fit 45. When my Dad was 45, I was 18. My boy is 8, so I have to stay fit and healthy for a long time if he and I want to climb mountains together.
Then there is contentment....How does one achieve contentment when you have a champagne taste and a beer budget?? The dream safari for me would cost ~$200k and I would do it every few years. To hunt a grand slam of sheep is something like 350k these days. None of that's happening! And yet I've taken my cape buff with my bow in '24. That was in the top 3 of hunting dreams and something most will never do.
These are 'my' goals though. Now that J is hunting with me, I cannot wait to take him on all sorts of adventures. He is already ticked he can't shoot big game out west til he's 12. The wife and I love to travel, so we have to work that in as well. Maybe one day my money tree out back will produce fruit. Until then I will have to read y'alls adventures, and I really appreciate the wisdom of those of you that've been there and are looking back. Sorry for the rambling.