Help me spend my bonus

[Johnny Bravo]

I was bored so I took your exact first thread and ran it through chatgpt...

That's a solid list with a mix of practical upgrades and fun indulgences! Here's a quick rundown to help you decide:

1. Truck Cap: If you’ve debated it every year, it might be time. But if the hassle of taking it off often outweighs the utility, it might stay on the wish list another year.
2. Kevlar/Carbon Canoe: If you're not using the current fleet often, this might end up as an aspirational purchase. But if it’s lightweight and easier to handle, it could breathe new life into your paddling outings.
3. Mountain Bike: Given your current Yeti is 20+ years old and you hear great things about new bike geometry, this might rekindle your biking passion. If you’re still leaning into running, though, maybe hold off unless you see biking picking back up.
4. Rifles:
   • Long-Range Shooter: Great if you’re itching to stretch out your skills or enjoy range days.
   • Smaller Caliber: A pronghorn-specific rifle sounds fun and functional if you’d actually use it.
   • Lever Gun: Cool factor is high, but without a clear use, it might just gather dust.
   • Modify Existing Rifles: If you’ve been meaning to do this for years, now could be the perfect time. Plus, it adds new life to what you already own.
5. Pistols: Filling a gap makes sense, especially if you’d use it for training, self-defense, or just enjoying a new discipline.
6. Random Ideas: Any other hobbies you’ve been curious about exploring? Overlanding gear? Drone photography? Upgrades to home outdoor spaces?

Suggestion:​

• Go with something that either fills a clear gap (pistols, rifle mod) or reignites an old hobby (bike or canoe).
• If the truck cap feels perpetually debatable, it might stay debatable.
• Rifle options feel like they depend on whether hunting or range time is your priority this year.

 

[WildWill]

I was hoping the HT crowd would provide some inspiration.

Flamethrower!

 

[geetar]

One of this flavor in a falling block lever action single shot

https://flic.kr/p/2qzSoGW

If it was my bonus I'd buy this.

 

[Hem]

You could donate it to a noble cause of your choice.

 

[Mallardsx2]

Retirements get fully funded every year already. I have no debt that I'm looking to pay off.

Then I guess I would put the money into the S&P and pull the money earned off of it every 2 years and go on a bada$$ guided hunt.

 

[npaden]

Doesn't sound like there is enough with this by itself, but maybe hold it for a bit and start looking for some land and use this plus some of the next few years bonuses to get some recreational property of your own.

 

[TOGIE]

if you don't need it, don't buy it.

at least go get some interest on the cash until you realize you really need and simultaneously want something. and hopefully that something is also pretty badazz.

 

[Irrelevant]

If it was my bonus I'd buy this.
View attachment 353219

Ok, I'm coming out of the closet on this one. I don't get why people like #1s. They're ugly and deliberately less functional.

 

[Irrelevant]

You could donate it to a noble cause of your choice.

That's a pretty damn good idea

 

[TOGIE]

You could donate it to a noble cause of your choice.

That's a pretty damn good idea

i hear there are some western states with good hunting that love donations to their preference point and app fee coffers.

 

[Nick87]

Ok, I'm coming out of the closet on this one. I don't get why people like #1s. They're ugly and deliberately less functional.

Thought I was the only one. Had one, sold it.

 

[Nick87]

That's a pretty damn good idea

It's pretty hard to not feel good about giving money to st. Judes or something similar.

 

[TOGIE]

i hear there are some western states with good hunting that love donations to their preference point and app fee coffers.

i do say this as a joke.

but it's also underlying seriousness.

at least in the hunting space, whenever i come into excess discretionary cash, going hunting is the first priority of its potential use (special apps wyo, additional apps in states i don't usually apply in, pulling the trigger on a NR tag i can draw that i normally wouldn't due to cost, etc.). the priority is rarely if ever things for hunting - there are so few hunting "things" that are "needed."

same goes for things like bikes and stuff. nobody has time to mountain bike anymore; i'd rather spend it on the special draw.

but, if i came into some serious excess discretionary cash, the thing for hunting i would buy that i don't technically need is some high society glass.

 

[Irrelevant]

Doesn't sound like there is enough with this by itself, but maybe hold it for a bit and start looking for some land and use this plus some of the next few years bonuses to get some recreational property of your own.

I've been looking at this almost continuously for over a decade. the problem is that in order for me to justify such a large purchase I need to feel like I'm getting actual use out of it, which means "we" need to be able to visit it frequently, and it can't just be for me. That really limits me to riverfront/lake front within an hr or two. And unless I hit the powerball, that's way out of my price range.

 

[noharleyyet]

Ok, I'm coming out of the closet on this one. I don't get why people like #1s. They're ugly and deliberately less functional.

Thought I was the only one. Had one, sold it.

 

[Irrelevant]

having just gone through this ridiculous thread... https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/centerfire-rifles-your-path.324320/

At 40, and as a lifelong hunter, I have bought, for myself, 2 guns in my life, and I funded one by selling a gun I was gifted as a teen.

 

[Treeshark]

i hear there are some western states with good hunting that love donations to their preference point and app fee coffers.

I had a thought kind of along this same line

 

[npaden]

I've been looking at this almost continuously for over a decade. the problem is that in order for me to justify such a large purchase I need to feel like I'm getting actual use out of it, which means "we" need to be able to visit it frequently, and it can't just be for me. That really limits me to riverfront/lake front within an hr or two. And unless I hit the powerball, that's way out of my price range.

Look at it as an investment that you get the added benefit of recreating on. Instead of stocks or bonds, own some real estate. Are your other investments just for you? You might not make quite the same return on recreational land as on equity investments but you might be able to come close.

I'm having to deal with this right now, the land I bought in 2007 that I told the wife was an investment just got an unsolicited offer of over 4 times what I paid for it. It is well over the current market price because of it's proximity to an electric substation that was built 4 years ago. To be true to my word calling it an investment, I'm going to sell it. BUT I'm going to reinvest that money (plus some more) into another piece of "investment" property.

 

[brymoore]

That's a pretty damn good idea

I can help you with this.

 

[BackofBeyond]

having just gone through this ridiculous thread... https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/centerfire-rifles-your-path.324320/

At 40, and as a lifelong hunter, I have bought, for myself, 2 guns in my life, and I funded one by selling a gun I was gifted as a teen.

So what trips your trigger? You, tbh, don't seem like a carbon fiber, cerakote, wildcat cartridge kind of guy. Pre-'64 M70 in 6.8 O'Connor? Merkel SxS? Colt Python? You've got the utilitarian angle covered with the Tikka, why not get something cool just for the sake of it being cool?