Things You've Done In Your Life with Zero Regrets

I have absolutely NO regrets where my life has been/what is. From the time I was an infant my family attended the local dirt track. Back then (early 60's) they were racing stock cars and modifieds. Modifieds turned into sprint cars by the early 70's. All I ever wanted to do was race. In fact, in kindergarten our teach made a time capsule and all of us wrote on a piece of paper what we wanted to be when we grew up. All the boys wrote "firefighter, policeman, etc.." I wrote "race car driver".
When I graduated high school in 1979 I had been saving every penny from paper routes, lawnmowing, and working at a gas station (since 15 years old). I bought my first modified. It was old, heavy, outdated, and without an engine. I built a 292 (283 .060" over). Over the next 5 years I upgraded my chassis to modern stuff and started winning. I always built my own engines and had great horsepower. My career went 35 years. I never invested a nickel into retirement as those nickels went into racing. My whole family was involved which was the best part! When I was 27 I became a father (not married). I got custody of my daughter when she was 8 as her mom was a screw-up. I raised her (with help from mom and dad) in the racing world. Travelling from Washington to California racing.
10 years ago we decided to sell out. We sold the race-winning car, all the spares, everything. Probably $100,000 worth of stuff, for $20,000. I had a few teams approach me about building engines for them. They were fast. Then the street rod guys found me. We started Rocket Engines as a hobby and I love it. (See profile picture! 925hp 410) (And Rocket Engines on Facebook, website www.rocket-engines.com)
Not long after I quit racing I met the woman of my dreams. She was widowed. Her "uncle" is now in the Nascar Hall Of Fame so she also came from a racing family. We've been married for 4 years now. Building our retirement life together!
Zero regrets!

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Pablo said:
Forgive people
Click to expand...
Most significant comment here for sure When my daughter was going through the nastiest divorce possible (my daught came close to killing herself) I would have killed him for sure. I forgave him and so did my daughter. He has changed . And he and my daughter get along and he has helped her on several occasions.
 
I got banned from my local mall for riding a kayak down the escalator. It was fun, no regrets.

I cut out my mother and sister from my life. It took a long time for me to realize that they were dragging me down. My brother did much the same. We got out of that dump we grew up in and made something of ourselves. They don't like that and consider us to be abandoning our family culture. We make them look bad evidently. The final straw was when we my mother made snide remarks about my autistic daughter. That was 4 years ago, haven't spoken to her since, and have no regrets about it. Life has been better without her in it.
 
Oh boy... this is going to be one long list.

I took a contrarian approach to investing versus security. I bought a house at 23 years old and that was it. 15 years later I paid it off in full. Don't regret escaping the trap that is buying more house and getting in deeper debt as your income goes up. My wife and I made the most out of a perfectly fine house and improved it in due time.

I don't regret having my daughter attend two nursery schools when she was 4. She loved school and I strongly believe that immersion in learning made her the success that she is today. She's a nuclear engineer. Her husband whom she married a week ago after five years of dating is a super-great guy.

If she didn't get an early love for learning, she may have never met the love of her life.

I also don't regret encouraging my son to have a more difficult major and challenge himself. When you challenge yourself at an early age and persevere, it pays big dividends later on in life.

I don't regret never keeping a single car... given my work as a car dealer.

I always considered the first rule in my business to be, "Never fall in love." I may enjoy cars and nearly everything that comes with owning them. But my job is to put food on the table.

So I buy the best quality vehicles I can find which has required over 30,000 hours of inspecting and appraising vehicles. Investing all that time has helped me become a better and investor in all things automotive.

I don't flip. I invest in rolling assets and improve them. I enjoy the ride, and then sell it to someone who's going to love that car even more.

I have owned thousands of cars but not a single one of them is worth penalizing the financial well-being of my family.

I don't regret creating the Long-Term Quality Index. I definitely don't regret becoming a writer at a time when automotive journalism was in decline. Also leaving corporate America at the age of 32 to become an entrepreneur. That was a smart decision. So was gradually getting into that level of independence over a six year period before cutting the entangled cord of dependent employment.

Most of all, raising a family and giving them as much happiness and love as possible. I love everyone in my life.

I screwed up on a few things. We all do. But I feel like I got the big things right, and the little stuff I can forgive myself. Nobody's perfect. You live and learn.
 
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