Your 5, 10, or 20 year plan

[Karoht]

Some like to think ahead.
Some think short term.
Some think long term.
Some think REEEEEEEEEALLY long term.

How far ahead do you plan, and what is your plan if you're willing to share it?
This is covering any and all aspects of life you might be willing to share.

[Mazeburn]

I'm lookin' at more of a two-month plan at the moment: get a job ready for when my current contract ends. xD

Seriously, though... Can't really think much past a 5 year plan without getting existential. Get a job in storyboarding and get a comic published. That would be nice. :) I'm grateful for anything as close as I can get, though.

[Maxios]

I have really long-terrm plan in a document I have called "Things to do before reaching a Certain Age:

Example: Before the age of 20, I must get a book published.

[Tyndmyr]

5 year plan? Not any more...I'm just sort of enjoying things as they happen, and not planning more than a coupla years out.

I mean, sure, I toss money into a 401k and what not...I'm gonna get old eventually...but it's not really specifically planned out what I'll be doing in the meantime.

[Egiam]

@5 Years: Be in college in a small, American Northwest college as a science major. Take a year off and work in Spain.
By 10 Years: Have a job doing academic biochemistry research.
By 15 Years: Be competent in a third language, probably phonetic, such as German.
By 20 Years: Make an amazing scientific discovery.

[Castaras]

I take things as they come. The most planningish thing I have is the plan to enjoy the next few years, and all the years after that.

[Karoht]

Wow, cool replies.

Me
5 Years: Reno house and pay it off.
10 Years: Buy land, build sustainable house, sell old house. See www.earthship.net and www.omegagarden.com as source of inspiration.
15-20 years: Retire with no bills around the age of 45. House is proof of concept for a sustainable community as an affordable housing project and not-for-profit company, if still viable and relevant.

[thubby]

i have an overarching goal. that is get through college, get a decent job and comfortable existence.

getting there is a more spontaneous affair.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

My 5-year plan is to collectivize agricultural workers to facilitate the process of rapid industrializa-oh. That's not what you meant. I'll just... show myself the door.

[arguskos]

I can't get into details on part of my plan, due to forbidden topics, but here's what I *can* share.

5 years: Finalize that (forbidden subject) project. Live on my own. Have some method of paying the bills.
10 years: Get that project off the ground (this entails buying property for it and getting the word out). Keep paying the bills.
15 years: Hopefully, the project lets me leave my job. I doubt it, but one can dream.
20+ years: Spread the project far and wide. Forge a legacy from it.

[DraPrime]

Ooooh, I kind of have it all planned out.

5 years from now: I will be in major seminary, having completed minor seminary. I will be close to ending my education.

10 years from now: I'll have finished seminary several years before, gotten ordained, and have been assigned somewhere. I will probably be finishing my first assignment as a Catholic priest, possibly ready to move on to work as a military chaplain. What I do there utterly depends on what wars are being waged in 2022.

20 years from now: Well...I don't know. I assume that I'd still be a priest if all has gone according to plan. Perhaps I'm still a chaplain in the military? Maybe I've be assigned to a parish as a pastor? Who knows. That would be up to the archbishop, not me.

[Karoht]

I can't get into details on part of my plan, due to forbidden topics, but here's what I *can* share.

5 years: Finalize that (forbidden subject) project. Live on my own. Have some method of paying the bills.
10 years: Get that project off the ground (this entails buying property for it and getting the word out). Keep paying the bills.
15 years: Hopefully, the project lets me leave my job. I doubt it, but one can dream.
20+ years: Spread the project far and wide. Forge a legacy from it.

Is your project is a forbidden subject by the forum rules, by society, or are you just keeping it top secret?
If you answer yes to all of the above, I will be intrigued.

Or is it just that you are forbidding yourself from discussing it because you know that discussing it leads to the madness place. You know. Where first you hint at a part of your plan, but by the end of it you're talking about your invincible fortress and your monkey minions and cackling wildly. Is it that kind of forbidden topic?

[Gaius Marius]

Hmmm...

1.5 years, complete a Master of International Relations.

No idea whatsoever afterwhile. Get a job as an academic? Write books? Do a PhD?

[Knaight]

Is your project is a forbidden subject by the forum rules, by society, or are you just keeping it top secret?
If you answer yes to all of the above, I will be intrigued.
Religion and politics are banned here, and that is clearly an allusion to the ban. It's pretty obvious what the plan actually is, or rather that it is one of a few things.

Anyways, on plans, I never plan more than a few years out in advance. Past a certain point, the information is just far too murky for planning to really be a part of anything, and the plans have been replaced with some combination of goals and hopes, to be reinstated at a later date.

[Kneenibble]

Is your project is a forbidden subject by the forum rules, by society, or are you just keeping it top secret?
If you answer yes to all of the above, I will be intrigued.

Or is it just that you are forbidding yourself from discussing it because you know that discussing it leads to the madness place. You know. Where first you hint at a part of your plan, but by the end of it you're talking about your invincible fortress and your monkey minions and cackling wildly. Is it that kind of forbidden topic?

Knowing arguskos, it's almost certainly a plan to start a religious commune based on principles of free and copious loving -- which in no way precludes invincible fortresses, monkey minions, nor wild cackling.

[Karoht]

Knowing arguskos, it's almost certainly a plan to start a religious commune based on principles of free and copious loving -- which in no way precludes invincible fortresses, monkey minions, nor wild cackling.
~and~

Religion and politics are banned here, and that is clearly an allusion to the ban. It's pretty obvious what the plan actually is, or rather that it is one of a few things.This makes me sadface. I was looking forward to hearing some sort of crazy plan, and I don't know much about Arguskos, but he strikes me as just the sort of fellow to have one.



Anyways, on plans, I never plan more than a few years out in advance. Past a certain point, the information is just far too murky for planning to really be a part of anything, and the plans have been replaced with some combination of goals and hopes, to be reinstated at a later date.Okay. Long term goals/hopes with a loose timeline or estimates on completion? Do any such goals fall into an approximate timing in or around the 5 year, 10 year, 20 year ranges?

[Knaight]

Okay. Long term goals/hopes with a loose timeline or estimates on completion? Do any such goals fall into an approximate timing in or around the 5 year, 10 year, 20 year ranges?

I hope to be working in the development of plastics made from renewable sources (e.g. ethanol) in about 10 years.

[Aedilred]

I used to have a rough idea of what I wanted to achieve by a given point in life, but then I didn't manage any of it and that made me really depressed, so I'm trying not to think in those terms any more. I've also noticed in others that the tendency to make such plans can have consequences I wouldn't want for my own life; I've seen people get married not because they specifically want to spend their lives with the person they're marrying, but because they're the person they happen to be dating at the point they think they should get married.

Fortunately I have a fairly well-defined career ladder to climb again and it will take a couple of years to get somewhere, so that gives me an obvious and achievable goal, which I do actually want to achieve. If I can manage to save enough for a housing deposit and meet someone I want to spend my life with, then that would be nice, but I'm not counting on it, or actively aiming to achieve that any more.

[enderlord99]

I hope to set/break the record for most doctorate-level degrees (held by an individual) by the year Y, where Y is whatever my last year alive is. Also by year Y, I hope to receive 2 Nobel Prizes (either 2 science-of-some-sort, or 1 of those and the other Peace), as well as one of the "Ig-" variations (of the Nobel Prize; they're for weird/goofy discoveries). Finally, I hope to write at least one best-selling novel (by year Y). Yes, I do realize those are massive goals.

[DeadManSleeping]

5 years - learn Japanese (more)
10 years - be a translator
20 years - be a videogame translator

Or, y'know, maybe something else.

[arguskos]

Is your project is a forbidden subject by the forum rules, by society, or are you just keeping it top secret?
If you answer yes to all of the above, I will be intrigued.
Yes, kinda yes, and pretty much. However, it can be divined if you are clever (or at least the categories it falls into).

There is a second plan I have that also follows that exact plan, but answers the questions with no, no, and yes.


Religion and politics are banned here, and that is clearly an allusion to the ban. It's pretty obvious what the plan actually is, or rather that it is one of a few things.
Pretty much what Knaight said. However, I can't really publicly discuss it, for a variety of reasons.


Knowing arguskos, it's almost certainly a plan to start a religious commune based on principles of free and copious loving -- which in no way precludes invincible fortresses, monkey minions, nor wild cackling.
...you see nothing. :smalltongue:


This makes me sadface. I was looking forward to hearing some sort of crazy plan, and I don't know much about Arguskos, but he strikes me as just the sort of fellow to have one.

I have crazy plans, but they're not that one. I was giving the one closest to my heart. :smallwink:

[Flickerdart]

Year 1: Finish my bachelor's degree.
Year 2: Go to grad school.
Year 3: Finish my master's degree.
Year 4: Increase industrial production by 500%.
Year 5: Wait, I may have gotten my 5-year plans confused.

[Starscream]

Too many variables to make a truly concrete plan. Everything sort of depends on everything else, so it's easier to just go with the flow.

Got a good job. I'd like to stay at least one more year there for sure. After that it depends on if they can make it worth my while.

Because I also want to go back to school for my Masters within 2 years. My boss has raised the possibility of the company paying for me to do so, so we'll see if that pans out. If it does, and I do get my degree, then they would be required to give me a fairly hefty pay raise, which might encourage me to stay for a while.

But if it doesn't, it all depends. I'll probably go back to school out of my own pocket, keep my job in the mean time, and then use my Masters to trade up when I'm done. I mean, I'd get the raise anyway for having the Masters, but we'll see if I still want to work there by then, or if the raise will be less than I could get by starting fresh somewhere else, or whatever. And then there's the job market and my personal life, and whether or not I want to stay in this town, and yadda yadda. Too many variables, like I said.

I guess five years from now is when I need to start with a new plan in any case. Somewhere around May of 2017 is when I will have all of my debts (school loans and car) paid off simultaneously. Assuming I don't rack up any massive bills between then and now (I live pretty frugally, but you never know when there will be some emergency), it will make a huge difference. My "practical" income, the amount I have after bills each month, would basically double. Triple if the whole raise/new job thing works out.

If that does occur, I dunno...a house? I've never really wanted a house. I like renting. I like being able to put all my belongings in a single U-Haul and move over a weekend, I like never having to mow a lawn, I like not having too much space to keep clean. But the rent adds up, five years from now owning a house might seem like a sensible thing to do.

[thorgrim29]

Within 5 years: Complete master's degree, become a member of the Canadian order of certified professional accountants (these two will hopefully be done in 18 months or so). Get an interesting, well paying job, start buying buildings with my dad for sweet sweet rent money.

At the 10 year mark:
I have 2 plans for that horizon: Either continue the whole building an empire thing, teach part time if it turns out I like it, hopefully start investing in various businesses I find interesting and branch out into consulting, basically keep busy with as little routine as possible, and getting payed a lot to do various interesting things.

The other plan is to go full corporate person and start a career with a large company. Not sure yet what my preferred one will be.

For the 20 years thing, continue with plan A or B, or whatever... The 5 year plan is already a stretch for me actually, I have a multiple choice plan for 2012 and it stops being nearly as structured after that....

Oh and it goes without saying that I hope to stay healthy, lose weight and find love (those 3 seem oddly related for some reason:smallbiggrin:)

[Feytalist]

I've got a retirement plan (that is, an idea what to do and where to do it after I retire), which is quite far off still, but nothing really in between. Other than a vague intention of completing my actuarial qualification as soon as I can manage. Which should, incidentally, take about 5 more years.

Other than that, I'm happy to run with whatever jumps up in front of me.

[Xyk]

I have plans for next weekend and a very rough outline of the next 6 months. I am not exaggerating when I say I don't plan my life in advance. I need to get a job and an apartment and after that, I have no idea what's going to happen.

[Zeb The Troll]

@Starscream - Often, when a company offers to pay for education, particularly graduate level education, they also expect a certain obligation to the company in return. Typically, one year of school paid for = promise to stay with the company for an additional year after the schooling is completed. So, say it takes three years to get your master's degree because you're working full time at the same time, but you don't pay a dime of it. You would then be obligated to the company for three years after graduation or risk having to pay that money back to the company (though usually pro-rated). It might not seem fair, but from a business perspective, its not fair of an employee to take advantage of thousands of dollars in training in order to benefit the competition. The company pays for your education in order to benefit the company, not just because they're nice people and want to see you succeed.

For me:

5 years - Try not to be in debt, with the notable exception of a mortgage.
10 years - will have started to sock away a considerable retirement fund (be that in IRA's, investments, portfolios, what have you)
15 years - retire, though I'm already at a point where I find the drudgery of going to work soul sucking, so having to do this for another 15 years is almost depressing to me.
20 years - have my address be "Zeb and Alarra's RV" as we spend our twilight years travelling around the countryside and, if things are going well, around the world.

Alternatively - Win the lottery and jump straight to the end.

[Mauve Shirt]

5 years: have changed jobs to one I really really want, and be good enough to be well respected at my workplace. Also, have a driver's license, and a car.
10 years: That's too far away. I suppose I want to either have lived in Germany for a while, or be living in Germany. I suspect this to happen within 20 years if not within 10.
In 20 I want a numbered parking space. :smallbiggrin:

[Liffguard]

I'm not looking as far ahead as 20 years but I do have a 1, 5, 10 and 15 year plan.

1 year: Finish army application process and have an entry date confirmed for 2013. Join the TA in the intervening year (due to a bureaucratic nightmare, I need to have a regular place confirmed before joining the TA).
5 years - 10 years: In the army, progressing my career and learning skills and saving money.
15 years: Probably back on civvie street. Take things easy for a few years living off savings. Probably go back to university. I'd love to study physics or engineering, not for a career but just for the sake of learning.

[Dvil]

The longest plan I have is 5-year, and even that's not really a plan. Just, do my degree and do well in it. Oh, and have fun with it. Cannae forget that.

[Tyndmyr]

Well, five years out, I guess, involves me owning a house again(one built by me, preferably), and a successful business. Arguskos, I'm on to you....it's world domination, isn't it? Yes, go forth, build that secret lair.

[arguskos]

Well, five years out, I guess, involves me owning a house again(one built by me, preferably), and a successful business. Arguskos, I'm on to you....it's world domination, isn't it? Yes, go forth, build that secret lair.
Awwww snap, Tynd's got my number. Gotta change up the plan, boys! Time to shift it to doughnut manufacturing. :smallbiggrin:

[Nameless]

5 year plan - Finish my uni course, sort my head out and get a job in animation, preferably for a cartoon series or a film. Maybe also finish up my unfinished personal projects.
10 year plan - Have my own cartoon series or animated film. (What? "Aim for the stars and you'll reach the moon." That's the saying I live by. >.>)
20 year plan - The same thing I do every 20 years... try and take over the world!

http://cheekycannibal.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/20071001-pinky20brain.gif?w=327&h=330

My first 20 years will be in 5 months. Bwohahaha...

[Erloas]

In 20 I want a numbered parking space. :smallbiggrin:
At home or at work? At home I've already got one, garage door #1... ok, its not technically numbered, and it could very well be 2, but whatever.
At work though its never going to happen, even the plant manager and department heads don't have assigned parking, just access to the close parking lot. The only one with an assigned spot is handicapped and well, thats not something to aspire to.


Overall... I don't really have any specific plans. I'm hoping the "pay off the mortgage" plan is less then 20 years away, but there very well could be a new mortgage in that time frame.
And "not be single" is another plan that currently has no time frame associated with it, I'm hoping its less then 20 years, I'm hoping its less then 5, but current ventures into that area have not been fruitful.

My short term plan, <6 months, is to go skiing a lot more.

[Frozen_Feet]

For this year, my plan is to get a new job, a new car and apartment of my own, to work out like a madman and find a significant other.

By the time I'm 30, I hope to achieve 1st dan in karate and kobudo, learn to play one musical instrument and get one child of my own. But that's less of a plan, and more of a dream.

I can't really fathom what I should be doing beyond that, or what kind of a person I'll be. For the last two years, nothing's really gone my way, and that has made me averse to thinking very far into the future. I don't know where I will stand six months from now, so I don't really have concrete basis for scheming anything.

[Kobold-Bard]

I have no marketable skills, talents or good looks. At each of those intervals I am more likely than not to be on the dole, still wishing I had put more effort in in school/uni, and lamenting the fact that I haven't spoken to another human in months who didn't work in a supermarket.

[Kobold-Bard]

Ooooh, I kind of have it all planned out.

5 years from now: I will be in major seminary, having completed minor seminary. I will be close to ending my education.

10 years from now: I'll have finished seminary several years before, gotten ordained, and have been assigned somewhere. I will probably be finishing my first assignment as a Catholic priest, possibly ready to move on to work as a military chaplain. What I do there utterly depends on what wars are being waged in 2022.

20 years from now: Well...I don't know. I assume that I'd still be a priest if all has gone according to plan. Perhaps I'm still a chaplain in the military? Maybe I've be assigned to a parish as a pastor? Who knows. That would be up to the archbishop, not me.

25 years: Pope Dragonprime I

[Moff Chumley]

I'm a firm believer in not expecting or anticipating things unless it's absolutely necessary, but I also really like daydreaming, planning, plotting, scheming etc.
5 years: graduate with degree in Music Industry. Make as many contacts and do as much work as possible while in school. If by the time I graduate there's a job in the biz that I genuinely want to do available, I'm all over that. If not, I see no reason not to take a year or two bumming around.
10 years: by then I want a full-time studio job in a good city. San Fransisco, London, Seattle, New York...
15 years: I want to have made enough of a name for myself to do production work for bands I like. Hopefully around here I'll start making a workable amount of cash.
20 years: Open a studio in Northern California or the northwest.

If that's how my life turns out, I'll be a-ok with it. Doubt it'll be that easy, but I can dream, right? :smalltongue:


My 5-year plan is to collectivize agricultural workers to facilitate the process of rapid industrializa-oh. That's not what you meant. I'll just... show myself the door.

Beat me to it. You win again, Gwyn. :smallannoyed:

[KingOfLaughter]

Hehe. I doubt my plan will follow anywhere near as well as I want it to... :smalltongue:

5 Years: Have made it in to EoD. Fix a few relationships I feel I need to fix. Own my .45.

10 Years: Meet my dream girl, own my own house.

20 Years: After 10 I'm done planning. It's all go with the flow from than on.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Beat me to it. You win again, Gwyn. :smallannoyed:

Yeah, that's how I roll.

Really? I don't have a plan. I mean, I guess I'd like to be an academic/musician for the rest of my life? Man, I don't have ANY plans past "study interesting things and make interesting music"

[Mauve Shirt]

At home or at work? At home I've already got one, garage door #1... ok, its not technically numbered, and it could very well be 2, but whatever.
At work though its never going to happen, even the plant manager and department heads don't have assigned parking, just access to the close parking lot. The only one with an assigned spot is handicapped and well, thats not something to aspire to.

At work. It won't happen in 20 years, it would be very special if in the 30 or so years I work there I get access to the closer lot, let alone the assigned spaces. :smalltongue:

[jseah]

5 year plan: find and finish a PhD in neuroscience. Start work as a post-doc. Read up on potential science breakthroughs.
10 year plan: start a research group. Follow potential science breakthroughs, particularly focused on carbon nanotubes, fusion power, 3D printers, AI.
20 year plan: do some good research in neuroscience, concentrating on brain-computer interfaces. Continue following science breakthroughs. Hopefully 3D printers will have progressed somewhat.

40 to 120 year plan: initiate technological singularity... can be anyone, doesn't have to be me. Just hope I had at least a minor involvement.


After that, well, I'll think about it after I get my mind uploaded.

Also, getting married is probably somewhere in there. But that'll come when it does.

[Alarra]

I plan and plan and plan and plan and then make more plans, but am very flexible when it comes to changing said plans :smallsmile:
So, my plans: (sorry, they're long and detailed, we'll spoiler it)

immediate:
Get new job (should happen by end of month)
Apply for post-bac program (by end of next week)
Apply for next level of licensure (by end of next week)
next 6 months:
Sock away money from new job for down payment on house
Start school and cut-back new job
Start working on webcomic again and get said comic online
Make an etsy account and start selling my art work
Continue to work on novel
Start poetry compilation/mystical creatures compendium that I've had planned for a couple of years now.
Exercise more.
6 months after that:
Save up 'living expenses' loans for down payment on new house
Get tattoo
Submit something, anything, to the agent I know in attempts to get published (this implies that somewhere prior to this I finish something, anything)
One year:
buy new house, rent out current house
Gain following as webcomic artist
Have something accepted by someone
Apply for med school
Have lost weight, let's say...35lbs
1.5 years:
start Pickle in Montessori school (to which savings have been going since down payment has happened)
Graduate from pre-med program
Start paid 'grace year' internship (or)
Go back to full-time work at job (or)
Jump right into med school if the stars align magically
Try to get something published
2.5 years:
Start med school if stars don't align magically
Spend next 4 years pulling my hair out
5.5-6.5 years
Start residency, likely continue to pull hair out
8-9 years
Get job as psychiatrist or neurologist, or maybe even dermatopathologist ideally in Tennessee
Sell house and move to TN
Publish something
9 years +
Open brewery
Continue to work full time as doctor so that I can support said brewery until it makes a profit of its own. Have no time because I am working full-time and owning a restaurant and still illustrating said webcomic and working on my latest novel.
Apologize frequently to my 9 year old son for the fact that I have no time.
10 years to 35 years
Continue the above, cutting back work as profits allow, which may be not at all, but would be nice.
35 years +
Retire and travel the country in RV.

[Zeb The Troll]

Good grief I hope it doesn't take you 35 years to retire. I'm so sick of having to be in the workforce. There is a school of thought that says there are those who work to live and those who live to work. I'm definitely a "work to live" person. I don't even know what job I'd like to do that would transition me to a "live to work" person.

[Alarra]

In 35 years I will be 65....isn't that when you're supposed to retire? But I did put in provisions implying that it could be earlier if our brewery takes off. =) And besides, too much less than that and I'm spending more time becoming a doctor than I would being one.

[ForzaFiori]

Lets see...
Within 2 years, I should graduate with a B.A. of History
Within another 3 (5 total), I hope to have a second bachelors (probably either Secondary Ed, or Italian), or a good job (depending on whether I can find a job with the History degree). No idea what kind of job, since (with the exception of a secondary ed) all the degrees I want are... less than job-friendly.
In 10 years, I'd like to have a steady job, and some sort of residence other than my mom's house.
In 20 years, i'd like to have a 20 year plan.

[Zeb The Troll]

In 35 years I will be 65....isn't that when you're supposed to retire? But I did put in provisions implying that it could be earlier if our brewery takes off. =) And besides, too much less than that and I'm spending more time becoming a doctor than I would being one.I quite like the idea of early retirement, particularly for you since I still want to be alive when it happens. :smallcool:

[Karoht]

In 35 years I will be 65....isn't that when you're supposed to retire? But I did put in provisions implying that it could be earlier if our brewery takes off. =) And besides, too much less than that and I'm spending more time becoming a doctor than I would being one.

Brewery? Awesome. Keep us informed!

[KenderWizard]

I love that Zeb and Alarra are discussing their plans here instead of in real life! :smalltongue:

Short term plan: Get degree, make five-year plan.

After five years: It'll be time for babies by then, but I don't know what I'll have done in the intervening time. The plan was always to get a PhD, but now I'm thinking about moving abroad and jobs and stuff. Definitely there will be travel and more time for hobbies.

After 10 years: I'll probably be finished having babies now and hopefully settled somewhere nice in a house with my family, close to or in Dublin. Power back to career, whatever it is. Time to make lots of progress to catch up from baby time. Hopefully earn enough that my partner can stay home with the children.

After 20 years: Become President. Or maybe the head of a charity. Or a senior journalist. Or all three. Be writing. Be able to support my family (oldest child will be almost ready to go to college).

[Balain]

5 years - good job, married, in a house, starting family.
10 years - better job or promotion in job
20 years - be an executive in a company close to retirement
30 years - retired living in some warm or tropical climate. US virgin islands or Panama something like that.

[Demon 997]

5 Years: Be just out of College, hopefully with good job prospects in the NGO/International relations world. Maybe working for the government.

10 Years: Be well into a career, hopefully overseas. Be doing something I love. Still be able to travel.

20 years: Have a house and spouse, and maybe kids. Be doing well money wise, and still doing work I love.

Right now this all seems possible, but there are a lot of hoops to jump between here and there.