Friday, May 22, 2009

Long term goals?

Here’s the deal: I’m 29 years old and in graduate school. I have no children, I’m not married, I don’t have a house, 401K or any assets (besides a few really good knock-off Coach handbags). Things were sailing pretty smooth until somebody I look up to asked me about my “plans” for the future. I gave them my perfected “Oh, I like to take things as they come” response and they told me straight-up, “Honey, you’re too smart, and getting too old for that.”

OLD?!?! Who was she talking to? I’m only 29! Wait, I’m 29.

Taking things as they come was a canned response that I used comfortably throughout my 20’s to get people off my back when I didn’t have any long term plans to explain the erratic decisions I made. Mostly because, I didn’t want to be held accountable. But that ended a long time ago. Now, in my late 20’s I have a list of some very serious ‘wants and needs’ in life. I want a family, I want to be financially sound, I want to e healthy, I want to live the smartest life I can and still have a great time in the process. I want to figure out how the hell to get rid of $80,000 in student loan debt. Is this the shadow of 30 that has made me look at life as a long term project and not a series of temporarily gratifying events?

This whole concept is so new to me.

Long term goals...





According to Kiplinger, there are certain things you should accomplish before 30. Coincidentally, they match many of the mental goals I’ve been dancing around. Bingo. But where the hell do I start? Well, here! The plan is that, by the time I turn 30, I will at least have a strategy to accomplish these arbitrary guidelines, prepare for the next round of life and hopefully impart some knowledge to, and from others. Each posting will discuss a specific goal and share some specific knowledge obtained from just about anywhere.



http://calicious-almost30.blogspot.com/