Plan For Retirement At 30

Where do I want to be when I'm sixty?  

I was told once most people plan their vacations better than they plan their lives.  They drone on never thinking about where or what they want to be.  Those that don't have a long-term plan find themselves somewhere else--somewhere they don't want to be.  Yet I heard from a successful business entrepreneur that far thinking is a waste of time.  Isn't there truth in both issues?  People are changing careers because they can't make a living from the original one they chose.  Others are sticking to it no matter what because it's who they are or what they do.

In this case I look to writing and what it taught me.  When I write a scene I'm sketching out the "right now".  But, I'm also thinking about the impact this scene will have later in the novel.  In a novel I can go back and add or change details here, shave off something there but we can't go in the past and change it.  We can make goals but sometimes goals change.  So maybe far-thinking isn't the way to go.  Yet if you don't think into the future you might want to make a time machine just to strangle yourself because you didn't take advantage of that 401K plan.  So maybe goals are important.  

What I do know is that I'm a far-thinker and I've been thinking further into the future.  Asking myself when I'm 99 years of age do I want cremation or a coffin?  Morbid, I know, but from there I back up.  Whose going to help my mom up her horse when the arthritis is so bad she needs a crane to lift her in the saddle?  Whose going to wipe the drool of my dad's face while he's playing on his iPhone not paying attention to the tv that he's in front of?  Whose going to send my nephews to college?  My brother might be dead by then.  Whose going to give my niece the life she's grown accustom to?  Maybe my sense of responsibility is too great but I think about these things. 

And yet they are all "what if's".  These what if circumstances both inspire me and immobilize me as I calculate my salary.  I then I know what my answer is.  It's always been my answer.  I can always count on it when I get overwhelmed.  Want to know what it is?

One thing at a time. 

You might have goals, aspirations and also a life that anchors you down.  You might not be planning everything for the long game but why not have one long term goal to actively work on?  Start retirement plans at thirty.  Write that book.  Invest in a bank note.  Because honestly you can't tell me that successful entrepreneur doesn't have money saved for when he wants to stop working.