Save. Spend. Splurge.

Money Talk: What are you working towards? What dreams do you have (1 year, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years)?

What are you working towards?

I am working towards right now, trying to figure out what I want to do when I retire.

Actually, if I want to retire.

I need a project. A goal, a dream, something like what my partner has, which is to go back to school and study physics.

Me? No way. No more school for me, I have paid my dues.

Do I want to just devote my life to Little Bun and his future Buns? NOPE. NOT AT ALL.

What about if I just travel around the world? Well, I can do that for only so long before it gets boring (yes, it gets boring).

Maybe start a business? Another one? A non-profit organization?

Work a part-time job where I have no worries, like Tim does in a library?

I haven’t figured any of this out yet, so my goals are the following:

  • Work, take time off, Work, take time off – Wash rinse and repeat for 30+ more years
  • Save money for retirement, but none of this Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) stuff – I’ll save when I save what I save, I am WITH Tim when he says that FIRE stuff is really extremist (it is, it is why I don’t read FIRE stuff)
  • Keep blogging and Instagramming – Fun! Love this as a hobby, but I obviously am so Type A, I make it my mission to do it ‘perfectly’

What dreams do you have (1 year, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years)?

Ugh I wish I could tell you.

My dreams right now are pretty vain. I just want to live the way I am living, pretty much for the rest of my life, just with more money, and maybe a smidge less working. Or at least, working only what I want to work on, or only doing part-time work so I have more free time on a regular basis.

Of course I know as I get older I will be less likely to wear high heels often (we shall see, won’t we), and less vain about beauty…. (again, maybe!)..

I plan on retiring some day. When I am too tired to deal with the BS at work, and yet, the work that I do, is mentally challenging and FUN.

I enjoy figuring out puzzles, which is probably why I love blogging and helping people with their money problems.

I throw out questions, ask a few things here and there, and love ‘solving’ a puzzle.

But I guess if my partner and colleagues are anything to go by, people get tired of working at about 45, 50 tops. So I am going to aim to be somewhat financially stable and independent by that age (whoa, that’s only 10-15 years off), and then see what happens after that.

I feel like such a loser stating that I basically have NO GOALS except to Work, Relax, Work Some More, Retire One Day.

That’s so vague, and so unlike the Type A Planner in me, but that’s how I feel. I don’t know what the future will bring and I don’t have a clue or a goal of what I TRULY want.

Maybe I will in 5 years. Ask me again, then.

What about you? Do you have all this written down?

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You can read the rest of the Money Talk questions here.

 

4 Comments

  • Anon

    I’m kinda like you, happy with where I am in life, but wish I got paid more while working less (doesn’t everyone?? Lol). I don’t have one/five/ten years goals but rather general goals with no timeline, such as wanting to be better at badminton, wanting to be more confident, own a house one day.

    • Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge.

      It sounds good to me. No one needs goals with timelines per se, but I have found it helpful so I could break down what I needed to do, to get there… but if it is things like badminton, or being more confident, there are no timelines on these things!

  • Grace

    Hi Sherry,

    It’s funny you wrote about this question, because I have thinking about it a lot. I’ve been working in healthcare the last 12 years and I’m getting pretty disillusioned with the field. I work in the United States where healthcare is a business and where the field is on life support due to covid. To be honest, healthcare has always been on life support, but Covid put a glaring light on a lot of the problems that exist. I’ve also gone through some recent job changes so this is on the forefront of my mind. I would say I’m an average person who is working and my only debt is student loan debt which is a lot. I’m currently working on the process of getting my loans forgiven due because of working in healthcare. I am fortunate to have a job that I can tolerate that allows me to concentrate on spending time on my family and hobbies. In the next few years I’m working on paying down my student loan debt, buying a home, and having investments outside of my retirement that would hopefully pay dividends. I’m so glad that you raised this question.

    • Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge.

      You’re welcome. I found it helpful to write out what I wanted on a piece of paper, to plan things out because it helped me figure out how to get to where I wanted to go. Plus, it helped me focus on what I actually wanted, so that when opportunities occurred, I was ready.

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