Fifty Year Plan

[Cassandra]

I know you have heard of peoples' five year plan or ten year plan. I am working on my 50 year plan. I figure that ought to get me through to the end.

Throughout my life, I have found that is has been pretty easy for me to accomplish my goals. You know, you just set your mind to something, then do it. The problem would be that I was just spinning my wheels.

For example: Goal-I want a house in the country, in our budget, with plenty of sq. ft., where our son can go to the school we chose, etc.

Problem-too short term. We got the perfect house, but there's not enough land to do what I want to do. It's not something I was thinking at the time. I was only thinking ahead to when school starts.

So, now I am working on a 50 year plan. And let me tell you, it is taking some work. But it will give me a compass point to follow. Now, each time I am faced with a decision, I can ask myself what is the best answer to keep me on the path. And while I figure I may deviate a little from time to time, I feel like if I stay pointed in the same general direction, I won't go too far off course.

I will share some of my plan in a next post. I didn't want this one to get too tedious.

Cassandra

 

[patandchickens]

LOL - some of us are not too likely to be AROUND in fifty years (I'm sort of on the cusp, there, at 43 right now)

My 15-20 yr plan is for all of us to survive in some fashion til the DH is retired and the kids are off in college or otherwise employed. I have absolutely not the faintest idea what will happen after that, or what SHOULD happen, but it's not something I'm really worrying about now because who even knows <shrug>

I do admire planners; I just aren't one myself. A year or so at a time is all I care to 'bite off'

Pat

 

[miss_thenorth]

LOL - some of us are not too likely to be AROUND in fifty years (I'm sort of on the cusp, there, at 43 right now) Pat

Ditto, but insert 41.

No real plan here either. i plan on being debt-free by the time hubby retires, (17 years) the only debt we have is a mortgage. Plan to move back up north somewhere, plan to partially pay the kids way through college (we think they should be responsible for paying at least part of their education) that's the plan per se, but we haven't really planned it out--does that make sense?

 

[enjoy the ride]

I'm impressed- at your age (presumably) I didn't have a clue as to what I wanted.
That's a great idea to have a goal to check against- keeps some wasted drifting out of your life.
But life does take some interesting turns. So I might add a slush fund to the plan.

 

[Cassandra]

Hey, y'all. I am 37. So not far behind you. I just want to be prepared, you know? LOL Sorry I haven't had time to post specifics. I started to from work today, then got busy. THen I got home and got busy. So, I'm off spending time with DH. I will post back tomorrow.

Cassandra

 

[FarmerChick]

50 year plan ain't happening for me --insert 47 --soon to be 48...LOL

I do plan though, but very little. I know what I want, how I want to live, I have the land etc....so most of my battle is over.

Now it is the daily grind to stay afloat and hopefully never have a monster disaster that leaves us in ill health or flat broke. And on those I can only pray that life goes on an even keel without too much drama.

 

[nccountrygirl]

50 year plan ain't happening here either, insert 53. Heck a 25 year plan might not even work.

 

[cjparker]

I love the idea of a 50 year plan! I'm only 55, about 1/2 way through my journey here, if my luck holds.

My mom is 75 and my grandmother is 95, so I think I'd better plan for the long term still. Grandma is still sturdy as she can be, lives in her own apartment alone, and goes to church most Sundays. On the phone she could be mistaken for someone half her age.

I can't imagine what the area around my home may be like in 50 years. Right now I have 20 acres in front of me that is government land, kept "native" by law. Next to me is an 80 acre orchard, then a canal and more govt land on the other side. Behind me is a pretty steep hill. My house sits on not-quite three acres. I have a vision of my little abode still sitting here in 50 years, surrounded by condos and high-rises. ICK

 

[Cassandra]

Well, the whole idea of it is to decide what you want to be doing in your retirement and plan accordingly.

I know that I want to have a small house, somewhere between 5-20 acres of land, a cow for milking (and maybe one a year for butchering) and chickens. Space for a garden.

I know I want the land to have, preferably both a pond and running water. Some wooded and some pasture.

That's not asking too much, is it?!

Actually, what I want to do is go home. When I was 4, my grandmother bought an 18 acre tract of land and had all of that. I was her little protege. She divided the land, when she died, between four of her children. If I could buy them all off of it, I would. But I bet I can find something comparable.

I know there will be set backs on the way, but that's all right. "Focus on the prize" isn't that an old saying? That's the important thing.

I am inspired by a woman I knew 15 or 20 years ago. She was poor and sort of crazy! I dated her son for a while at one time. She got brain cancer. And one time she told me, "If I die tomorrow, I will die knowing that things are going to get better." She did die, not long after that.

But what an attitude to go out with, you know? Knowing that things are going according to your plan for reaching your goals and making your dreams come true.

Cassandra

 

[Cassandra]

I'm about to pay off a personal loan I had. 9/12 I will make the last payment on that. After that, we're going to increase our emergency fund to $2,000 by the end of this year. (And we need a stove because our oven quit working... bleh.)

The only other debt we have is my car and our house.

After we pay off my car, I'm going to start looking for that piece of land. (the sooner I can buy it, the cheaper it will be. There are still places in MS where you can get land for less than $2,000 an acre.)

What I would like to do, is this neat trick that one of our clients did. (I work for a real estate appraiser) He bought a 40 acre tract of land and decided to keep half of it. He sold the rest of it in smaller tracts. The profit from the sales, paid for ALL of the land--including the part he kept.

Neat, huh!

And if you kept a big enough parcel, it wouldn't matter what your neighbors were like. They'd be too far away to bother you.

Cassandra