Comments on: Why Care About the Long Term?

By: Randy Schaller

Randy Schaller — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:24:15 +0000

When thinking about a long term goal, such as saving for retirement it can be overwhelming. As a young adult, it can be tough to know what you are shooting for and the uncertainty can lead to inaction. As I continue to save for retirement, I try to look at it as buying myself options for down the road. If I continue to be financially responsible while saving for retirement, its possible I could retire comfortably at a much earlier age than originally anticipated. If I refuse to attempt to anticipate a future need for retirement funds and plan for it, I have no options when it arrives. At this point I become completely dependant on other people. I think its important to have options.

By: Telephus44

Telephus44 — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:49:44 +0000

I don’t think it’s so much about long term goals as keeping your options open. I don’t need to have an exact plan or goal of where to be when I’m 70, I just need to make sure I have enough resources (money and skills) to be able to do what I want to when I’m 70.

By: leslie

leslie — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 11:42:04 +0000

My uncle assumed he would be dead by age 55 (not sure why exactly)so he didn’t really worry about planning for retirement. Well, now he is 70 and I can’t tell you how many problems that lack of planning has caused.

You really don’t need to have specific goals in mind that far out (life will probably make a mockery of them anyway) but you really should have saved some money to support yourself with whatever you are doing.

By: Gerald

Gerald — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 03:34:18 +0000

I know alot of folks who sold there 401k at the bottom in 2008, but was that unwise, so glad I focused on the long term and now i’ve got everything back and then some.!! Keep the faith.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 23:43:03 +0000

I admit I have very little goals plans beyond 1-2 years out. I have ideas, but they depend a lot on many many unknowns in the next year or two, and I have about 10 different ideas of where i might want to be.

But I save a lot for retirement and a lot of cash, because no matter what happens, money will give me the most options

By: jim

jim — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 23:25:18 +0000

You don’t have to have a 10 year plan. You may not need a specific plan for x years from now. But you certainly should have some sort of short term and long term goals. Maybe your 20 years old and your immediate goal is to graduate college and get a job, thats cool and you don’t necessarily need to have your life mapped out for now till forever. Of course it helps to keep the long term in mind. Even if you don’t have specific goals for the long term then some reasonable planning like saving money and investing for your retirement is a good idea and you could file that as ‘save for future’, cause hopefully you at least plan to live longer than 5 years.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 23:21:03 +0000

I must admit that I didn’t plan for my future more than five years in advance until I passed 35 years old. I know it’s ridiculous but somehow it was impossible to visualize actually getting old! Now my priorities are changing and hopefully it’s not too late to get on the right track.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 23:14:51 +0000

Of course it makes sense to plan for the future in very general terms. I know I’m going to grow old (or at least I hope I am, since it’s better than the alternative) and I strongly suspect there’ll come a time when I’ll want to (or have to) stop working for money. Other than that? Who knows.

Sometimes Trent talks as if you have to have a picture-perfect vision of what you want your life to be like in five or 10 years before you can do *anything*. If that’s what Mark is objecting to (it looks like we’re missing a lot of context from his letter), then I do agree with him. So often, life is just too unpredictable. If you’d asked 23-year-old Johanna what she thought (or hoped) life would be like for 33-year-old Johanna, she would have given you a story very different from what actually ended up happening. The most exciting thing in my life right now is something that wasn’t even on my radar six months ago, let alone five years or 10 years, and I have no reason to think that there won’t be more exciting twists and turns in the years ahead.

I can tell you for a fact that 43-year-old Johanna will be 43 years old. I hope she’ll be alive and in good health. Other than that, the best I can do for her is to give her as many options as possible: Save some money for her in case she needs it, build skills and relationships as the opportunity arises, and don’t burn too many bridges. And wait and see what she makes of it all.

By: Nate

Nate — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:02:46 +0000

I agree with Trent 100%. If you plan to be alive in X years, you should probably think about where you want to be in X years. That’s not to say that you need to have every point between then and now mapped out in detail. But it doesn’t hurt to put aside money for the future.

Those who fail to plan, plan to fail (as they say).

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:01:11 +0000

If you don’t have anything definite you want to plan 10 years out for, go more generic. You may not be ready to plan on being at X point in your career, or living in Y type of house. But you can plan more generally, say, to be debt free, have goals to reach for retirement or general savings, hone skills in your current interests, etc. (These are generic suggestions, but you need to brainstorm depending on your situation.) Sounds like you’re one of those living goal-less people referenced over at Zen Habits that Trent linked to in his earlier post today!

As an example, we set our 5-year plan, several years ago, fairly generically at wanting to relocate. So we’ve been exploring different parts of the country, clarifying what type of living situation we want to be in, saving up $ toward the move, fixing up our current house, etc. Based on the current economy & some of our decisions along the way, we’ve extended that time span anoather couple of years but are still moving forward.

By: TLS

TLS — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:41:01 +0000

@David
LMAO – thanks.

By: Mister E

Mister E — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:38:03 +0000

What an odd thing to say, this sounds like it’s coming from a very young person.

Certainly in most cases your 10, 15, 20 year+ goals should be a little more fluid and changeable but unless you have legitimate reason to believe you won’t live that long then you need to have some sort of target.

My 85 year old Grandparents are still making 10 year plans. In reality they probably won’t live that long, but what if they do?

By: lurker carl

lurker carl — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:16:29 +0000

By the time Mark realizes he needs to care about the long term, it will be too late. Perhaps volunteering at a senior center or emergency services shelter would be a wake up call.

By: David

David — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:37:39 +0000

In places where it is legal to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk, there is no point whatsoever in caring about the long term. You are most unlikely to reach it.