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Thread: Dream Goal

  1. #1
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    Dream Goal

    When you reach this amount in investments, liquid, properties and such, what will you do? Will it be just the satisfaction of I Made it? Will the Goal change and grow to the next amount? Will you rest? Did you make it to the Goal yet? If so did things change?

  2. #2
    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    I had this lovely response and hit the wrong key and it all got lost.
    I had dreams as a 10 year old - my own farm with acreage and woodlot; as a 13 year - university, seeing the world and live opera and helping children; as a 20 year old for a family, a career, owning our home, making a difference; as a 40 year old and beyond - fighting injustice, developing my art and music, travel...

    Money has not been a goal per se. It helps but many of these dreams were achieved with thrift, self-denial of instant gratification, prioritizing, determination, fighting limitations...

    DH and I bought within our means and paid off mortgages and car loans ASAP and built up assets to cover the expenses for when our earning capacity would be less. I had a budget that we developed and lived within every day of our marriage and I still live in now. I have enough to meet current expenses and more for the next 30 years given the average inflation rate. That was our and is my goal.

    Not sure if that answers your questions.
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by BikingLady View Post
    When you reach this amount in investments, liquid, properties and such, what will you do? Will it be just the satisfaction of I Made it? Will the Goal change and grow to the next amount? Will you rest? Did you make it to the Goal yet? If so did things change?
    Interesting question of a road we've traveled.

    We knew before we married at age 19 we would not have children. We wandered a bit aimless as I had already quit Nursing school and DH quit college after 1 semester.

    Advance 6 years, I'm a RN and DH has gone back to school. During that time we bought our first house with minimal $. (gotta love the 80s right?)

    Advance to age 30 and we bought our 'forever home' and I've got 1y left for my BS degree and hubby 2y left for computer science.

    Goal? retire age 50 debt free. Our primary goal became retirement investing while enjoying some travel and the fruits of our labor.

    Advance to age 42 and we've purchased our mountain cabin, doing the rehab ourselves with cash only. Paid it off in 48 months. We're not done with the rehab still, but we love that DH milled every piece of wood/cabinetry, and we have done demo/insulate/sheetrock/finish work ourselves! (it was a filthy awful mess).

    Advance age 48, primary home paid off.

    Age 50? Feels too early to retire and not HAVING to go to work somehow made it so much more pleasant.

    Goal: Let's retire at 55.

    Age 55 hit: still not feeling the need to retire.

    Goal: Let's call it 60 then. For sure at 60! Our finance guru says I can retire anytime I want to and with our lifestyle there will be $ left when we are 100 and that's accounting for significant healthcare as we age. There is such freedom in that!

    Tomorrow I turn 56. WE have everything we need and everything we want. I paid cash for my forever car in 2015 and I love my C300 with all it's safety features. Life IS Good The freedom of choice afforded by setting lofty goals and achieving them is awesome. The road traveled was painful many times--the rewards great.

    So yes! Goals changed. Never dreamed DH would go back to college nor that I would become a RN nor that we would own 2 homes debt free---what 19yo thinks that? Timeline changed several times.

    Where are we now?

    I am working on a new project that includes building a new specialty hospital. I built and started a facility in 2001 so this is my 'legacy' project. I'm excited to see it come to fruition and get it going. Timeline is perfect for retiring age 60. My boss who is 17y younger asked me last year if I plan to leave soon. I told her I want to see this project through and start it up, retiring at 60. She is relieved-she knows I can retire any day I come to work (we have the same wavelength about $ but she started much younger than I did).

    DH just got a brand new job as Security Administrator in his company. He is super excited (and a bit nervous) about this new assignment but he loves his work.

    I love the phrase I heard years ago: "Now that I can afford broccoli, I would rather grow it".

    I've been nurturing gardens for over 20 years now. Step by step our "city lot" has been transformed from water sucking grass to food forest and "messy" cottage style mixed perennial/flower/food forest. I aim for biointensive come retirement to grow 80% of our food to store for winters. 1 of the many "what I will do when" goals for when I no longer attend 'paid employment'. There are many many things i plan to do with all that newfound time. i can't wait to hit 60

    And there's a long answer to a short question. I'm looking forward to reading other's stories.

  4. #4
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Holy cow, what a great topic, and what great answers! Gardnr, I loved reading your story with all the milestones and boxes checked--and then to "choose" to work more--it's so inspiring!

    I can't wait to hear what others say. BL, thanks for starting this thread.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
    www.silententry.wordpress.com

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    I have always been a planner and setter of goals. This has provided my friends, my family and perhaps even my maker with years of amusement. Something almost always comes up to force a recalibration.

    I thought of a career in academic science, but a chance at working in a lab doing work for publication made me aware of the many drawbacks of that life. I thought then of a career in uniform keeping the loathsome tyranny of Soviet Communism from spreading. But then the inherent idiocy of communism itself did the world that favor. I did, however, through the whims of the military personnel system, get exposed to a career field I enjoyed and decided to settle on.

    From there, a sequence of (mostly) happy accidents resulted in a pretty good career (forget all that nonsense about pursuing your passion; you're just a leaf on the winds of fortune) that is close to coming to a happy end. I met my wife by chance, had a daughter as beautiful as she was unexpected, and any other number of lucky events in my personal life. I remember my best man at my wedding gleefully mocking my pretensions at an earlier age (I even had charts) versus how things turned out. I've begun to understand the wisdom of that old Prussian who declared "No plan survives contact with the enemy".

    But if my plans never worked out quite as I expected, the act of planning always helped in accumulating the resources and skills to make the most of opportunities as they arose. I now find myself with sufficient financial resources, a splendid family and friends and enough professional success to keep me from thinking I've wasted the past few decades. To paraphrase another old Prussian militarist, "Plans are useless, but planning is essential". At least that's how it's been for me.

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    Like the above posters, I am a planner. I remember reading "The Magic of Thinking Big" and taking much of what it said to heart. I have always strived for the "sky" and entered a career much larger than I imagined. We have had our own business (that we sold), travelled the world and lived by the motto "live below your means". DH and I both retired in our 50's. We have yet to touch the money we put away for retirement. We have everything we want or need. The one thing I am really grateful for is that we had the foresight to travel to many foreign countries while we were younger. Our thoughts were that we could always travel in the US and when we were seniors we would be eligible for senior discounts too. This was a great strategy because now some of the countries we went to are no long safe or would be difficult at a more advanced age (not that we are infirm). We also do take advantage of many senior discounts.

    I remember going to see a fee-based financial planner prior to retiring to verify that we were, in fact, ready to retire and not just thinking we had "enough". I didn't sleep that night when he verified that we could retire! I never had the feeling "what will I do?". I love to study different things and have many interests. My problem is that there are too many things I find fascinating. There are so many places to see and have great fun studying and planning trips. I am never bored. I don't get that concept.

    Did I change once I retired. Yes, I am much happier!

  7. #7
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    In the 80s we created a "life book" to record where we were, where we wanted to be, and how we would get there. It held our budgets, projections, investment ideas, status of education, assets, etc. We updated it at least every year and used it to talk to each other and financial planners. Made a great tracking devise.

    Reached all our financial goals (exceeded all of them) and were able to retire when I hit my date and hubby retired when he got laid off with 5000 others. All the money did was allow us to easily make the decision and to provide future security.

  8. #8
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    I've had a number of dream goals in my life, but as most of you know, when it comes to retirement goals, I've fallen way short. But I have managed to realize some important goals in my life.

    When I "stumbled upon my destiny" (a King Arthur reference in Camelot) to be a market research analyst, I was so overwhelmed and happy to have been given the opportunity--at age 46! Now, when I hear women say that they can't take time off to raise their kids because they'll lose footing in their careers, I tell them that if I can break into a brand new career with no previous experience at age 46 and be very successful at it, they shouldn't have to worry about taking time off to enjoy their children.

    Anyway, I was so thrilled and encouraged with my new salary that I vowed to double it in 5 years, and in that amount of time, I actually quadrupled it. Check. I had also vowed, when I started traveling for work that I would take my entire family to Scotland on frequent flyer miles. That transpired in 9 years. Check. I also found myself thrilled to be able to put my kids through undergrad school. Check. I also was thrilled to be able to buy my "made it" car: a new Prius (I still have it--10 years later). Check.

    Then of course I got into a mess with my offer to float my MIL a loan of $360,000 at the cusp of the recession and wham. Huge, huge setback from which I will never recover, given I'm 65. So now my goal is to take all the market research jobs I can until people stop calling me. Then I'll probably get a part time job somewhere. My goal now is to liquidate all debt, downsize to a house half the value of my current one and be free of a mortgage, too. I hope to do that by the time I'm 70 (5 years from now). I have a very, very modest investment goal, but thankfully my SS earnings will give me a decent check at age 70, which should keep me out of the poorhouse or on my kids' stoops.

    I have listened to y'all when I've needed a bit of a slap upside my head. I realize I'm pathological in my "rescue" tendencies and desire to please loved ones with money I can't afford to part with. I think I finally understand that. So my dream goals are all about me at this point.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
    www.silententry.wordpress.com

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