Kind of a counterpoint to BikingLady's post about Financial Goals, what happens when those goals seem to become less and less realistic?
I have a little list on a scrap of paper I got from a hotel room probably 5 years ago or so, and it's called "I Will Retire When..." and I have a list of 6 milestones. Today I tried to figure out if my goals on this little list are even possible, and it seems REALLY optimistic--and they're not even huge goals! Most of you guys have already met them: No debt. Pay off house. Have XX in the bank. Pay XX towards kids' milestones (i.e. weddings--I don't have a huge amount budgeted there, I promise you).
But being a goal-oriented person, and also having the type of personality that is challenged with a problem, I grapple with, do I let go of my goal, adjust it, or go for it?
If I spend the next five years of my life pursuing this goal, will I be sorry? For it will take a lot of my life energy to accomplish.
If I give it up, will I be regretful? Or happier--just letting go of this desire to be the type of parent who was able to leave a little something. My mother couldn't. My father couldn't. Even the uncle, the Yale grad who made a fortune as a self-made businessman, let his family down when he died unexpectedly in his 60s, leaving his kids without a penny (he left it all to Wife #2). If I have this dream of being Uncle B... do I even have my ladder against the right wall, as Stephen Covey would say?
At this point in my life, I can either do the best I can for 5 years and hopefully get a decent Social Security payout that will keep me fed and housed; OR I can go the last lap full speed ahead and hope for the best.
Given my ambivalent attitude toward money, I don't know which path is more "me."
I guess I'm just trying to figure out where my life energy is best spent at this point in my life.