Welcome to 2028!  What Have You Been Up to These Last Ten Years?

The next ten years are going to pass at warp speed.  Remember ten years ago?  It was 2008.  Obama was preaching hope and change, Donald Trump was doing questionable things on a much smaller stage, all of America’s houses were drastically changing in pretend value.  The New York Giants were good at football. Life happens fast.

Ten years is a long time, long enough that you can accomplish just about anything.  If you decided to put in the work you could become a black belt in Jiu-jitsu in the next ten years.  A business you start this year would be celebrating it’s tenth anniversary.  You could be massively in debt from purchases you no longer enjoy.  You could be retired.

Even if you don’t want to retire in the next ten years you can at least set yourself up to be better off financially in 2028 than you are right now.  Perfect health isn’t guaranteed to any of us.  In fact we’re almost guaranteed to NOT have perfect health in the next ten years.

"I love working and i don't want to be retired in ten years so why save money now?!" - A dummy

You may love working in 2018 but what if your circumstances change and in 2028 you dread going to work? What if you physically or mentally can’t do the same job anymore that you could in 2018?

Think of all the possible scenarios that can play out over the next 10 years.  How many of those simulations end up with you being sorry that you saved too much money?  How many of those simulations end up with you working two jobs desperate to make ends meet because you didn’t plan ahead?

Maybe you are at the peak of your career now.  Will you still be as desirable of a job candidate in 10 years?

Reevaluate Your Goals

So many people live paycheck to paycheck but they spend $50/month on a cable package.  If you just cut out that cable package and put the money in a savings account instead you’d have $6,000 saved up by 2028.  That’s not even investing the money.  Just saving it.  Six thousand dollars might not seem worth it but do you have an extra six grand laying around?  You would if you cut out cable back in 2008.

If you invested the money in a low cost index fund, even if you only got a 5% return on investment, you’d have $7,924.07.  If you earned 10% on your cable cutting investment you’d have $10,518.70 by 2028.

Even the smallest amount, invested over time, can make a huge difference.  Let’s say back in 2008 you decided to start packing a lunch to work instead of eating out.  Because pretend past you is super financially savvy we’ll pretend you set aside the money you saved by packing a lunch and invested it. Had you invested $7/day 5 days per week in Vanguards VTSAX, instead of eating out everyday, you’d have over $30,500 today.

I assume you did not save and invest all your lunch money over these last ten years.  You can’t do anything about that now.  What you can do something about is the next ten years.  Start now with something small.

Small changes in lifestyle make a huge difference.  Ten years is going to pass.  There’s no way to stop it from happening.  If we’re lucky enough we will wake up to a brisk fall day in 2028 and it will feel like the last ten years happened in a blink.  We can either be spinning our wheels and find ourselves in the same spot we are now, or we can make some purposeful changes to our lives and find ourselves miles ahead.

It won’t happen automatically.  You have to make a conscious effort.

Where Will We Be In Ten Years?

In ten years I’ll have just turned 42. I’ll be starting to feel the effects of aging a lot more than I am now.  I’ll wake up a little slower but hopefully I’ll still be able to do everything I love doing today.  I assume I will be fully bald.

We’ll be getting ready to celebrate our daughters tenth birthday. Maybe we’ll have even acquired one or two more kids.  We’ll be financially independent.  We will no longer have to work for money a decade from now.  That’s the plan.

Life happens fast though.  We will no doubt experience the loss of loved ones.  We’ll experience unimaginable joy and have some really rough days.  A lot happens in ten years.

Even so, these next ten years will pass in the blink of an eye.  We’re doing everything we can today to make sure our future selves are living their best lives.

Where Will YOU Be in Ten Years?

You’ll also be ten years older.  Maybe you’re in your early 20s now just starting off. Ten years from now you can be miles ahead of your peers who spend every penny they earn trying to impress each other.

Maybe you’re in your forties now and you just found out financial independence is even a thing.  Maybe you’re questioning whether it’s even worth it for you since it seems like those into chasing FI are planning on retiring before they’re as old as you are now.

In ten years you can either be financially independent, and done stressing about money in your fifties, or you can be doing what you’re doing now, just in a body that’s another ten years older.

In ten years you could completely change the trajectory of your career.  You could become a nurse or a plumber or a felon.  The possibilities are endless.  If you robbed a bank tomorrow you could be eligible for parole in ten years!  Wouldn’t that be fun?

Fight the Voice That Says it’s Too Late to Get Started

Make the small changes. Hell, make the big changes.  Maybe you’re stuck in a shit relationship that you don’t want to leave because you’ve “invested” so much into it.  In ten years this suboptimal relationship will feel like a different lifetime.  OR you can be another decade down the road.

Sick of being out of shape?  Either you can spend the next ten years feeling like it’s too late to get into shape or you can start small and in ten years you could be competing in Ironman competitions if that’s what you want.

At the very least in ten years your more in shape body would feel exponentially better than your current out of shape body does.

You may be broke now but start small.  Start by cutting small expenses out of your life that don’t bring you happiness.  Cut back on meals out.  You don’t need to pack your lunch everyday but maybe shoot for packing a lunch 3 days per week.  Try to cut down to only have one or two drinks per night.  Commit only one felony per month. You know?  Progress.

It may seem small and insignificant but ten years from now you’ll be happy you did.  Start now. You only have 9 years 364 days 23 hours 59 minutes and 37 seconds to go.

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That article was pretty short; you probably want to read another one or two.

1. How to Be Proud of Yourself and Why It’s Important
2. In a World Full of Plants…Be a Weed
3. How Much are You Really Earning? Hourly Wage vs. Hourly Profit