Yesterday, I opened up my Fidelity account on my computer, checking my investments which are undoubtedly down. I look at the dashboard, and I’ve lost money. I was already at the fifth stage of grief before I even opened up my account, so I tolerate the losses. Another widget is on the screen— apparently I could open a new credit card with Fidelity, but I don’t need it.
Then, I am met with horror.
“You could retire in 49 years,” the dashboard proudly exclaims.

WOOHOO!

Huh? Retire when I’m almost seventy years old? Don’t most people retire when they’re about sixty five? I’m way behind! Flabbergasted, I get up from my chair and pace around the room. I’ll just have to make more money, then. I can do that. I will work many years after I’m done with school, surely I’ll make enough money to retire sooner than in FORTY NINE YEARS. Tension releases from my shoulders and I’m back down to earth. Breathe in- three, two, one- breathe out. I begin to feel better about my future and my finances.
I only have the money I made from summer in that account, so I can (hopefully) retire sooner than the calculator predicts. All is well.
All of this talk about retirement begs a bigger question, however: what exactly will I do in these forty nine years? Currently, I don’t know what I am going to do next week, or for the next four years, so trying to predict the next forty nine years will be impossible.

This is where my aunt thinks I’m going to college

There is a big emphasis in society on knowing what you want to do in the future. At family get-togethers a few months ago, your aunts and uncles were asking you “where are you going to college?” despite the fact that you hadn’t even applied. Your parents are asking you “what do you want to do after college?” even though you have no clue what you should study during college.

Uncertainty permeates our dreams and ambitions. If you try to predict the future, then you will be driven mad. The only certainty in the future is that your plans will be foiled. Given this unpredictability, what is the best course of action?
Make plans for the future. Counter-intuitive, right? If you execute plans for the future and they fail, it is, in the majority of cases, a net positive for yourself. By taking action on a plan, you are accomplishing something and coming closer to your goals. Even though it is highly unlikely that your plans will work out, at least you actually did something.
Back to the retirement talks. What do I personally want to accomplish in these forty nine years? Well, I would like to amass significant wealth. One caveat- I’d like to do this in an altruistic manner, that is, I make a positive contribution to society while counting my Benjamins.

So I have an overarching goal for my life, or career rather. To make a plan for this, I just work backwards from there. How could I get to that point if I were fifty years old? How would I get to that point at fifty if I were forty? How about twenty one to forty? Eighteen to twenty one? If you follow this method, you’ll eventually reach a starting point for yourself, a beginning on a path to whatever goal you’d like to achieve.

Bob the petroleum engineer with a family of four

An example: Bob wants to make enough money to raise a family of four. To do this, he would need an income of about $80,000 per year to live comfortably in most states (source: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/4-person.html). How could he do this? He could be a petroleum engineer, an occupational therapist, a real estate agent, or whatever career would get him to that salary. Bob loves oil, so he decides that petroleum engineering is best for him. So, he’d have to get a job being a petroleum engineer, and to do that, he’d have to get the necessary training at university. For Bob to raise a family of four, he’d have to study petroleum engineering at a university.
This is a super a priori way of thinking, but if you get more specific than that, then you’ll increase the likelihood of your plans failing. If we included ‘getting a job at Exxon,’ on the plan and Bob didn’t do it, then his plans would be ‘ruined’ even though he could get a job elsewhere.
Additionally, this plan is far from foolproof. Bob could still fail his plans. Suppose he just cannot understand calculus: his plans would be no more since he will not pass university to get a degree. What follows failure? Adjusting or reevaluating your goals and creating a new plan.
I invite you to try this with yourself. Perhaps it could offer some perspective that could be of some use to you.
You probably disagree with a lot of my thoughts. Maybe what I’m stating is obvious. Maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s completely wrong. I don’t know, but I hope it helped you in some way.