Whoa. I just received an e-mail from my past self, scheduled to arrive exactly 10 years after December 3rd, 2005. (Courtesy of the tool FutureMe.org.) Its purpose was to remind me of this post about My Dream Future as imagined in 2005:
Thinking about goals and the future some more, I have this picture in my head of our dream future in 5-10 years:
– I work at a job I enjoy for only 20 hours a week
– My wife also works at a job she enjoys for only 20 hours a week
– We both share responsibility for taking care of our kids with minimal, if any, need for daycare.
– Our combined incomes still make it possible for us to reach our financial goals. However, we’re not really interested in being filthy rich.We are gonna make this happen. Check back with me on 12/3/2015 😉
How did we do? I still have visiting family in town so I won’t expand very much right now, but here is the quick version:
- Yes, I work at a job that I enjoy for roughly 20 hours a week. “Enjoy” means that it satisfies the three requirements of autonomy, complexity, and reward for effort.
- Yes, my wife works at a job that she enjoys for roughly 20 hours a week.
- It was later than we might have “dreamed”, but our first child was born in 2012. Our second child was born in 2014. We are open to future blessings, but will accept whatever the universe has planned for us.
- We both share primary responsibility for childcare. However, we are also quite thankful that the oldest one is now thriving at a great preschool.
- We are not retired, but we keep moving the chains forward.
Having a specific goal in mind definitely helped make it happen, although of course it also took a good deal of hard work and luck. I would also be lying if I said we didn’t have some bumps and scares along the way. They say that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. But perhaps you should also plan for some failures along the way. 😉
Thanks to you, kind reader, for helping motivate and teach me along this journey. I encourage you all to keep believing in the beauty of your dreams!
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Way to go!
I’ve read somewhere that we tend to overestimate how much will change over the next one year but underestimate how much will change in our predictions of the next ten years. Sounds like you were pretty much right on the money.
Wonderful post.
Loved watching and learning from you on your journey.
Huge thanks for your continual openness to us distant invisible supporters out here in internet land.
Congrats! And thanks for letting us take this journey with you. I’ve been following your blog for 10 years now (!) and am excited about your next post as when I first found your blog. Not a lot of bloggers keep that focus, but it’s one of the reasons I enjoy your postings so much. Keep up the good stuff!
Great post! I like how you give importance to having time with family and are ok with having “enough” money.
Way to go. You are living your dreams. Because you dare to dream, write down your dreams and dare to be open to all the blessings the universe has to offer you, you will realize your dreams and so many more rewards that are unforeseen.
Are you going to update your goals any and then send yourself another check-in in 10 years?
You are an inspiration Jonathan!
I watch over you and send good wishes like a grandma for the next generation and the ones after you.
Many Blessings
Wonderful post. I don’t know how some parents with young children can work hectic schedules over 40 hours/week . We’re all always going to want more money in life, but at what price? Most of us “savers” will likely end up with much more money that we thought we needed when it’s all said and done. But those simple, everyday moments with your young children (even the chaotic ones) are what you will cherish and miss the most as you get older. And you can never get those moments back, so you need to live and appreciate those important moments, everyday – day by day. This is what being filthy rich is all about, Charlie Brown.
I’m so happy for you, Jonathan! Thank you for sharing so many insights and tips along the way. I’m inspired how you and your wife pursue your dreams and truly love you values, including working hard to create your vision.
Oops. Truly LIVE your values.
Wow, I can’t believe 10 years has passed so quickly! Congratulations on meeting your goals and thanks for sharing your experiences along the way.
That’s neat man!
I don’t know if I knew about baby #2, but congrats just in case 🙂 We had our 2nd one last year too (two boys now) and it’s a lot of fun… More work than I had guessed, but def. fun!
Congratulations Jonathan. You are one of the first blogs I ever started reading. You continue to post great content that fits into several multiple disciplines – deals, accounts, interesting books, ideas etc.
I hope we are all in great health to interact in 2025!
Dividend Growth Investor
Congrats Jonathan. Words of wisdom. Happy for you guys.
Can you let us know or have a post detailing how you and wife transitioned from a full time (40hr/week) to part-time (20hr/week) job. I follow that there exists other option, however when we had our first baby, my wife tried that route. All she could get was other full time job but none part time (Technical/Engineering field). So she decided to take a break from career from then on. Would appreciate if you can share your experience on how you guys transitioned from a technical/Engineering full time to a part time.
Thanks
Richard
Congratulations! I’ll have to check out that future me website.
Nice Work Jonathan!
Your story is an inspiration to staying on task and reaping the rewards.
Really enjoy your blog and take on life.
My husband and I are of the same mind set.
Being ‘Rich” to us is being debt fee and knowing we will be fine in retirement.
We have a nice but modest house – and own a rental property… both with no mortgage.
We keep excellent credit scores to take advantage of special credit card offers.
We pay cash for nice but used cars.
We became debt free many years ago and that was a large part of it all.
Our guide has been ‘Your Money or Your Life’ and ‘The Millionaire Next Door’.
And now we follow your blog.
Thank you!
I sent myself an email for 2020! Let’s see how MrRicket in 5 years time would have fended. Thanks for your inspiring articles as always 😀
Cheers