Long Term Thinking and Aging

I am a long term thinker, especially when it comes to life planning. My start into this mind set originated just before graduating from Undergraduate life where I was faced with making the decision between going into the work force or continuing with a Masters. During this time, I had the opportunity to attend events where the alumni of the Engineering Physics program returned to the University for a dinner. The event was staged as a chance for the old alumni to meet up with their old friends and a chance for the current students could meet the alumni to see what future prospects hold for them. My views on the next 40 years of life was molded since that dinner.

During my time at the dinner, I spoke with many graduates that went straight into the work force. I asked several of them "Is there anything that you regretted not doing before you started working?" and several of them told me that they regretted not traveling more and one told me to "enjoy these years of your life because they will be freest years of your life." I took that comment to heart especially after he told me that after you get a job, you'll be climbing the career ladder, then you'll get married, buy a house and so on. I realize then that a person's life was generally charted out after they started working, since then I became very fascinated with financial planning and began making financial calculations and projections from the age of 23 till I retired at 65.

These weren't simple financial calculations either. I made these calculations as in depth as possible, accounting for all sorts of living expenses including transportation, rent, home purchase, living expenses, RRSP and tax calculations. My objective was simple, to be financially stable and free to do the things I wanted to do in life. My modeling also included information on how long it would take to fully pay off a house (about 25~30 years!) and to retire with at least $1 million in RRSP savings and with additional funds in my savings account. Many people go onwards in life without knowing these things until it's too late. Just saving $1 million ~ $2 million and paying off a house is a 30 ~ 40 year endeavor! If you want to do things right, then you you have to start now.

This also leads me to another interesting topic of aging. That one conversation I had with the engineer also made me realize that life is a set of transitions; your 20's is not going to be like your 30's nor your 40's. I also came to the realization that once you start your career and get married and etc, the next time that you will be free is after you retire. when you're 65. When I'm 60's, I am surely not going to be able to live it up like my 20's. The moral of the story I learned is to live up now, because time is limited!

If there is one unfortunate thing about my youth, I would have to say it was attending grade school. The earlier years of grade school falls incredibly short for preparing a person with real world knowledge and skills. I would have really liked to have picked up some real skills earlier on when it comes to solving "real world problems," the kind of problems you get to solve as a job. I could have probably started working on various things when I was 13~14, figured what exactly I liked by the time I was 17 and attend university to learn more about the things that interested me and immediately use them.

But no, this isn't how things work. We don't start learning how to solve "real world" problems until we start working, by the time we graduate out of University at ages 22~25 depending if you just did your 4 years, or +1 year for co-op and/or +2 years for a Masters. Then we try and get into a company and then start learning what jobs we might like and the skills we need to do them, while getting paid and finally starting your own life. Isn't it a bit of a late start?

It is rather interesting to realize that in the Middle Ages, children became of age by the time they were 13 ~ 14. Legally, people don't become adults until 19 and many don't experience real life by the time they are 25. I find it interesting how times have changed.