Have you ever had a plan that you just couldn't seem to put into action, no matter what you did? It's tempting to think that the gods are working against you, but I know that in my case, it's just my own laziness and lack of self discipline.

On a more positive note, have you ever had a long-range plan that worked for you? How did you do it? Did you have help, or did you do it all on your own?

And would you like to give me $5,000?

-- Anonymous, August 28, 1999

Answers

As people on my notify list know, I am forever bitching about how NOTHING ever goes my way when I am in charge. I don't even bother thinking about a long range plan.

I can loan you 50 cents!...!

-- Anonymous, August 28, 1999

I had planned to graduate from college. Unfortunately, I had not gone so far as to plan a major, so here we are.

And while in some cases it has been Other Forces at work (my Geology lab being cancelled on three seperate occasions, so far), my laziness in not leaving UCD as soon as I felt I should, not going to classes, and not doing assignments has done more than its fair share. Ithink I don't want to earn a degree, I just want to have one so I can get gainful employment and spend time learning the stuff I actually want to.

Hey Beth, if you can find me a quick bachelor's degree from an accredited school, I might be able to scrape together that $5,000.

-- Anonymous, August 28, 1999

I'm really happy when short-range plans work out for me. Long-range? Pfffffffftt. Maybe if I had ambition.

Actually, my long-range plan right now is to win Powerball. If I do, the $5,000's all yours.

--Mike

-- Anonymous, August 28, 1999

*sigh*

Gettin gout of debt would be ... so nice. We signed up for debt management a couple of months ago to get some help in achieving this.

The problem is very simple: we're spoiled brats and every time we resolve not to spend so much money, to stop going out to eat, we fall heavily off the bandwagon and wind right back up where we started.

We'd like to have a little house, kind of like yours Beth ... and a dog when we have a back yard and kids some day.

But I feel like we can't consider those things until we're out of the red and into the black.

Money set aside? It all went to pay for damage on the car this month. All of our rainy day fund/downpayment fund is gone.

We're back to square one.

Now if only I could find a place for us to live with lower rent ... that'd be swell. I think it would help a lot.

-- Beth

-- Anonymous, August 28, 1999

The gods are not working against you - I think if they were, you'd have more to cry yourself to sleep over than not being able to save as much money as you think you should be saving.

As for long-range plans, you know what they say - if you want to hear God laugh out loud, tell her your plans!

-- Anonymous, August 28, 1999

I have this novel that I'm STILL trying to get completed. Two and a half years later. I know, I know, it takes TIME to write a book, but it was taking ME no time at all. I had plenty of devine guidance and this thing was FLOWING. Then I thought I'd start school. So that I would have something to fall back on "if my book didn't sell."

It wasn't "real" school. *GriN* It was a tech school. 18 months. Nights. No big deal, right? Wrong. I was working 40 hours a week, schooling 25 hours, falling in love with one of my classmates, and running around with him on the sly for whatever other free time I had. I'd write here and there, but it never really happened.

So, I quit school. I looked at where I was and where I WANTED to be, and it depressed me. So the plan was to quit so I could go back to writing. I've reedited chapter one a coupla times, have ONE more revision that's running through my head, and then I get to go on to the other 15 chapters, then put together the REST of the loose notes that I have.

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited by the prospect of finishing this thing. I love it, I'm just depressed by my lack of motivation to make myself time to work on it and get it DONE. I wanted to have it done and sent off LAST October. If I'm lucky, I might have chapter TWO done by THIS October.

*Sigh*

-- Anonymous, August 28, 1999

Long range plans... heck, in college, I didn't really plan on making it to age 30, so long-range plans seemed kind of redundant. But, here I am, 30, so I've been in a long-range-plan kind of mindset. I'm almost done paying off my credit cards. Two years ago I owed about $7000, today I owe $1500 and will owe $0 by October. Most of this credit-demolishing has taken place since this January, when I actually stopped using the credit card altogether and started paying for things with cash I actually had. The best secret was to have a cash reserve: every paycheck, I set aside $50 (before I even take out money for bills) and sock it away--and use it like a credit card. If I have an expense that exceeds my total, I bust out the cash supply and pay for it--that way, my credit card total goes DOWN every month instead of the up/down shift (more up than down) which I had been playing for the past few years. And there's something about cash, especially seeing how much less you have in hand when you take some out, that discourages some level of frivolous spending. As a result, not only do I have a much lower credit card balance, but about $600-700 in cash earning interest in my savings account, to spend on little emergencies like broken-down car stuff, or to let sit for whatever large expense. So the long-range plan part is, after the credit card balance is zero, and I've been in the habit of living on half to two-thirds of my regular income (quite comfortably, too) I can start socking away that half to two-thirds of my income in a savings account--and when it gets large enough, into a market-rate account, then a CD or other spiffy form of high interest-bearing account. Give it a decade or so to swell, and I'll have quite a chunk on my hands--perhaps enough to semi-retire and let the interest pay my rent and work part-time. I too have to deal with my spendthrift urges, especially those involving firearms (which not only appreciate in price over time, but they keep banning the really fun ones, increasing the urge to GET ONE NOW BEFORE IT'S A FEDERAL OFFENSE TO OWN ONE! etcetera) and various tech-geegaws. But I'm getting better at it, especially as I see my debt balance spiral downwards towards that lovely zero point. One other long range plan I'll mention before this post gets too huge: We're not buying a house. Despite the "investment" that a house represents, it's not a good enough investment for the return, and, to be honest, we really don't need the space. Maybe someday--but it's no longer a priority.

-- Anonymous, August 28, 1999