I decided to take a hiatus from trying to post regularly on this site.
I took down all the posts I put here before, no one read them and they really weren’t very useful to anyone.
So instead, I’m focusing on my family, job and finishing college right now.
I’m nearing the end of the 5 year plan I made back in 2018 and it’s gone really well.
Life is good.
Next year I intend to shift my focus toward building out my online presence. That includes posting articles on this site.
For now I’ll leave you with some explanation on that 5 year plan, and a preview of what’s to come on this site next year.
So what’s this 5 year plan all about?
Well, I spent most of my 20’s making very little money. Life was hard but my hobbies and passions kept me fulfilled.
In 2012, I discovered that I really loved to write code. This right around the time I turned 24 years old.
Even then, I still struggled to break into the software industry and start making good money.
I was laid off from my first tech job in 2015. It paid roughly the same wage I had while working in warehouses and labor positions. So, I started to I look for a different answer.
The problem was, I didn’t have a college degree and I didn’t have much professional experience as a software developer. So companies felt justified in paying me a poverty-level wage.
To get around that fact, I started obsessing about becoming better at writing code and focusing on starting my own business as a freelancer. I figured this provide the professional experience I needed and make my abilities undeniable.
That’s when I started to think that finding a short-cut way to earning money quickly was the way to go.
I spent the next two years, or more, trying to start my own small business. Then that turned into multiple small businesses. Whether it was freelancing as a web developer, starting an ecommerce business, or diving into a myriad of other ventures – I went all in on trying to make something work.
My efforts grew more and more complex. Soon I had small amounts of money coming in with various sales and gigs… so I just kept pushing.
I worked day and night and I tried everything I could. I ran myself ragged trying to hustle as hard as possible.
But after all that time, all that effort, I made less money on average than ever. Nothing was really taking shape.
That was the middle of 2018. I was in a bad place. I was 30 years old and feeling like a failure. By most people’s measure, I was a failure. I was $30k in debt, living with my parents, single, broke, and depressed.
So, I shifted gears and changed my path.
I realized that I was thinking and planning with too much of a short-term mindset.
“People tend to overestimate what can be done in one year and to underestimate what can be done in five or ten years.”
J.C.R. Licklider, 1965, from “Libraries of the Future”
With that quote in mind, I decided to make a 5 year plan and stick to it.
The 5 Year Plan™
Just some simple goals that I wanted to achieve, or make progress on by 2023.
- Pay off my debt and get my finances in good shape.
- Get a car that will last me for the next 10 years.
- Get a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science to help stabilize my career.
- Get a tech job making $100k+ per year (non-toxic, minimal stress, manageable).
- Rent a house or apartment and get out of my parents house.
- Bonus: Buy an affordable house that’s in decent shape.
Transportation, education, job, finances, and house. That’s it.
The key is: I simplified everything in my life. Nothing extra, no complexity, no clever short-cuts, no side-projects, no risk.
Everything I did from then on had to directly work toward one of those 5 main goals or I’d put it aside for later.
I put my head down, stopped talking about it and started doing it. ‘Hustling in silence’, so to speak.
That was 2018. I’ve spent almost 1700 days living this way…. So how’s it going so far?
Uh… really well. Like, surprisingly well.
When I started this, I had a step-by-step plan in mind. It all made sense logically.
First, I would work part-time and go to school. I’d budget and save money from the part-time job and pay off my debt.
Next, I’d go on to save enough money to get a better car.
After 3 or 4 years I’d graduate with my degree. Using that degree I’d go on countless interviews to get the best tech job I could.
Then, I’d work my way up in tech and start renting an apartment.
Finally, I’d push to find a way to start making $100k+ and look into buying a house.
Things didn’t happen that way. I couldn’t have planned for the opportunities came to me. I had to constantly readjust my plan.
In fact, the order and timeline of nearly every goal on my list changed throughout the process. Staying flexible and just accepting what was offered to me, then putting all my effort into fulfilling my end of the deal was the only way.
I’m looking forward to going into more detail later, but for now I’ll illustrate it with a bullet list.
2018
✔ Simplify my life: quit social media, video games and stop working on any side projects. (May 2018)
✔ Get a simple part time job [$11/hour, 20-30 hrs per week] (July 2018)
✔ Get back into community college (August 2018)
✔ Save $2000 in a savings account for an emergencies (October 2018)
✔ Get a full-time tech job with a higher salary [$26/hour, 40 hrs per week] (December 2018)
✔ Keep a 4.0 GPA at college (August 2018 – August 2019)
2019
✔ Transfer to Western Governor’s University for Computer Science Bachelor’s Degree (October 2019)
✅ Pay off all my debt except for student loans [$25k] (November 2019)
2020
✔ Get a new position at work, 15% salary increase (January 2020)
✅ Move out of my parent’s place and start renting a house (August 2020)
✅ Get a newer/used car and pay it off as fast as I can (February 2020)
2021
✔ Pay off my car loan 100% (April 2021)
✔ Save 6 months of living expenses [$14k] (September 2021)
2022
✔ Get a new position with a new company, 12% salary increase (March 2022)
✅ ⭐ Buy a house with an affordable mortgage (March 2022)
✔ Refill savings for 6 months of new living expenses [$18k] (December 2022)
2023
✅ Get a tech job earning $100k+ salary [$115k] (January 2023)
⬜ Graduate with a Computer Science Bachelor’s Degree
So of my 6 main goals… I’ve been able to achieve 5 of them so far.
You see that last item on the list I haven’t finished yet is a big one. Finishing my degree.
I’m working on that now. Very very close, but not quite there yet.
It’s December 2022 right now… I’ve still got about 6 months left before the end of May 2023. That’s when the full 5 years will have passed.
When that time comes I’ll be adding my next blog post here and making a YouTube video to go along with it. I feel like what I’ve learned through my journey so far can help people that might be struggling the way I was.
I’m also excited to share what I have in mind for my next 5 year plan, 2024 – 2029!
Talk to you then!
Reach me on one of these links if you need to, or comment on this post. See you next year!