Some people may be a little cynical about long-term life plans, and I get that.
I mean given that there is so much societal uncertainty in this age of postmodernity so much can change in just one or two years that could derail longer term plans, so the chances of sticking to a 10 year plan are probably quite thin.
Nonetheless, I think for me ATM there is some utility in this - at the very least as a thought experiment which will help me contextualise what I am doing this year, and just the process of imagining where I want to be in 10 years could help me to focus more and bring the goal closer!
So here's my 10 year life plan (back to front!)
Hint:eventually it ends up looking something like this!
By 2033... The Good Life (Plain and Simple!)
By 2033 I want....
- House in Hereford, mortgage paid down
- A few acres of land in West Wales - mixed woodland with a young food forest, a yurt, some off-grid buildings such as a compost loo and outdoor kitchen and food-growing space.
- A van to move between Hereford and West Wales.
- For income - a mix of my main blog and crypto, and hopefully by then my Teacher's Pension!
- To spend my time meditating/ working the land/ blogging/ coding/ chilling, something like a 10/30/30/20/10 split.
- In terms of meditating I really want to focus on Tai Chi/ Breath Work and just developing kindness towards others!
So long term I'm defo back to the land, and I think it has to be Wales.
I might consider selling the house in Hereford and buying a property with half an acre instead of the Woodland, it depends what comes up in my price range.
It's basically a simple life for me living the good life!
2030 - 2032 - Building the Future
The latest I want to buy my land is really 2030, and that will give me two to three years to establish a fruit forest which should be viable, albeit with low yields by 2033.
Really I see this as a precursor to 2033, so I guess I lied a little about having a 10 year plan, it's more of a seven year plan TBH!
Maybe I'll do a little digital nomadism in here too...?
2026 - 2029 - Permaculture Travel or Paid Work
Mortgage paid off by 2028 is my main financial goal here.
I see this period as going one of two ways:
Either I'm thinking these years I might focus on travelling a little, which would involve doing a van conversion and hopping around Europe and Britain visiting a few (or many!) Permaculture projects, I'd keep the house in Hereford open probably so I can zip back as necessary.
OR I might even go back into work, ideally into some sort of social research role involving data, see below!
In my brain thing the idea of doing 3-4 years of a final dash at work in my mid late 50s (no more than 4 days a week) kind of appeals. Work does give one so much after all, as long as it's meaningful work over which one has some agency!
2023 - 2025 - Virtual Years!
Which brings me onto the current phase of my life which I've said before looking like they are going to have, ironically (?) something of a virtual focus.
This is because I don't have the funds to head to Wales yet, and so I'm going to have an urban base and be doing a lot of online work which remains central to stacking the funds to buy land in the future.
This means spending time on the main blog, getting back into more depth-blogging on Hive and also I think I'm going to look to sharpen up my skills in social research and learn some data science/ coding skills with the intention of maybe moving back into real work at some point.
In terms of just my day to day life I'm imagining my time-split to basically mirror what I want in 2033 just without the off-grid stuff, so something like:
- 15% meditating/ working out
- 40% online work
- 30% re-training
- 15% chillin'.
The 10 Year Plan... Final Thoughts...
I know it's nothing special, but I really just want a simple, low-key, off-grid ish life going forwards and I'm happy to take my time getting there via some virtual/ work related years.
I think all in all this is very manageable and quite balanced, at least it suits me, for now.
Of course things might change, we shall see, but for now it's clear to me that I've probably got a life mainly lived online for the next few years, and I am O.K. with that!