Adulting 101: Tips For How To Plan For The Future

Don’t know how to plan for the future? How far ahead should you be creating future plans? 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, maybe 10 years? What is the right amount of time to plan out for and how should one go about future planning?

An optimal amount of time to create long-term plans is three years. It gives you enough time to create and instill habits, lifestyle changes, and also pursue professional changes or developments. Life is constantly changing. Remember to leave flexibility for going with the flow and adjusting your plans when necessary.

Keep reading to see just what you should be planning for within those three years.

Assess Your Current Areas Of Life

When planning for the future the first step begins with taking stock of where you are in life. You have to know your starting point so that you can build out the areas of your life that are most important to you. You can start this process by doing some self-reflection, or what I like to call life interviews on your trajectory since maybe high school. How has your first phase of adulthood started off?

What have you learned or accomplished? Who have you grown to care for? 

Why have you decided to be on the path that you currently follow? 

How is your life and are you happy with it?

What type of life and lifestyle do you want to have in three years?

Asking yourself these questions helps you understand yourself better – the more thorough the questions, usually the better.

Take your time with this process. It is crucial and serves as the basis of your life planning process. And most of all, be honest and realistic with yourself. You will only be hindering your future self otherwise.

Determine The Best Ways To Get To Where You Want To Be

The next step is to figure out where you want to be at the end of the next three years. This is where you take your assessment of yourself today and compare it to the life and lifestyle you envision for yourself in the future.

The gap or missing aspects become the long-term goals that you set for yourself and will serve as the main pillars of your future growth plan. 

Below I give examples one such future growth plan categorized by personal, professional, and financial goals. Note that there are many different ways you can categorize your goals. I am choosing these three categories because they work best for me. You do what works best for you and your action plan.

Create An Action Plan To Close The Gap

Do your research into how you can close the gap. This is your plan for yourself. The plan that you create should be a process that makes the “you” of today into the “you” of the future. Whatever the different goals may be, your main focus is to do all you can to close the gap between where you are today and where you see yourself in the future.

Set Personal Goals

This is where you start laying the groundwork for becoming the type of person you want to be. Are you lacking in emotional intelligence? Is there a family member that you wish you could start spending more time with consistently? Are you looking to start a family soon? 

Whatever personal goals you may have, it’s important to reflect on your values and then set tangible, measurable steps to achieve them.

The plan you create for your personal growth should be an honest and challenging pathway for you to pursue.

Set Professional Goals

Let’s talk about having a successful career – or better yet your definition of what a successful career is to you.

Do you want a title bump or to be at a certain salary within the next three years? What are the steps toward making that career path come true? This is where you can once again do your research so you can know what is required of you. Then, you can better plan for how you are going to achieve this goal.

Maybe you are a salesperson, and during your research, you see that people who get a title bump within three years consistently surpass their expected sales by 200% each year. That means that you will need to start figuring out a plan for yourself that will put you in the best position to consistently make 200% above your sales target.

On the other hand, maybe you just want to be “part of the team” and not have to lead everything. What does taking a step back look like? Do you already have plans for how to use the new free time that will come as a result?

Below are some common professional goals that might be of interest to you. Remember the idea is to understand the difference between where you are now and where you want to be in three years. Then set realistic goals and make a plan to close that gap.

• Take a course to further your skills
• Improve your presentation and public speaking skills
• Build your professional network and gain a mentor
• Lead a major team project

Most Important Things Require Financial Backing

Now, let’s shift gears toward what is arguably the real hard work of planning for the future – financial planning. I truly believe that financial planning deserves its own list of goals and category planning. I’ve shared a ton of resources here on Adulting Starts Here as it relates to financial literacy and financial planning. So, I won’t go into great detail here. I will just share my thoughts on one aspect of this topic and say take the time to check out the Personal Finance section of this blog. 

With that said, it is paramount that you take seriously the importance of good financial planning as it has a major impact on your ability to achieve the other goals that you set for yourself. So what is that one topic I want to make sure to share? 

Well, it’s the all-mighty budgeting.

Action Plan: Budgeting 101

For any new or young adult looking to build financial literacy and a financial plan, it is probably best to begin your financial journey by learning about and creating your own budget. A budget is such an integral and necessary tool when building financial literacy. Because without a proper budget that you follow, achieving any other financial goals becomes a lot harder.

If you are interested, in learning more about budgeting and what software I swear by for new adults, check out the article linked below.

Read More: 5 Reasons Why YNAB Is My Favorite Adulting Tool

So, once you have an understanding of budgeting, you can now use your budget as a conduit through which you reach your financial goals. For example, one of my goals is to build a one-month buffer for myself.

I can accomplish this by budgeting for a portion of my paycheck to be used to fund that particular goal. Let’s say I budget to set aside $100 each month. I keep doing that until I have reached the one-month buffer amount that I want.

I then move on to the next financial goal which in this case is building a six-month emergency fund. If interested, I have written a very detailed how-to guide on building an emergency fund so check it out below. It should definitely be a part of your planning for the future as a new adult.

Read More: How To Create An Emergency Fund As A Young Adult

At the end of the day, if you want to build your financial literacy and grow your wealth then you must seek out opportunities to learn about them. See if your school, work, or local library offers financial literacy workshops that you can attend. Some local banks offer free workshops as well. And of course, you can see what Adulting Starts Here has to offer you. The opportunities to learn are plentiful. You just have to seek them out.

Consider this 3-year financial plan below.

1 Month Buffer	Maintenance Fund For Technology	New Home Fund
6 Month Emergency Fund	Max Out 401(k)	Monthly Contribution to Index Funds
Small Medical Fund	Max Out Roth IRA	Monthly Contribution to Crypto

If in three years I want to be able to accomplish any of these goals, I have to come up with a plan that helps me do so. I begin by educating myself on these topics and doing the basic foundational work to improve my financial literacy.

A lot can be learned in a three-year timeline especially when it comes to money.

Track Your Progress & Refine Your Action Plan

Once you have your long-term goals figured out, find somewhere to place them where you will often see them. Readily seeing the goals you have in life will help you put things into perspective. You can better see if you are taking on too many changes at one time or trying to accomplish too much at one time.

Remember, your plan for the future should not be an overnight list of everything you want to improve upon. It should be a long-term strategy that requires consistent small changes and improvements that last throughout your lifetime.

What are thoughts? What are you doing to plan for your future? Share in the comments below!

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Best of luck adulting!

And Remember,

Adulting Starts Here

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