Where do you want to be in 20 years?

I haven't updated for a while but rest assure, I am keeping busy being retired. One of the things I have been doing is mentoring some less experienced people in job-searching. I have a couple of friends who are recent graduates of respectable schools but lack real-world experience. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to strengthen my network. Others have done it for me and its just good karma to pay it forward.

So I would like to think of myself as a decent-to-good interviewer and working in the industry has given me some insight on what people look for. There was even a stretch of time at my old company when we were on a hiring spree and I averaged 6 interviews a week. One of the commonly asked things, especially for entry-level positions is as follows: "Where do you want to be in 5, 10, or 20 years?" Now back in the day, I had a nice old canned-response answer that showed I was ambitious and organized which usually got me the job. I told my friends whom I was helping with interviewing that this question is just a good question to know an answer to, not just for interviews, but to plan out your career path. However, my friends who know my current situation with this retirement thing, asked me to answer that same question now.

Hmm. That's a good question. What is my "career path" in retirement and where do I see myself in 20 years? Typically, people make their 20-year plan their dream, while their 2-5 year plan the stepping stones they take to achieve that dream. For example, if you wanted to make a lot of money without doing a lot of work, you would probably want to find and stick to a job at a large company that is stable and structured and can afford to pay you very well for doing one thing. If you wanted to one day own your business, you would probably have to go to a top-school MBA program, do an internship, and network in the industry that you want to move in.

This question became a little trickier for someone in my position because I am doing something that is outside the conventional box of thinking. I've realized that a lot of these plans are made so that people can organize and predict the future. They have a goal of a family and a profession at an early age and they spend all their time trying to achieve that. Once they do, they are happy with their daily routine: drive the kids to school, working 8-5, coming home and spending time with the family in their white-picket fence houses in the suburbs. I respect that - it is such a simple path to contentment and there is a lot of reward if successfully done.

However, that's just not me. I feel that my privileged life (and being young and an idealist and living in San Francisco and many many other factors) has built a level of complexity that makes answering this question not that easy. I feel for someone like me, dreams can change, and they change fast.

One great personal example is my choice of major in college. I liked video games in highschool. I said, hey - maybe I want to make video games as a career so I went to college and got a Computer Science and Engineering degree. Then, I grew up. However, I was in too deep and even though I was able to get a good job doing my highschool dream, it definitely showed me that my personal goals can change. Whatever I do now will cause a ripple effect for my future and I should have a plan that can compensate with changing life goals. Many would say that highschool and college is a time to explore and find out what you want to do and I feel this is true. I am taking it one step further - I feel that all of life is a time to explore and find out what you want to do. And I'm doing just that.

While most people see an unknown future as a scary thing, I see it as an adventure. Almost all past events in which I did not have concrete foreknowledge of, ended up being some of the best times of my life. Some people like a vacation tourist package. I like to just buy a plane ticket, hop on a plane, land, and then figure it out. Having the skills to be able to adjust to adversity seems much more useful and realistic than having the skills to plan for a future that has an infinite amount of possibilities.

Question. (Dwight from the Office reference) "Where do you see yourself in 20 years? What are you doing right now to get there?"
Answer. I don't know - and I'm doing exactly what I'm suppose to be doing to get there. Exploring, learning, adjusting, and reacting.

....or maybe I'm just trying to cope with a QLC.

Network Thanks

Earlier I had posted on the importance of considering a network as a financial asset (and much more). Also, I am celebrating this holiday because it would be one of the first holidays in which I am not looking forward to just because it is a reprieve from work. In years past, Thanksgiving was only good for a four-day weekend, that big meal that I didn't have to cook, as well as catching up on sleep because I was too tired to do anything else. This year is different because I was able to play a bigger role in planning Thanksgiving with my grandparents, actually have the energy and time to volunteer at a soup kitchen, and spend quality time with other friends and family that also have time off. Spending time with them is especially important and in retirement, I make sure to take advantage of strengthening my existing networks during the holidays because they do not have as much free time as I do.

However, in the spirit of the holiday, I would like to write a thank you post about my network and how they have contributed financially. Names will be replaced with spunky aliases for anonymity and for jokes.

The 'rents - I have been financially independent for many years now but having a child is definitely a financial burden for them and a benefit for me. MaineToday has calculated this to be around 250k$ and does not count all the other things they did for me that required time and effort. Considering my current situation, having a family is not something visible in my horizon. The fact that they were willing to sacrifice a good portion of their assets (unless I was an accident - they never told me) makes me very thankful.

Googlers - I'm sure many of you know the perks that are involved with working at the Google. Free food, free drinks, and they have these great take-out boxes where I can take home food. I have a strong network there (meaning I practically abuse their generosity) so lets say they contributed to half a year's worth of food. Not to mention, one of them is my roommate so I get a number of free perks free as well. I won't identify these perks specifically, but lets just say Google doesn't like their employees paying for anything...even bills. So let's say 2000$.

Dance Guys - If I were to use a tech industry metaphor, these guys would be the Professional Services of software industry solutions. They do not provide anything specific but they provide everything else at a drop of a dime. They have picked me up from airports, driven me to interviews, let me crash on their couch when Ex-Mrs-Parrish was mad at Soup Parrish. Basically, I can go to them whenever I want because of how strong my network is with them. So ballpark estimate - on-call chauffeurs and manual labor would cost 10/hr, 20 hours/wk, and we'll say over the last year - 10k$.

The Biggest A's Fan - This guy has guided me since our days at UC Somewhere. While I was being a scrappy fraternity boy, he was studying in the basement of the Engineering library. While he was making professional connections, I was making social connections (with females). While he was at T.A.'s office hours, I was sleeping in and recovering from the night before. (I'm actually exaggerating - I had a respectable GPA and was a dedicated student...just not compared to this guy.) Since then, he has taught me how to interview, how to write a resume, and guided me professionally towards a career. We even followed the exact same career path job-to-job (until I decided to retire). If I ever decide to grow up (or so some of my critics say), my ability to contribute in a professional environment will be as strong as when I left it thanks to this guy. I can say this guy is worth practically an education (he gave me training in professionalism, tutoring, a professional network, and career advice) - so maybe 20k$...at least.

Scruffy, the Bag Lady - What I owe this little lady has been beyond words but I'm still going to try to put a dollar amount on it. She has been basically my finance mentor since the early days when we attended Cougarland Highschool. She has shown me how to sweep (win contests by bulk entries), how to set up my first ecommerce (bookselling through amazon), how to play the stock market, and thats just the tip of the iceberg. I had gone to her for real estate advice which saved me hundreds of thousands if you take a look at the Bay Area housing market now. She has helped me understand my professional worth and I was able to bump up my first salary by 20k$. She helped me get my first internship at Interslice, Inc. which gave me my first useful piece of information on my resume. She is the reason I'm even writing this blog. I even got to be in her wedding. So lets try to add this up - she was my business consultant for ecommerce (3k$), financial adviser (2k$, or ~3% of my net worth, and 5k$ for professional advice), real estate agent and adviser (42k$ for her cut, and 100k$ for money saved), professional worth consultant (20k$). There's probably a lot more that I'm forgetting but add all that up, the Bag Lady has contributed a whopping $172k. I should ask her if it was worth 172k$ for me to walk down the wedding aisle.

There are a lot of other people I'm forgetting but if you add all that up, my network has contributed 204k$. I didn't included my parents in the math because hey....who doesn't get 250k$ from their parents? *high five*....*then feels guilty because taking privileged life for granted*

Now its quite obvious that most of this math is subjective and kind of a (really huge) ballpark estimate. Regardless of this, for me, it puts in perspective the financial worth of a network. Many people take their network for granted and don't seem to realize how valuable this is as well as the importance of contributing resources to a network of people. One of my theories which explains this is that rich people are friends with rich people while poor people are friends with poor people. A rich person doesn't really get much contribution from a network of rich people. They take for granted the free meals, the professional network, and all the other things they had grown up with. On the other hand, a poor person can't expect to receive much contribution from his network - everyone is busy holding down 2 fulltime jobs. They also lack the financial education to pass on and the knowledge to give career advice. However, lucky for me, I am a retired (read: poor) person with rich and knowledgeable friends. Their financial worth to me is a huge part of my assets. On top of what they contribute financially, their intangibles (yes, I do realize that networks are worth more than just money), makes my network...my friends and family...priceless.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Health Insurance

I haven't posted for a while because I've been planning family things for the upcoming holiday, and catching up for lost time. I always thought that retirement brings a lot of free time (heaven knows I'm unsuccessfully trying to find some hobbies for my grandpa to keep him active) but I'm quite busy nowadays. This is a good sign, because being unproductive would mean my retirement is failing because of the violation of Rule #3.

When I finally found some time, I read some comments on my previous posts and I feel that this retirement plan of mine has a lot of issues to address. Some issues that my readers brought up I have thought about while others I have not, and for that, I would like to thank them for keeping me on my toes.

One of the things that were brought up was health insurance. Obviously, my retirement does not yet factor any kind long term plan for that. I'm currently on a health plan from my previous employer that has an expiration date. After that, I might have to go without insurance or maybe a skeletal emergency plan that costs less than 100/month. A lot of Americans today don't have health insurance. This is the reality and a lot of people just have to make-do. My retirement plan is and will always be about adjusting.

So how am I going to adjust to finding health insurance? Well, currently, the mayor of San Francisco has promised to provide free city-wide health insurance. Thankfully, I live here so if that comes through, you can be sure that I will be one happy camper. However, let's say that falls through. You can tell by this blog that I am kind of idealistic. I probably won't be this way forever but there is a reason why young people are idealistic - they can afford to be. There are millions of Americans today that don't have health insurance due to a faulty system. Most people feel that they would just have to accept the system and make the best of the shackles they wear. I don't like accepting unfair systems and I don't think the rest of the nation does either. As a result, I feel this will have to change in the future whether it is a change forced by the hands of the people, or just through innovativeness to get around the HMO's. Instead of sacrificing an unfair amount of resources now to have health insurance, I can look forward to being one of the beneficiaries when a more realistic plan comes through for myself and many other fellow Americans.

Also, another thing about health insurance is that it is an assumed need - like shelter and sustenance. This may be true for some (older) people but I'm young and healthy and I recover from sickness quite fast. I feel that while it is something I will have to address in the future, I'm free to lower it on the priority list for now. This concept is hard to grasp because it breaks away from the status quo which makes it seem like I have to prepare for limbs getting hacked off and life-threatening diseases flying around rampantly. The truth is that the time my health becomes an issue is the time I will have to adjust to the problem.

Finally, it does not take a health plan to enforce preventive measures. I eat healthy, I exercise and I research best health practices because I actually have the time to do all 3 now. Whereas before when I was sitting in front of the computer for 40+ hours a week, now my body is much more energetic and probably better prepared to fight any health problems that come my way. Just like volunteering, I am able to trade money for time and turn that time into something that will save money. My retirement is about trade-offs and trying to find the benefits of the alternative to working - the alternative in this case being having more time to be healthy but not having health insurance. Out-of-the-box thinking has a huge impact on making my retirement work.

There is risk involved but I can't always plan for the worst. Afterall, why doesn't everyone also get UFO Abduction insurance? This is an extreme example but it illustrates the point for my current situation: the risk is too low. I will adjust when the time comes. Hopefully by then, I will be sending a gift basket to the mayor of San Francisco.

I'd like to thank my readers for inspiring this post and to encourage them to keep commenting. One of the reasons I have this blog is to allow an open forum for discussion to help me work through the problems I will face in my retirement.