Present Woes and Future Plans
Posted on December 10, 2006 by Ching under Life, School.
It’s hard to believe that it has been a month since my last blog entry. They say that time flies when you’re having fun. Well, I can assure you, the last few weeks have been anything but. The end of the semester usually brings with it many challenges and frustrations. This semester has been no different. To be sure it has been one of the most challenging I have ever experienced in my entire academic career.
It was a crazy idea to take four courses this semester. It is challenging enough to take four courses without being employed fulltime but I had this crazy notion that I would complete my MBA in three semesters while continuing to work fulltime. After having performed below expectations this semester and submitting mediocre (in some occasions sub-standard) work to my professors, I realized that this goal is not attainable. I really hate turning in crappy work, but sometimes because of time and resource constraints you just have to settle for what you are able to reasonably accomplish. Then again, we are our worst critics so maybe they won’t see the work as “crappy” necessarily. Maybe. If I’m lucky. Seriously, though, by my estimation I should come out with a B overall so it’s not like I’m flunking out. I just made a bad decision (driven by my desire to finish early) and now I’m paying for it. Anyway, I should still be able to finish my MBA come spring 2008.
The plan is to take three courses this spring, two in the summer, two in the fall and then one last course the following spring. Then I should be finished. At least for the time being. I’ve often thought about pursuing a doctorate later on as a retirement plan of sorts. I figured I would be really bored if I stayed home after retirement. Teaching seems like a fun thing to do to pass the time. When the time comes, hopefully, I will have had many interesting experiences to share with students. Besides, in this day and age we have to be creative because (let’s get real folks) when the time comes for our generation to retire there won’t be any social security. I’m not even counting on it. To this end, I’ve been more aggressive with my 401k contributions.
When I first began it I was actually content with contributing 6% of my income, which is all the company will match. As I get older and closer to retirement I’ve decided that it really doesn’t matter if the company won’t match the rest of my contributions. The more that I save the more that I will reap later. My current rate of contribution is 10% and I’ve elected to increase my contributions by 2% each year. This is something that I’ve picked up from Jan. I wasn’t aware of the One Step option until Jan told me about it. I’ve learned so much from her.
It’s so strange to be so future-oriented. I used to not be so. When Brian and I first met, I was completely directionless, hedonistic, lived only for today, motivationless, and driven solely by the need for instant gratification. It’s remarkable how life can change and mold us to the people we are..
Anyway, I just wanted to check in because I hadn’t posted anything in a while. I will try to blog more after finals. Check back next week.
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