create a 5 year plan

Maybe I’ll just record the components of my plan here, rather than try to journal it or type it or something.

A public plan might make me feel more accountable.

Maybe.

Within the next year:
hire someone to build a privacy fence for the backyard
Finish my first year of ADEPT/teaching successfully
Open a Roth IRA and set up automatic contributions
Take a trip to London and/or Germany.
Find a church and join. Be active in said church.
Put my house on the market, and purchase a new
house in my favorite neighborhood. A house with a
garden tub – that is a non-negotiable.
Finish my second year of ADEPT/teaching and
get my permanent certification.
Perhaps, buy a new car (although the new
house comes FIRST).
See Egypt, or maybe China.
Send one of my NaNoWriMo novels off to
publishers, and save each and every single rejection
in a scrapbook until I get the darn thing PUBLISHED.
(Maybe I could even get accepted on my first try??)
Get a second Boxer for my baby to play with.

Within the next two-three years:

Within the next three-five years:

Begin working on my national board teaching certificate.
Begin working on my PhD in education (decide whether to
focus on curriculum design or literacy).
Start investing in either stocks or a mutual fund.
If still single – become a foster mother, or adopt.

And, I need to maybe make different categories for the 5 year plan, from personal to professional to creativity to financial. . . just so I don’t leave things out. Then I could re-do/re-order my list.

Finishing this goal by the new year, to make it a new years resolution.

Marriage, or becoming a foster mom if no Mr. Right walks into my life.

A trip to Germany, with subsequent backpacking trips to other European countries, either this coming summer or next (when I have an income.)

Becoming a certified teacher, and getting a job in one of the “good” districts.

Having an income, and then creating a budget, and a system for receipts so how much I spend slaps me in the face at least once a month, and starting a Roth IRA, and a money market account with three months of savings, and a mutual fund, and actually budgeting for TRAVEL.

Editing and publishing my novel, or to receive by mail at least fifty rejection letters.

To find a church and to become active in serving.

To travel to China and to Egypt, and at least ten different states (or I’ll never see all fifty) (more would be better, but ten is def. doable).

To go on one of Claudine Hellmuth’s Italian altered book workshop/retreats.

To attend a nerdy sci fi con – buffy or star wars, and maybe even dress up.

To get into shape, and then buy slutty clothes :)

To start my doctorate (towards the end of the five years).

To achieve my “Masters plus thirty” status, for a raise.

To pay off my credit card, to buy an investment property, to pay off one of my smaller student loans, and to finish decorating my bedroom and bathroom.