5 year plan: Phase 1 - Stability And Forward Motion.

In order for my 5 year plan to come to fruition, I need to take some actions. It's not going to come to be unless I get off my ass. So when I look at my 5 year plan, what's the first thing I think that I would need to get where I need to be?

Stability.

I mean financial stability of course. But after a summer of barely feeding myself with my income, how to I attain financial stability? I could set aside money into my savings, and that's the most obvious way to make sure that if I lose my job again that I won't go under, but that's more of a life boat as opposed to stability, and that could take quite a while to generate enough savings to live off of if worse comes to worse.

The answer actually solves two steps. It would not only provide stability for me financially, but also give me something I'm working toward that could help my business in the long run. I'm talking about continuing my education by taking business related courses at Columbus State Community College.

Here's how it would work.

Student loans and grants would pay my tuition, and any overage would be given to me directly in the form of a check to help pay for school expenses. This check would likely be nearly enough to pay for two months of rent if needed, so the logical answer would be to collect the overage check, buy whatever school related materials I need with it, then park the remaining amount in my savings account. This would give me enough savings to not fall off a cliff if I lost my temp job, and enough security in my finances to be able to make school a priority again!

From there, I take online classes whenever I can. The point of this would be to reduce my commuting costs. I live 50 miles from campus after all. If I'm trying to reduce my expenses, how can I justify spending $10 in gasoline to get to class and back home? Also, if my entire quarter is filled up with online classes, and I lose my day job again, then I won't have to worry about finding gas money to get to class 50 miles away. I can live off of my savings without bleeding money just to get to school.

So for the first time of my new life, I feel like I have a plan in place to take care of my needs that fits with what I want out of my life. This will just be the first step of many, but all great journeys begin with one step. Wish me well.