Plan in decades. Think in years. Work in months. Live in days.

Four years ago I wrote a story that blew up a little around the Internet. It was titled: Advice from 30 year old me to 20 year old me.

I ended that article with a quote which I coined that summed up my advice from me to myself:

Plan in decades. Think in years. Work in months. Live in days.

That was the most highlighted and commented on sentence in the entire article. People have copied it, claimed it as their own (you sneaky sneakers), put it on t-shirts, posters, pillows, bedspreads and even mugs.

After four years I have had time to reflect on these words that struck so many people as important and decided that I should explain a bit more.

Plan in Decades

The older I get the more I realise how much time I have.

When I realised that I had decades and decades in front of me, I understood that I needed to plan more seriously for being alive for perhaps another 6 decades of living.

Personal Life

Saving became immediately relevant to me and compound interest started to play a big part in my thinking about money. For example, I could buy a new pair of sunglasses today that I don’t…