Do the Right Thing at the Right Time: Drawing a Straight Line

A Career Planning Mentorship Across the Decades – Insights from Retirement

For the new graduates of 2024 or those who will graduate in 2025, I recommend that you start your career planning with the big picture in mind. Specifically, by focusing on the end goal of having a great retirement.

Basically, what kind of life do you want to have when you retire? You may be wondering why I would ask you to start thinking about this (word) now.

Let's not try to answer that question for now.

Yes, you will have your first job, which is obviously the beginning of your career. If you are able to retire 30-40 years later, that can theoretically be considered the end of your career. However, the nature of your career will affect the quality of your life during the likely equally long period of your later life after retirement.

For now, keep it simple by focusing only on the career itself. 

Think of your career path as a straight line. With this straight line image in mind, you can mark your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s equally on the line. This will help you easily see the beginning and the end. It will help you develop the right attitude at each marker, which will help you develop a plan of action accordingly.

Now, you may be wondering if you should extend the line after you mark the 60s. Yes, do extend it with another straight line. 

Do the right thing at the right time at each age in these decades of your career.

In your 20s

Start a career that makes the most of the talents you developed in college. Don't confuse your passion with your career goals.

Do not follow your passion…

Follow your talents!

Your success in your career path will determine your socioeconomic status later in life. 

“Why is it important?” It will help you have the resources to minimize the biggest limitation in life, which may not necessarily be a financial one, but could have a negative impact on your opportunity.

Please find your partner, and get a mentor if possible. The sooner the better.

Being alone is no fun. The plan of action is to make friends and find your future partner along the way. In the meantime, find time to appreciate solitude by reading about the experiences and lessons of people who have been there.

In your 30s

Start a family (if not in your late 20s), and have children. Only then will you have the opportunity to mature by taking on more responsibility. 

Save and invest for your future, including your retirement and your children's education. 

Buy your first home with your own savings and investment income. While you should generally minimize or avoid debt, a decent mortgage is a good thing because it helps you start building wealth through home equity leverage.

Then you can start calculating your net worth and wealth over time. Until then, you will feel great knowing that you are truly doing something beyond yourself for your family's bright future.

In your 40s

Be resilient and adaptable. 

Know that your career path is not necessarily fixed in one industry or field. Even if you are part of the leadership team, you need to be open to change. You may have experienced one or two major transitions (even in your late 30s). This is to be expected and will develop your resilience in life, either proactively or reactively. 

During this time, you may find that the next big step comes with much more significant hurdles and challenges because you feel you have developed and accumulated so much experience and resources since the beginning of your career. Think about what your core talents have carried you to this point.

Do continue to learn and find new trends and opportunities in related industries and fields. Do not be satisfied with the status quo or your seniority in your current job. Revisit any assumptions you may have made in your 20s or 30s about your career choice and re-evaluate their impact on your family, your health, and your future. 

Be aware of the word "retirement" as the ultimate break. If you often feel tired, both physically and mentally, a typical vacation or sabbatical is not an easy way to recover. Even retirement itself is supposed to be retiring from something to something. 

In the meantime, you will have a different motivation for the next stage of your career.

At the age of 50

Save more and invest more because time is no longer on your side for the sake of the rule of 72 or the rule of compound interest. 

Consider this as the last chance and act on it.

Get serious about a retirement plan or planning with a financial representative or advisor. You need to maximize your retirement savings and investments. This may mean making some sacrifices for your own enjoyment if you did not inherit a large fortune.

If you plan well, you can actually invest more than you need in yourself and your family. On the bright side, children are now likely to leave college on their own. 

In your 60s

Pursue your passion if it gives you the ultimate meaning of life and the purpose of life.

Retirement itself becomes an action not planned for eternity, when everything is more or less on track by doing the right thing at the right time in the past.

After this stage of career exit, you have time along with your wisdom plus a good amount of energy, you can have your hobbies for whatever you define, including travel without PTO.

By now, life is essentially a circle. Since we often cannot repay the people who helped us when we were young, we can pay forward by continuing the helping hand as you have grandchildren. The inner circle of your life will be more fulfilling if you can expand the outer circle of friends, community involvement, and lifelong learning. 

Personally, being in my early 60's and just retiring in 2023, I have completed my journey as far as my career is concerned after graduating with a D. Sc. from WashU in '94. However, my career is not the straight line that I have deliberately simplified so far. The detours were occurred, or even chosen, and most importantly, rewarded, as I described in my cross-country travel essay a month ago. 

It is true that the unexpected is statistically likely to happen in your 60s and beyond. Hopefully, it should not be a major concern if I believe I have done the right things at each stage of my life. A straight line to the end of life without many turns is ideal. But it is okay as long as it is covered.

Believe in yourself, and do the right thing!