Anti-Resolutions: My Forecast for the 2020s

Hi! Welcome to 2020.

I don’t know if you noticed (ha!), but it’s a whole new decade. In my small corner of the world, the next 10 years will be pivotal.

I will be hitting a ton of “timeline” milestones in the ’20s.

Each new year, I make some half-assed attempt at resolutions, but it always ends up being a good way to set myself up for failure. This year feels different. I feel 2020 deserves a new approach.

Instead of New Year’s resolutions, I’m making anti-resolutions and a forecast for the next decade.

I will be turning 50 this decade.

I don’t know how I feel about that.

Of course, seeing another year is always better than the alternative.

But 50 is huge.

Big.

And that milestone is coming up halfway through this decade. How will I feel as 50 approaches? Will there be space for me in this space? Will the GenX moms like me fade into the background, dragging our war-torn flannel behind us?

I don’t have any of these answers, but I know I’m here for all of it. My 20s were great, my 30s were amazing, my 40s don’t suck as much as I expected. Surely my 50s will be pretty cool, too.

I will be tired this decade.

Ok, yes, I will be tired this decade. No shit. I actually wasn’t planning to write that down, but that’s what my iPhone picked up when I was dictating the outline for this post. What I was trying to say is that I will retire this decade.

Same difference, right?

I have had a long career. I have been working full time since I was 18 and I am done. The opportunities for me to continue to climb the corporate ladder are dwindling, too.

It’s time.

This is a calculated move, though. We have been saving and investing since we got married in 1997. Retiring within the next 10 years is entirely possible. We are here for that FIRE movement even if we may be on the older side of the trend.

While I will be in the midst of turning 50 and flirting with retirement, our oldest will graduate high school. Hopefully she will head off to college, too. All I can hope for is her success and that she leaves our nest happy and ready to take on the world.

Since we had our kids so far apart in age, after one leaves for college, our son will become a teenager and start high school. I will be 58 when he graduates.

Crazy.

Maybe during this next decade, I will lose that 15 pounds I’ve been trying to lose for the last decade. Ok, 20 pounds.

Whatever.

Maybe I won’t lose any weight? What I really want is to be healthy enough to see my kids graduate high school and college and get married and have their own families. What does looking good in a bikini have to do with that? Absolutely nothing.

Which leads me to my last point.

This decade is surely to be the decade of me not giving a shit about things that don’t matter. I resolve to care less about the little things every year. I resolve to make anti-resolutions. Clearly visiting this on an annual basis isn’t working for me. This one needs a longer view to take hold.

Maybe some of these are resolution-like. That’s ok. I’m not too worried about perfection with this post.

How will this decade shake out for you?