What will your world be like in 20 years? Who will you be?

As we go through life’s journey, we all morph into different people, multiple times. Life changes us, we change ourselves, our environment changes us.

As children, we grow, learn and develop mechanisms for dealing with our lives. As twenty year olds we strike out on our own and get bumped by life’s little (or big) misfortunes and inspired by it’s opportunities and examples. In our thirties and forties, many of us are busy being parents and pursuing a job or career. In our fifties and sixties we change into grandparents and possibly retirees. During our seventies and eighties we sometimes give up the idea of really living, and sink into routines that lead no where. Even in our nineties and one hundreds we are changing, ever shifting the focus of what is important to say, see and do.

No matter what age you are now, realize that there is a lot you can become and accomplish in the next 20 years. All you have to do is ‘Think and Grow Rich’ as Napoleon Hill advised in his book of that name.

Successful and accomplished people abound in all age groups. Thomas Edison once said If we did all the things we are capable of doing we would astound ourselves. Here are just a few examples to prove that to you.

Children

• Last summer, in my Grandma Rie’s Money Camp (held for my two grand-kids to help them learn about personal finance), I showed part of a Shark Tank episode where a 6 year old helped pitch for Boo Boo Boo Inc noted her accomplishments saying:”Kiowa Kavovit: The youngest entrepreneur on Shark Tank to date, she was just 6 years old when she pitched Boo Boo Goo to the sharks. Scoring a $100,000 investment, this tiny and newly minted (in 2014) millionaire slings a paint-on bandage designed for kids–of course.”
• Who wasn’t impressed with Malala Yousafzai standing up to terrorists so she could help girls stay in school in Pakistan? She won the Nobel Peace Prize at 17 in conjunction with her efforts

Twenty Year Olds

• Bill Gates was 22 when he started Microsoft.
• Mark Zukerberg was 20 when he started Facebook.
• Sara Blakely, SPANX inventor was 27 when Oprah featured her product.

Thirty and Forty Year Olds

• Martha Stewart started her ventures in1976 when she was 35 (a catering business).

• Julia Child found her passion for cooking in her mid-thirties

• Whoopi Goldberg ‘made it’ in acting when she was 30 (as Celie in The Color Purple)

Fifty and Sixty Year Olds

• Harland Sanders didn’t start being successful with his Kentucky Fried Chicken until he was in his mid sixties.

• Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House on the Prairie) published her first book at 64 and her last at 76.

• The author of Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes) began his authorship in his late fifties sixties and continued writing until age 68.

• Ray Croc, according to History.com met the McDonald brothers when he was 53 and later bought out ‘

 Seventy and Eighty Year Olds

• Ronald Reagan, successful actor, became the US President when he was 70.

• BBC noted that Peter Roget went from a doctor to a tutor to a lecturer to an inventor and ended up publishing ‘Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases’ – in publication since 1852, when he was 73.

Ninety + Year Olds

• Grandma Moses was painting away while in her nineties.

• President Carter (91) has fought off cancer, authored multiple books, takes speaking engagements and more.

• Bette White (93), is still acting and winning awards and is as funny as ever.

But what of YOU? How can you exert your influence in the next 20 years?

Your next twenty years of money.

Maybe you are struggling now, or maybe you have enough, but whichever case you have, 20 years can do a lot to make or break your finances and a lot of the make or break can be under your control.

If you are living paycheck to paycheck (or worse), it’s time to take action to ease your financial situation and end up in a good place in 20 years. Get back to zero on your net worth by negotiating lower expenses, cutting out excess bill baggage, finding ways to get more income and paying down the debt. Keep on track after you get to zero by continuing to live a reduced lifestyle and putting what you use to pay to debtors to work for you.

If you have had a catastrophe, take action to get back on track. If you have been wildly successful, learn to manage the money well by developing your money management skills. Learn what degree of risks you care to take, where to put your hard earned income to get the most benefit and stay the course on lifestyle spending.

The rule of 72 says that you can estimate how long it will take you to double your money by 72 by the rate of return you get. At 10 year bond fund rates of around 2 percent the formula is 72/2 = 36 years to double your money.

Large cap stocks have returned around 4 percent since the start of the 21st century. If you put your money there, the rule of 72 says it would take 72/4 = 18 years to double your money.

Your next twenty years of skills and knowledge

Each stage of life presents new opportunities for each of us to expand our skill sets and knowledge. Is there something you would really like to be able to do? Find out how, get the knowledge and practice you need to do it. You never will unless you start – as Mary Poppins noted when she said “Well begun is half done”.

In your 20’s you are learning what it takes to hold a job, advance your career or grow your business.

In your 30’s and 40’s you probably are learning how to parent, how to manage or work through others and developing skills in many areas (such as household repair!).

In your 40’s and 50’s you might decide to switch careers and go into a whole new field. Perhaps you decide that work is no longer so important and focus on other pursuits, such as art, cooking, crafting, philanthropy or travel.

In your 50’s and 60’s you may be trying to figure out what kind of grandparent you want to be, or learning how to advise a CEO from your position on the board of the company.

In your 60’s and 70’s many begin to review their life’s work and start trying to find a way to give back some of the skills and knowledge they have developed over the years.

Eighty and Ninety year olds are exploring the new horizon of advanced age and the effects it may have on our bodies and minds, each developing their own expertise and way of dealing with the inevitable (or so it seems) degradation of their bodies as they age.

At each age, it can be helpful to use previously gained knowledge or skills to springboard into your next opportunity to learn and grow, adding on slightly new things to an existing repertoire.

Your next twenty years of impact in the world.

We each impact the world, whether we intend to or not, whether we realize it or not. You’ve no doubt seen the classic holiday file ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, where one man is shown the impact his life has had on others.

What is your hope for your world? How do you want to help make that hope a reality?

Twenty years is long enough to make a good difference, whether it be bearing and raising children, starting a movement for something about which you feel strongly or changing into someone who gently but steadily encourages those around her.

Live your life with intention Don’t drift from day to day, mired in a routine which takes you down a wrong path that doesn’t come close to where you want to end up.

If you are in your 60s, 70, 80s 90s or 100s you may be tempted to think that your time of impact is over, that you don’t have enough time on the planet left to make a difference. Not so. A purposeful life may even extend your life. Share your wisdom, share your time, share your resources and you WILL have impact.

Your next 20 years of health.

Good health trumps great wealth any day. Today is the day to stop smoking, lose that weight, start that daily exercise.

Studies have shown that how you treat your body today has impact long into the future. Once study reported in Science Daily demonstrated that even after 3 months of weight lifting, 80 year old women did not build muscle, whereas other studies have shown that resistance training does increase muscle mass in 70 year olds. So it makes sense for us to build as much muscle mass as we can while we still can.

The CDC, in a post about Childhood Obesity noted that long term effects happen for obese children:

“Overweight and obesity are associated with increased risk for many types of cancer, including cancer of the breast, colon, endometrium, esophagus, kidney, pancreas, gall bladder, thyroid, ovary, cervix, and prostate, as well as multiple myeloma and Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”

Quitting smoking today will help your body heal over time, so that you will be healthier later. Per Cancer.org 10 years after quitting, your risk of lung cancer is half what it was when you smoked. In 15 years you essentially wipe out smoking related risks of coronary heart disease.

No matter your age, today is the day to start treating yourself to health.

What will your next years bring?