lesse...that would have been 1988-89. In my second year of grad school at Caltech. Making $10,500/yr as a teaching/research assistant. About to marry my first wife. Getting heavily into bicycles (road and mountain), gigging as a guitarist in a band called The Sirens, and playing a lot of softball.

Nostradamus? It was on the history channel. Dont you believe everything you see on tv?

Are you calling me a flake? :D

I was very serious in college and my first few years in the workforce. I've been giving myself a five-year break. I'll pick back up at some point.

Come to think of it, I started coasting about the time I discovered OT....

The year was 1987. The Twins had won the series and Hustler was suing Jerry Falwell. Life was good.

I walked out of the local Supercuts with my biweekly trimmed mullet lookin' "fresh". I threw on my "acid wash" jean jacket, jumped into my '72 Camaro, and popped in my Bon Jovi cassette. I cranked up "Livin' On A Prayer" and sang along at the top of my lungs. I had 2 tickets to see this hot new band "Guns and Roses" and a 6 pack of Negro Modelo.

Did i mention life was good?

thanks for the plans! I feel good reading PPOT, because almost any time I have some quandary, there is someone who is older and has been there before.

Can I fantasize where I might like to be at 28?

I will anyway.

-Living on my own in a studio,...maybe big city (Austin, 'Frisco, Boston, Chicago, NYC, Berlin, London, Paris, Tokyo)?
-A dog of my own, maybe two. Always have wanted a Siberian Husky.
-my own business? To get involved with racing Porsches somehow...you know, 908s, 917s, 935s, 962s, all the vintage scene, as well as perhaps more modern racing.
-To be well-traveled, well-read. Some of my top places to visit: China, Japan, Laos, Thailand, more South America, England and the Netherlands
-flexibility to take a nice sunset hike after a work day
-no F*((ing homework
-perhaps a couple acres out in the country somewhere...Oregon or Cali or something...
-tri-lingual, probably French or German (I know Spanish), perhaps Chinese
-maybe grad school. mba, maybe. perhaps lab work.
-own my own CNC Mill, be able to make things with my machining experience
-have my '70 911E finished, just drivable and regularly used...perhaps other Porsches if I am fortunate
-4x4 pickemup junk/offroad/misc. truck for "tripping"
-serious girlfriend? i doubt i'll be married yet
-have ample time for Porsches; working on them, driving, etc.
-to be happy

It would be great, perhaps to have that $Million, but I'll be happy enough without it..

Lets see, mid-late 20s was an eventful time.

26 Quit my consulting job to work as a chef at my moms place so she could go travel for a year with my dad before he checks in to nursing home for alzheimers. Wrote a business plan between lunch and dinner shifts. Bought townhome with wife.

27 Raised $1.5mil for said business, worked really hard to get it off ground, drawing a $2000 a month salary, less than being a chef. Lived paycheck to paycheck to meet mortage and other homeowner bills.

28 Sold business, went to grad school, had first baby.

29 The .com that I Summer Interned with made me an offer to stay full time and pay for school. Accepted the gig.

30 Got recruited by the current company that I work for, had second kid. Love my job, people I work with and the company I work for. It has been 8 years since I started there...

Your mother... ba,da,bum,bump.
Sorry, couldn't resist the set up.;)

But seriously. If you like business, work on starting a business. Do what you love, the money will follow.
As far as being ahead or behind. If you enjoy what you do, you are ahead. If you do not, you are behind.
I think I met you at cars and coffee one time. You are still relatively young, make smart decisions today and tomorrow will take care of itself.
If you want my advice, get a smart wife when you are around 35. Until then
F-it, do what you want. There will be plenty of time for rules when she comes around.

Truer words were never spoken...

I guess I did, but didn't mean too :)! PPOT has become my online release valve of sorts these past few years too (as my IT position is going to be outsourced within a few months), but I suspect I will go on a "PPOT diet" pretty soon. I don't want to become "too cynical" online, and it's time to begin focusing on "turning the page" back in the real world. Sometimes change is the best thing that can happen when you're in a "rut", BHDTB (Been here, done this before). Good luck to ya man, you guys in your 20s are just getting started...enjoy the ride!

I'm in IT also.

I've been working in the same technology for the past 6 years. I'm looking for a change.

Still, I'm on the biggest project in my company's history and I'm not allowed to leave until after it is implemented--which means I have another 2 years to go.

I'm not sure what I did then has all that much application now? Too many changes in society. You're smarter than me though just to be asking guys older than yourself...congratulations. I remember thinking others "knew how things work" so much better than I did....they didn't! But it took years to figure that out.

Let's see... I'm 53, so i was 27 at the very end of 1981 but really for all of 1982. My son (who is about to turn 27!) was just born in07/81, my daughter was born in 11/82. So I was BUSY!!..I had two kids, had bought two houses but with 20-20 hindsight I stupidly sold the first to buy the second house. I should have begged, borrowed or stolen to keep it as a rental. My parents never gradusted H.S., they knew nothing to advise me.

The one thing I know for certain is that if you don't set specific goals and break down the steps to work toward them, you'll never get there. They'll become pipe dream...ask me how I know! That and SAVE MONEY, use NO credit cards, and SAVE MONEY! Did I mention SAVE MONEY?! Best of luck.

Not allowed to leave?

I'd move to another technology within my company. No way I'm changing jobs right now. I've got things too good to do that. ;)

Yeah, but that's a million Canadian.

Seriously, though, that's impressive. Did you make that first million in the same line if work that you're in today?

Chris,

Methinks some vintage cars, some bratwurst and some beers in the sun at RA will get you motivated again.

At 27 I was having Kid number 1, had been married for three years and was dreaming of owning a 911 and a garage. I had just started a masters degree to boot.

At 28, I had been married for 6 years. The year prior my wife had quit a very high paying job in St. Paul, so we could move to Fort Collins, Colorado, for a promotion for me, we had just purchased our first house. I was on the cusp of purchasing my first 911, the 1986 cab.

It took her a while to get a job she really liked, and there were a couple of rough arguments here and there, but I love living in Colorado, and we would both do it again in a second.

When I was 29, we had our first child, our daughter.

Money was definitley a bit tighter, but we got by.

Bill

Now don't tell me that your name is Bill Gates or something?

actually, now that you mention it..