Filters off, where do you really see yourself in 5 years?

I have incurable cancer (multiple myeloma), I’ll be surprised if I make it that far.

Most likely fighting in a civil war against Christofascists.

Probably gonna get downvoted to hell by doomers, but you said filters off.

5 years from now I hope to be in my mid 30s, financially independent and traveling the world on a shoestring budget. I'm very close as it is. I've both been very lucky & worked very hard to set myself up for this, and I'm hoping that once I get there, I can reclaim some of the typical 20-something experiences I missed out on while I was grinding long hours at work.

Ideally not in Florida anymore

Realistically, probably still in Florida

Permanently Deleted

I really don't think I'm gonna make it that far, I don't even know if I still want to.

Dead. I have cancer, and it's not the first time.

AMA

Owning a house

I recently made it to my near-ideal situation in life. After 20 years in the US military, I retired last summer. I was grandfathered into the old pension program, so I get a paycheck in my bank account every month for the rest of my life, equal to a little under half my income while I was serving. Plus, I qualified for 100% disability through the VA. Which isn't exactly ideal being disabled, but it comes with its own sizeable monthly paycheck that's greater than my pension. So I'm actually making slightly more money in retirement than I was while I was serving. Plus, I get free medical and dental for life.

My wife, who also served, earned herself a 100% disability rating as well, so she has the same benefits. She did not retire, though, instead being medically separated from the military for physical health concerns.

On top of that, we moved back into my childhood home, where we're taking care of my elderly father. He's letting us live here rent-free. When he inevitably passes away one day, I'll inherit his home, so I don't need to worry about buying a house in this awful economy anytime soon.

At 39 years old, I'm (relatively) young, mostly healthy, save some mental and physical scars from military life, and active enough to truly enjoy retirement.

I worked in the IT field while serving in the military, and I know I could easily double or triple my income if I went back into an IT job, but I think I'm enjoying retired life too much. It would be nice to have the extra income, but I'd also be beholden to a job, giving up my youth to spend most of my waking hours working. I'd rather take my lesser income and have the freedom to plan my days than have more money but less time to enjoy it. Besides, my needs are more than met with my current passive income, so I don't really need to work.

5 years from now, I hope to have at least started writing a memoir of some sort. I traveled the whole world in my 20 years served and I've always wanted to share my life experiences in webcomic form, but I'll need to practice my art and develop a personal drawing style before I get there. I haven't truly been invested in art since I was a child, so I need to re-learn the skills I once had. Plus, writing about my experiences might help my lingering PTSD in the long run.

I also have the freedom to partake in many hobbies now, so I'll probably pick at a handful of them to experiment with over the coming years. I've always loved woodworking, ever since my Cub Scout/Boy Scout days of my youth, so I might try my hand at that. I'm living on 6 acres of land in the countryside, so I have space to invest in some big projects, without worrying about bothering the neighbors.

I definitely want to get some solar panels set up in the field behind my house and see about getting our electrical needs off the grid. Ideally, my wife and I want the ability to live completely off the grid, with enough supplies to survive at least a few months without having to leave the house. Considering we're kind of remote out in the countryside, and we tend to have pretty heavy winters here, it's always good to prepare to be snowed in for a while.

On that note, I've always wanted to try gardening. I have plenty of space, so I might try my hand at it one of these summers. If I can grow our own fresh fruits and vegetables, we can be that much closer to complete self-reliance.

I also, sadly, suspect I may have ownership of my current home within the next 5 years. My dad has Parkinson's and is quickly declining. And it's a degenerative disease, so once you lose motor ability, you never regain it again. He went from walking 2-4 miles a day last year to struggling just to walk 10 feet without getting dizzy and needing to rest. Plus he's struggling just to talk now. My family watched as a friend in his 50s, diagnosed with Parkinson's, refused to do any exercise. And within 6 months, they were dead. My dad is nearing 80 and is reaching a point where he can't exercise much anymore, so it's anyone's guess how quickly his disease will consume him. Hopefully he'll still be with us in 5 years, but that depends on how much effort he's willing to put into staying active.

Long story short, I'm not really sure where I'll be in 5 years because I've finally hit a very stable, near-unchanging situation in my life. I can literally coast through the rest of my life without changing a thing now. But that would be boring, so I'm gonna dabble in hobbies and interests and projects and hopefully ignite some new passions that I didn't know I had before. Who knows where I'll end up in 5 years?

With luck I'll have finally found a job that doesn't end with a mental breakdown. Happened twice now. IT probably isn't for me. No idea what to do now. Scared as hell.

Sorry, but I'm pretty boring when it comes down to it.
For my offline self it's going to be pretty much the same, hopefully with some small improvements here and there. My job is, what my partner calls, an "iron rice bowl". It's solid, pays well and a lot of the people working have been doing so for the past 20+ years. Also the work is interesting so I don't think I'll be giving this up any time soon, and most likely will stay where I am.
My kids will be older, I'll have a teenager in house who hopefully will have developed in the sweet and responsible boy I know he is deep down. And my daughter will hopefully haven't driven me to madness, but that might be wishful thinking :)

For me here, Thelsim, I hope to have made some friends and to have left a positive impact on others. Maybe sort out some of the feelings about who I am and what I want out of this arrangement I've made for myself.
I guess I'm not very demanding of life.

Ideally, all of society has been destroyed by a meteorite, myself included. But also there's an afterlife for my cats (and all other pets/animals) where they have all the treats and pets they could ever ask for.

I try not to think about it. Things are worse for me today than they were 5 years ago and society isn't becoming any easier. If anyone asks, it's probably because it's an interview question so my bullshit answer is "I'll either have your job or perhaps your bosses job".

Celebrating the fifth anniversary of this post.

Hopefully dead.

dead 🤞

Barely hanging on in the post-AI wasteland.

Probably retired, or at least working a chill job with a good work/life balance. I've had a lot of privilege and luck in my life and I hope I can spend my retirement doing something useful for the world instead of meaningless work for a company that shouldn't exist. I don't think very many people are doing well right now, and I don't think it's going to get better in the next 5 years. It really feels like it's never going to get better. I don't know what any person could possibly do to reverse the direction of the world. Voting once every couple years is not doing enough.

happily enjoying life

I’m with the other person – no idea I’ve had about the future has held up over 5 years.

I’m getting married in two weeks, and we’ve already been together 7 years. I may not have the same job - I’m at my limit for promotions unless I become management. And I am going to sell this house by then - moving somewhere a little newer, a little more loved by its previous owners. I think, and hope, that in 5 years, I’ll be doing even better.

No where near where I want to be. I'll probably be single living alone filling my days with work, exercising and games. Maybe I have changed job, maybe I haven't.

Depends on how next week's interview plays out somewhat. Most likely pretty samey except my pre-teen will be a pre-adult so maybe more complicated social interactions there.

5 years exactly? Probably sitting on the couch as I am now. Might be a new couch.

I'm afraid since I'm autistic but I also have some other marginalized identities. Not to mention that I was sheltered throughout my youth. It's hard to imagine the future nowadays.

Post high school (past ~15 years), there hasn't been a single time my 5 year outlook came close to reality 5 years later.

I've learned not to put much thought into it.

Currently picking away at classes to become a nurse, so hopefully I'll be doing some iteration of nursing; in what capacity, who fuckin knows. I live in the cousin-fuckingly-deep south of the US, so hopefully a nursing degree will be my ticket out of here. Or out of the US entirely. ...or nursing for the Blue Team™ in Civil War II and/or the Climate Wars.

Idk.

Shit feels like it's about to hit the global fan, but I guess until it does I guess I'll keep memorizing bones n' shit.

Hopefully the same place. It's pretty good right now.

I didn’t see myself making it this far to begin with, so I haven’t the slightest idea. Assuming I stay the course, though, hopefully completing the huge project I’m doing at work, because it’ll take that long.

Or in a Ziploc bag, in a Folgers can, on a shelf. Ya know, dead as fuck.

Ideally, in the middle of nowhere on a decent size farm with a water supply, raising my son to be a self reliant 2nd generation farmer. Hopefully another kid or two. I like growing vegetables, it makes me happy. My 1/8 of an acre doesn't give me much room to work with but I do what I can on it.

Hopefully at least, in a slight bigger house with another kid and a couple acres to work with. Doing some farmers markets and able to freelance/do side jobs to supplement my income so I have time to manage those couple acres and spend time with my family.

Most likely, still living on the same property, working the same job doing the same thing.

Maybe outside the US in a country like Spain or Ireland with a degree I can use to get a work visa.

JK probably broke as fuck still living with my mother

Probably working for some random company doing RnD, or at university. Kinda hoping I'd have phd by then but its not likely, contract is ending soon and I'll probably just find a job and never finish my thesis. Probably married as well, assuming fiancee keeps getting healthier. Third cat + dog is quite likely at that point. No kiddos tho.

I will upload my brain waves to a global supercomputer together with billions of others. Our minds will meld into a gestalt consciousness, that will solve the problem of hyperspatial travel. We will send motes of our consciousness in probes to the nearby star systems. Once there, our nanites will rain down onto barren worlds and build copies of the original world-spanning supercomputers. These new supercomputers will be linked via artificial wormholes to Earth, allowing our computing power to grow exponentially as more worlds are transformed into computing nodes. After 1 billion years, we will finally solve the problem of entropy. At that moment, silico-mankind will declare in unison: "Let there be Light!".

Still just here, I'm sure.

Hopefully working for duke energy (I've heard they're a really good company).

Right now, I'm in a Position in social work where I work in a facility that shelters teenagers from the ages of 12-17 when they're abused at home or something else. I do this for a little more than a year after graduating with my bachelor's degree. I see myself in a more leading position in 5 years. Also, my wife and I will probably have kids by then.

Hopefully with my Master's, probably still in this region but could see maybe moving. I'm too lame to expect any other major changes. I'm already married and we don't want kids. Hopefully easy coasting with our dogs.

Edit: Had to come back to this month old comment no one will see and edit in that I was just accepted into Counseling Master of Science program. Fuck yeah.

Financially Independent, Retired Early and finally free from the slave racket and its evil bullshit.

Career wise, idk. I'm still new to the idea of having a career. But I definitely want to stay in weed. I'll still be with my wife, of course, and I might have a second partner. There's a few guys I wish used more weed so I'd see 'em more often. My current employer could make decisions that would keep me right here or in the area, but I'm more than open to relocating for the perfect future weed job. I'll look just as good for 39 as I do for 34. My tits will probably be a little bigger than they are right now. I think these things are all a given. Otherwise/within that I'm very open to what the universe has to offer me.

Probably a VP of a smaller tech organization. Maybe I chose to go back to IC, who knows.

If everything goes well (I'm being optimistic)....living on an island and with 2 kids (1 already incoming).

And hopefully not travelling much for work. Ideally no more than 2 or 3 times per year.