I had a short conversation with someone and it went like this. Random Person: “Where do you see yourself at the ages 21, 25, and 30.” Me: “21: In college 25: Living comfortably 30: Still living comfortably. Maybe I’ll start a business.” Random Person: “25 is too young to be living comfortably, maybe at 27.” Me: “I plan to be a software engineer and they make 100k+ a year, that’s living comfortably to me.” Random Person: “You plan to be. I highly doubt you'll be a software engineer making 100k at 22. There's lots of schooling involved and Al is taking jobs so who knows what the job market for that may be in a decade. I'm not saying you can't but, it's important to have a plan B incase plan A doesn't work.” Is it better to have other career options? How does that work if I spent most of my life working to be a software engineer?