First of all, in order to know how to plan for the future so that we can take care of ourselves we have to understand what is important to us and what is not.
With planning it is very helpful to actually reflect on death in order to understand what is helpful to us and what is important to us; because we don't know when death is going to come. What is really important to us at that time? As we reflect on death and we ask ourselves skillful questions, we may realize that many of the things that we plan for won't seem very important to us at the time of death. So by reflecting on death we remind ourselves what is important to us and what is not.
Oftentimes with planning for the future wisely, I recommend a type of meditation where we take reflection on Death and Impermanence, and we take our Dedication of Intention, "Developing the Paramis as much as I can so I can be of most benefit to myself and others", as well as the fifth reflection on To Care and Not to Care.
We can also examine our life and ask ourselves important questions. What is important to us, and how does this help us to develop our mind in beneficial qualities so that we can have more happiness? What are we doing in our life? What are we wanting? And if we are wanting this, does it help us develop the Paramis in any way? We examine in this way so that we can ensure that we are not just focusing on the achievement of worldly things, which may not have as much power to make us happy, either here and now.
We look at our life and we see that we do have some choice of what we will do. Sometimes with these choices we can see which path might help us to develop the Paramis more. It doesn't mean we don't do things, we just see that if we go in this way instead of in another way it will help us to develop the Paramis more. We see that if we go this way it has much more potential to help us in our mind development, or we see that it does not. And we may see that we have these choices and choose perhaps the more difficult path, because we have more opportunity to develop the Paramis in our life if we go that way.
If we bring the understanding of the importance of the Paramis into our life, we can see opportunities for their development. For example, in regards to our choice of livelihood, we may decide to choose a livelihood that may help us to develop in beneficial ways, rather than basing the choice just on how much money we make. We can also look at how we are trying to manifest the Paramis in our life. For example, we can ask ourselves "What are we doing in our life that helps us to develop the Paramis?" And if we see that we could be doing something that helps to develop them more, like more meditation, we can make a resolution to ourselves to care more about this and to care less, have more equanimity, towards the actions and things that don't help our development very much.
We can have more equanimity towards those things that draw us away from spending time on developing ourselves. In this way we are giving to ourselves each day. So this is where the reflection on to Care and Not to Care comes in. Try to see the things that we often get lost in doing which have no real meaning. In the bigger picture, we try to develop more equanimity towards these things and not care so much, and also put in a little bit more determination to care more about the things that do help us to develop our mind; the things that keep us more to our direction no matter where we are in this world. Taking our inner direction with us, realizing that whatever you choose to do - with your livelihood, etc. - you have an opportunity to develop yourself in the Paramis; if you remember them, and if you remember what is important to you.