Things you wish you knew as a young adult

That owning your own company and working for yourself is overrated. Truth is, when you work for yourself, everyone is your boss. My best tip is to just find work that you aren't looking at the clock all day and at the end it, you're proud of what you did. My second best tip is to make sure your boss is a good manager.

My college years were a struggle. I was hyper focused on academics and in the meantime made foolish financial decisions on immediate items like food.

I wish I knew how to make my favorite coffee drink, cook restaurant quality meals and store food efficiently in college because I would have saved a bundle.

I ate out or at the school union hall almost daily. Now I come home and take pride in cooking my own meals. If you invest say $100 in food storage and $150 in good cookware suddenly all that's left to do is buy quality foods (which can be cheap if done right) and cook them (skill). The internet is full of great how-tos.

That al that saving for retirement..which I was not sorry that I did, thinking that I would have the fun of a younger man..

Just turned out to be one medical problem after another...and going on despite it.

- Travel abroad while you can

- Leave your hometown if it has limited opportunities

- Max out your 401K

- Avoid Debt

lime in my drink wrote:

Thedirty wrote:

A message to all men: don't get married. You're welcome.

But realize that if you don't get married there will be a precipice of depression and loneliness looming just out of spitting distance or engulfing you entirely for the rest of your life. (I am not married.)

Well, you think depression may be? I, never married, no real serious relationship, etc. Age 68 now.

Seen so many people I know my age, get married, get divorced, get embittered towards women.

Not this was ever a reason I never married.

But, depression & loneliness? Well, I'll have to see. It is possible to be stuck in a daily rut

I have to say, why it was for me as a young adult 20 something, I was ragged and ragged and ragged on by almost everyone about being single and not appearing to be looking.

Always rather a loner and had a nasty attitude with a lot of people, sadly with a lot of people I competed against in runnin'.

Shy perhaps or a poor mixer?

Reasonably comfortable with my occupation tho' not what I overly enjoyed - once again bloody people pissing me off, was a factor.

Maybe I could have been the OP of this thread as well.

- sleep around a lot. just don't catch anything.

- travel like a dirtbag as much as you can.

- most everyone you know who is "doing well" is full of shit.

- take care of your teeth.

- If you do something you love long enough, eventually you will find a way to make money from it.

- you will use nothing you learned in college in any career you have.

- unless you go into and academic career, nobody will care what school you went to.

- that girl you kinda like, probably likes you too.

- most people who act tough won't actually fight you when you confront them.

- some of them will.

- learn to tell the difference.

Relax during races. Carl Lewis knew about this. Take easy days. Taper properly for races. And train your buns off.

And, most important, don't be a BEER consumption machine.

pay down my debt wrote:

It sounds good in theory, but not everyone can have a stable career that allows this kind of savings and company match, etc...

Everyone is all concerned about saving for early retirement, but if you really loved your work, you wouldn't want to retire early anyways.

That is the most idiotic way of thinking. What if you love your work but the business closes, or you suffer an injury and can no longer perform those duties, a new technology makes your job obsolete?

derp wrote:

- sleep around a lot. just don't catch anything.

- travel like a dirtbag as much as you can.

- most everyone you know who is "doing well" is full of shit.

- take care of your teeth.

- If you do something you love long enough, eventually you will find a way to make money from it.

- you will use nothing you learned in college in any career you have.

- unless you go into and academic career, nobody will care what school you went to.

- that girl you kinda like, probably likes you too.

- most people who act tough won't actually fight you when you confront them.

- some of them will.

- learn to tell the difference.

Pretty good list right there. Travel travel travel travel... it's the best education you will receive.

I'd rather be well traveled than well off. Being a rich guy but never having left Podunk county KY, who cares?

Also, have your kids early. Yeah it's contrary to contemporary lifestyles, but you have the energy to parent young children when you are young AND when they are out of the house you will still be young enough to enjoy your new freedom.

crackalacka wrote:

My poor choices in college led to limited employment options, especially 5+ years ago.

Your poorest choice was no contacts to get a decent job. Grades do not matter.

Grades might help your first job, but that company that relies on marks hires a bunch of kids that think they know something, screw up, then shift the blame because they "know something." That work environment id a virtuous circle of non-productivity and a den of vipers.

The old American tale of self-made success is largely a fairy tale whose purpose is to keep the lower classes scrambling for resources controlled by the higher classes.

OverhypedE wrote:

I'm with ya there. engineering is stable and in demand compared to, say French Literature, but it still doesn't compare to medicine. Sometimes I wonder if it would have been a better move to get into business or marketing.

But as an engineer I don't have to go to an extra four years of school plus residency. I also never have to work late at night or on weekends. I work 9 hours at a time, not the ridiculous 12-20 hour shifts some doctors work. Also much less stressful not having to deal with losing patients.

This is more "wish I knew as a kid" but anyway -- I wish I had realized at a much younger age that all the nonsense about "doing what you love" or "following your heart" or any of those kinds of things that often get repeated as life advice is just that -- nonsense, bullsh:t.

All that matters is money, and accumulating as much of it as possible by any means you can bear.

I can have just as much fun, maybe more, without drinking.

turkey leg wrote:

That owning your own company and working for yourself is overrated. Truth is, when you work for yourself, everyone is your boss. My best tip is to just find work that you aren't looking at the clock all day and at the end it, you're proud of what you did. My second best tip is to make sure your boss is a good manager.

This is NOT my experience. My list is:

Stay out of debt - buy cars and toys with cash instead.

Do not refinance your home, pay it off in 30 years.

Quit working for someone else and start your own business.

I accomplished all of this in my late 30's and wow has my life changed. I'm not really concerned about my 401k (right now it's $0 as I flushed it out to start this company) as I own a company with millions in liquid assets/cash reserve. I think I can live off of that for a few years, but I still have 20+ years of growing the company before I throw the towel in!

You bought a house when you were 10??? The wisdom of a 30yr mortgage is debatable.

BTW, starting a company with a 401k is horrible advice. Start it with fun money or someone else's money. Don't ever put a house or retirement up as collateral. Ever.

Ay, I wish someone'd taught me of love and finance! I pieced together the know-how on me own. Loneliness can be a condition of financial ambition so word of warning to ye lads.

The difference between good and really good is not that much. Just a little more effort on a consistent basis makes a huge difference in career results over decades of work.

pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

crackalacka wrote:

My poor choices in college led to limited employment options, especially 5+ years ago.

Your poorest choice was no contacts to get a decent job. Grades do not matter.

Grades might help your first job, but that company that relies on marks hires a bunch of kids that think they know something, screw up, then shift the blame because they "know something." That work environment id a virtuous circle of non-productivity and a den of vipers.

The old American tale of self-made success is largely a fairy tale whose purpose is to keep the lower classes scrambling for resources controlled by the higher classes.

Grades do matter. This is just bad advice -- yeah, you can make up for bad grades, and most employers won't care above a certain point (some do). But with a sub-3.0 out of college, he was much worse off than he would've been at 3.0.

Other things matter too, but good grades help.

Don't have kids until you're ready to have them, in other words don't get some one night stand pregnant and have 18 years of child support payments for a kid you barely get to see. If you want kids, have them when you are in a stable marriage. Also, learn the difference between personality and character.