Things you wish you knew as a young adult

I knew I would get slower as I got older, but I thought I would run until I died. I'm only 38, and I can barely string together a few miles at 10 min/mile pace because of injuries. I've spent a fortune and a ton of time on physical therapy (3 different DPTs), dry needling, cortizone, cross training...but what really kills me is just not being able to run wherever and whenever I feel want. My only hobby was running. I socialized, relieved stress, burned calories, and did all my best thinking while running. I wish I had acknowledged I was in pain before it got this bad instead of thinking I should just be tougher. I also wish I had enjoyed more of the miles over the years instead of always feeling like I needed to punish myself in order to be successful.

Hunk wrote:

1) Most of the advice is about managing finances. Is this really the most profound thing that people learn about life after college? If so, I'm much less excited about the next 50 years.

e.

Welcome to LetsRun. Sometimes I can feel myself getting more materialistic by the minute as I read these boards.

Hunk wrote:

As a guy in my mid-20s, I find two things interesting about this thread:

1) Most of the advice is about managing finances. Is this really the most profound thing that people learn about life after college? If so, I'm much less excited about the next 50 years.

2) A lot of the people giving advice contradict each other about things they "know", i.e. save for retirement vs sell your 401k, get married vs. don't get married, try in school vs don't try. It makes me think that a lot of the truisms that we hold dear are the product of our interpretation of successes/failures that are more or less arbitrary in nature.

Good observations.. When the testosterone high fades, thrill seeking tends to give way to desire for stability and comfort. Especially for parents. But don't discount the thrill of parenting. Even parents don't often think of it in these terms, because they get caught up in the challenges and drudgery, of which there are plenty. But having kids is a shlt-ton of fun.

What's really important is finding a way to make the family feel secure so they can thrive. You don't want instability to blunt life's joys. Money is an obvious path to stability, but it's far from the only path. Find your own.

Things I should have appreciated more as a kid:

- bike helmets

- sunscreen

- floss

- my innate running ability (for whatever it would have been worth; I got serious too late in life)

- the classics (I read many very good books when younger, but they ALL pale in comparison to the classics I've been reading lately)

- what teachers were trying to teach me, especially in mathematics (for me school was about getting through as primary objective, not about learning for the joy of brain orgasms)

Things I wish I could have avoided:

- alcohol

To sum up my serious regrets, I regret being a heavy drinker and putting off the classics and serious study of math until middle age. I wonder what I could have otherwise accomplished...

I mostly agree, just put limits on your splurging. Essentially, if you are maxing your 401(k) (or RRSP for Canadians), making your scheduled debt payments and other monthly bills, never carrying a credit card balance, and have a rainy day fund (access to a couple of months worth of cash), then feel free to spend/waste/give-away the remainder of your money as you please. Until then, you need to forgo that new X-Box, the $7 Starbucks frap, and restaurants.

If you don't have any discretionary spending money under these conditions, then figure out ways to reduce your monthly spending obligations. Get a roommate, buy a cheaper car (worth < 10% or your annual gross income), cancel the cable bill (get an HD antenna - I get a dozen decent channels), run outside instead of paying to run on a treadmill at the gym, etc.

I follow these rules pretty closely and it's allowed me to be financially stable and save for retirement, but it's also allowed me to spend my leftover money guilt-free (including Starbucks and Hawaii) without worry about where it will leave me financially. In my mid-40s now, I sleep like a baby, and am on course to retire in the next 10 years.

1) Finances are the thing most young people get wrong (though sometimes this is a side-effect of a bad marriage). It's not an exciting topic, but follow some simple rules and you can 'set it and forget it'. i.e. Spend 10% less than you make (save the rest). That's it. Don't do this, and you are introducing insomnia-inducing stress into your life.

2) We are all an experiment of 1 so what works for one person (e.g. marriage) may not work for the next. Follow your heart, but don't completely ignore your head.

Monday's title page about Stephan Shay is an interesting case study. He is a guy who is chasing his dreams (#2) without forgetting about finances (#1). He chose a lifestyle that does not give him a lot of money, but he has made choices to make sure his expenses do not exceed his spending (e.g. living in a van). I wouldn't personally swap lifestyles with him, but that's not to say what he's doing is wrong. It's perfect for his experiment-of-one and will be sustainable so long as he follows rule #1 above.

Smoking lots of pot as a young teenager will affect your brain as you age.