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If you where 20 again... what would you have done different?
I would have been 20, in 1987, 2 years in the U.S.Navy, stationed in Fallon, NV. Taking community college, and driving 450 miles each way to visit my girlfriend (now wife) on weekends.
1. I would have invested more aggressively, instead of conservative Mutual Funds.
2. I would have taken more courses pertaining to management, rather that technology.
3. I would have invested in AT&T. My phone bills were $300+ per month, and these were land lines.
4. I would have networked more, make more friends, and wrote down and maintained the contacts throughout the years.
5. I would have started 401k / retirement plan as soon as I earned salary.
I would tell myself that music performance was a stupid way to start out. Though it did motivate me later in life to work hard and make sure I was economically sound. Too bad after I realized I was competing for gigs with the professor teaching me to earn like $50.
I never heard of anyone on their deatbed wishing they'd have worked harder or invested differently. I would focus waaaaay more time on seeking ADVENTURE and spend far less time focusing on career and working for financial security. While you can still experience adventure when you are older, the easiset time to do it is in your youth.
Last edited by CosmicWizard; 07-30-2009 at 02:06 PM..
I never heard of anyone on their deatbed wishing they'd have worked harder or invested differently. I would focus waaaaay more time on seeking ADVENTURE and spend far less time focusing on career and working for financial security. While you can still experience adventure when you are older, the easiset time to do it is in your youth.
The answer is based on my situation now. I'm not on my death bed, and I've had plenty of adventure and still do.
I never heard of anyone on their deatbed wishing they'd have worked harder or invested differently. I would focus waaaaay more time on seeking ADVENTURE and spend far less time focusing on career and working for financial security. While you can still experience adventure when you are older, the easiset time to do it is in your youth.
Yep I agree with this. Now, with a caveat. MOST people do not need this advice - they already are too foolish at the age of 20-25. Now that said, people who are reading personal finance forums at places like City Data and are asking the above question at the age of 20 are likely to need this advice. I believe keeping your finances in order is important. But I also don't think you should mortgage your social life or your ability to have fun just because you want to save an extra $100 a month to buy a house when you're 27 instead of 29. Some people are obsessed with spending...but others are obsessed with saving. Neither is healthy IMO although the latter won't really cause too many people to grumble. The thing is for people who become obsessed with saving and not spending money...they will often take a HUGE sum of money to the grave because after a certain point of their life not spending money becomes habit. So even when people have money to buy a BMW they are still driving the 10 year old Toyota because the former is a "waste of money." So what happens is kids or some other family member inherits that large sum of money and wastes it on their own BMW.
At the onset of the internet I would have gotten down to business and created some decent web properties, rather than watching as a spectator saying "hey this is cool" thinking I could pick my moment to jump in and get started with something on my own. I still can, of course, but it's not like it used to be.
Next, in 2006 I would not have purchased a new house before selling my old one, just because I felt comfortable with 100K in the bank.
And lastly, I would have sold my old house as is, for a lousy price, rather than spend 100K+ fixing it up and still unable to sell it. Yeah, my 100K cushion is gone, I am another 100K in debt, have two mortgages, and my improvements to the place barely kept pace with the decline in value anyway.
To all the older members of City-Data: Financially speaking if you where to go back in time is there anything you would or would-not have done (ie: renting instead of buying, investing ect)?
Put my money into Microsoft when they were penny stocks. I'd be fiddling on my own roof at a younger age.
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