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I'd tell myself to save a little money every week and not spend it on anything. Just save it. I used to feel flush if I had an extra $500 somewhere. I wish I had thought to pay self first when starting employment at age 16.
To consider that I might not discover a job/field that sets me on fire and makes up for other less fiery part of life.
I do consider that I don't think I ever stayed with the wrong man too long, never dropped a right man, never had an unplanned pregnancy, and never budged on not wanting to be a parent.
Really not much really to do differently. I did most of the things I wanted to do when I wanted to do them.
Youth relentlessly gets bashed, but in my own hindsight, I made better decisions in my 20s, than those in my 30s; and better decisions in my 30s, than those in my 40s. Indeed, were I to have doggedly adhered to plans and mindset already made in my late teens, I’d have been further ahead today.
There seems to be a compensatory trend, or perhaps reversion to the mean, where those who diddle and waffle early, making injudicious choices that delay their career-progress or financial progress, eventually recover… while those in opposite circumstances, who seemingly do everything right, eventually get complacent and blunder. It’s just so woefully hard to be consistently good, to consistently retain high moral principle and firm dedication. This being so, perhaps it is better to blunder while we’re still young, rather than to start admirably, only to sustain a harsh reversal later in life?
I would say, "It gets better and you will be VERY happy."
It is funny because I just "invested" in getting my old floppy disks transferred into a format that I can actually read on my present computer. What I had on those old disks were letters, school work, and stories/poems that I wrote or started to write. But, the most important thing to me was my old journal. I started the journal in 1992 and went until about 2000. So, I'm in the middle of reading them (up to 1995). It is like looking at someone else's life because of lot of it I totally forgot about. But it really gives me an insight as to where I was and how far I actually come. And even though things seemed a bit hard in those days, it had gotten me to where I am today and I really LOVE where I am today and if I changed ANYTHING, I may not be here.
I like where I am today so I wouldn't give myself any advice because I think I did ok with what I had.
I almost said this exact same thing! You know what, scratch my earlier post. My advice to my earlier self is to trust yourself, because everything more or less turned out just fine.
I would certainly not deprive myself of the benefit of my experience.
But, like someone else said, I probably wouldn't listen to myself!
And, all I'd have to do is start telling my young self how things were going to turn out in the world and that would have "prooved" I was full of beans!
Everything has turned out okay, but my retirement would have been beefier if I hadn't trusted my first husband with my finances. So, my advice to me would be...take care of your own financial future, trust no one else with it, not even that guy you married.
Even better, don't marry that guy at all, just say no.
I am in the middle of digitizing old slides (revisiting my youth) so this is an interesting thread!
I was lucky to be correct in my choice of spouse but some of my family members and friends went through great pain. Young people today do seem to marry later so maybe some of that can be avoided.
My other advice would be travel when you are young. You enjoy it so much and then have the memories for a lifetime. Luckily we did that, too, as we have friends who waited for retirement and then life happened to stifle their plans. Have to say, too, that we liked the pace of Europe and parts of the USA much more 30-40 years ago than now.
I would have told myself to finish grad school right after college instead of slogging through 5 years going part-time. But, as others said, all turned out well with family and career so no complaints. I had some fortunate breaks, I guess.
My other advice would be travel when you are young.
I was so lucky that I did things that way. It wasn't a plan or anything; more a case of "well, why not?" Went on various European and UK vacation trips when in my twenties and thirties, and always felt somewhat out of place because everyone else on the excursions etc was invariably of retirement age, LOL. But as it worked out, medical and other issues starting at age 60 made travelling a complete non-starter after that .... so if I had put it off until after retirement, it would have been never.
Get a college degree in art history. Get whatever plastic surgery is necessary. Become a stripper in a high end club. Meet rich men, and make tons of cash. I am not kidding.
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You know what, scratch my earlier post. My advice to my earlier self is to trust yourself, because everything more or less turned out just fine.
