20 Tips to Set Yourself Up in Your 20s
You don’t have to be running the world by the end of your 20s, but you can certainly set yourself up for success. A funny thing happens when you have a birthday with a zero at the end. You freak out.
After all, it’s God’s way of reminding you that you’re getting closer to pushing through the pearly gates – that and the fact that you look a bit like Sam Newman (or Naomi Robson) when you look in the bathroom mirror in the morning.
Over the festive break I had dinner with three mates who were adjusting to having a life with not just a zero at the end, but a three in front. After more than a few reds, we came up with a list of the top 20 things we wished we’d known in our 20s.
1. The Joneses were broke
The Joneses you were trying to keep up with probably had a cool car and nice clothes, and took fashionable holidays to countries that Jetstar doesn’t (yet) fly to. But chances are they were broke – or will be by the time they hit 40 – because they were wasting money on worthless junk trying to keep up with the Jameses.
2. Buy the right stuff
We all regret not taking the opportunity in 2000 to buy a house (or two) and then riding the debt boom. The key to long-term wealth creation is buying the right stuff: assets that compound in value over time.
3. Watching 100 re-runs of Sex and the City will give you a zero per cent return
Instead of sitting around playing make-believe, get out and become your own Carrie Bradshaw (or Mr Big).
4. Bad credit will come back to bite you
I know of a guy whose credit file is dirtier than Pamela Anderson. He now finds it hard to be taken seriously by banks and other lenders. Get your money in order with my 10-minute plan.
5. Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken
Warren Buffett said this, probably in relation to investing, but it applies equally to all the silly habits young people experiment with – smoking, drinking, debt-bingeing, and the Young Liberals.
6. Listen to old people
I’ve learned a lot from listening to older people who’ve endured similar struggles. It’s easier to learn from someone’s mistakes than to make them yourself.
7. Don’t listen to (some) old people
We’ve all known a number of old geezers at work who set out the rules of “how things are done round here” – which usually equated to not showing them up or offending their fragile egos. All workplaces have losers. The older they get, the sadder they become.
8. Move out of home
It’s not natural to live with your parents in your 20s. Any money you save is offset by a lack of independence, missing the chance to grow as a person, and your father making small talk with your random pick-up from the night before.
9. In your 20s you learn, in your 30s you earn
If I had a dollar for every young whippersnapper who busted out of university and expected to run the company within a few years I’d be, well – come to think of it – I’d be me. Really though, learning in your 20s sets you up to make serious dough when you’ve curbed your enthusiasm for 5am finishes.
10. The letters after your name don’t really matter (unless you’re a surgeon or a stripper)
EQ beats IQ hands down. Passion and enthusiasm beat them both.
11. No, you can’t have it all
The management gurus are wrong: there’s no such thing as a four-hour work week. It’s a daily trade-off between spending time with your family and friends, your career, and watching Sex and the City re-runs.
12. Networking is slimy
I’ve met wonderful people who’ve opened doors for me. But not because I offered them a cheesy smile, a sweaty palm and a magnetic business card. It was because I gave before I got. Actively looking to help people is the most powerful career advice I know.
13. Turn your passion into profit
Here’s how it works. You finish university wanting to be a writer – but it’s a tough job market, so you take a job in accounts until something better comes up. Ten years later, you’re still there. Comfort is the enemy of progress. Work hard at turning your part-time pleasure into profits – then go full time.
14. Tattoos are trouble
Your mother is right, and your future children will agree with their grandmother.
15. Buy the cheapest car your ego can afford
Two of my mates bought cars to impress girls. Now 10 years on, both adamantly attest there are easier ways to impress ladies than dropping $42,000 ($30,000 plus $12,000 on repayments) on a car – like a deposit on a pad. Girls like cars. Women like homes.
16. It’s easier to save money when you’re broke
Most people fool themselves into thinking they’ll save more if they earn more. It almost never happens. Saving is a character trait – not a function of how much money you earn.
17. That mate who borrows money from you isn’t going to give it back
I once lent a mate a grand to cover his rent. At the time he swore he’d pay me back. But he couldn’t – for the same reason he had to borrow it in the first place. As time went on he avoided me more and more, to the point that now we never speak – all for a lousy thousand bucks.
18. Relationships are more important than a career or car
Sadly, one of my mates didn’t make it through his 20s. His final memories were filled with moments he spent with family and friends. He never mentioned his possessions or his profession. Not once.
19. Most things don’t matter
I spent a good part of my 20s worrying about things that never happened.
20. 30 is the new 20
You know you’re in cougar territory when you start spouting lines like this. But there’s a point to it: even if (like me and my mates) you didn’t nail all the things on this list in your 20s, the rules are the same whether you’re hitting the nightclub or the bowling club this weekend.
Tread your own path!
