7 Personal Finances Lessons I Learned in My Twenties

I turn 30 next week [gulps audibly].  Now that I’m an old man, I thought this would be a good time for me to share some of the financial things I did right, plus a few of the things I did very wrong during my twenties. [Note: I wrote this with my 5 day old daughter sleeping on my lap. It would have been 10 things, but I could only think of 7 before she needed a diaper change.]

  1. I started saving for retirement early.  You’ve heard it a million times, but I’m telling you, start saving for retirement NOW.  I got my first post-collegiate job at 22, and I promptly set up my 401(k).  Every time I check the balance these days, I can’t help but smile.
  2. I spent too much money on cars.  I’ve mentioned before that the biggest financial mistake I ever made involved a car.  As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that they’re just tools for getting you from point A to B.  I should have known that new car bliss only lasts for about a month, but the payments last for years.  Thankfully, I learned from my personal tendencies, and do what’s best for me in the long run.
  3. I kept investing even when things looked bad.  A lot of people decided to sell their investments when the market bottomed out.  I decided to keep buying, and I doubled that money when things came back around.  Remember, buy low and sell high.
  4. I stayed at a job I hated for way too long.  The money was good, and I couldn’t walk away despite the fact that my health and relationships were suffering.  The term “golden handcuffs” is a real thing, and I’ll never fall victim to it again.  It’s just not worth it in the big scheme of things.  On the bright side, the things I learned at that job helped me with this site.
  5. I automated everything.  I can’t tell you how much money I’ve saved by having my bill payments and monthly savings automated.  I socked away more cash than I would’ve if I had been moving it manually, and I avoided late fees from missed payments.
  6. I splurged every now and then.  Spending more that you should is good for you now and then.  However, there is a smart way to do it. Spend your money on experiences, or things that can be sold later to recoup some or all of the cost.
  7. I started this blog.  I wanted to share some of the things I had been taught with the world, but I ended up learning more than I ever imagined.  Over 178,000 people follow this site these days, and I feel more of a responsibility than ever to give sound advice.  Digging for content for this site has led me to awesome advice that I never would have come across otherwise.  If you want to take your expertise in something to the next level, just start teaching what you know to others.

“I am one of the lucky ones. I managed to turn my history of science and philosophy degree into graduate education in a semi-practical field. I’m not too worried about my employment opportunities once I finish my PhD. But I have friends who are suffering. They are being bounced around between unpaid internships, or desperately sending out resumes, or stuck working in underpaid fast-food jobs when they have master’s degrees. It’s nasty out there, and for baby boomers with secure pensions to shrug their shoulders and say that we should have been more shrewd with our career planning when we were seventeen and there was no recession and everybody was telling us to follow our passions is not just wrong; it’s also insulting. It’s a deliberate attack on unemployed and underemployed young people, aimed at implicating us in our own misfortune and diverting attention away from political choices that are needlessly exacerbating the recession. That this wrong and hurtful narrative has been accepted by the media and political elites is a big, big problem.”

—Why The Practicality Trolls are Wrong | Earnest and Jest

My wallet is telling me no but my tattoo designs are telling me yes.

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