I was just reading an article on Forbes, titled What I’ve Learned: Once a broke student, now a CEO and it made me wonder. What do I wish I’d known about money at 18, that I know now?
There are SO many things! Here’s my Top 10 List:
- Magic: The Gathering cards are NOT a sound investment. Even if you only play with the cards in sleeves. (BUT STILL SO FUN!)
- Credit card companies LOVE college students for a reason. They don’t care if you have income or not, they assume you’ll run up an insane debt and Mommy & Daddy will bail you out… and pay all that lovely interest.
- You have to pay for the 8:00 AM Algebra class, whether you go to it or not. AND if you fail it, you’ll have to pay for it next semester too!
- Deliver pizza instead of ordering it. Your friends always eat the whole thing before you’re back from the bathroom anyway.
- Paychecks at 33 are SO much nicer when you aren’t repaying a 15 year old student loan you used to buy all that crap you didn’t need and can’t even remember.
- The people you’re overspending to impress now won’t be around when you hit 25. Who cares what they think about your clothes, your car, or whether you’ve got the latest greatest gadgets?
- It’s much harder to get out of debt than to stay out of it in the first place.
- Don’t loan money to your friends. You’re as broke as they are!
- Weekend getaways are not necessities when you have no job, no savings, and no prospects for either.
- Pizza has never been and will never be an emergency nor a necessity item.
What about you? What would you tell your 18 year old self about money that you know now but didn’t then?
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I wish someone had told me that the $15 meal (a passing enjoyment at most, a waste of time at best) was going to cost me in the neighborhood of $75 by the time I paid 2 years worth of interest. That gourmet hamburger just isn’t worth that!
I also wish someone had shown me how to live below my means by 20% so that I could have some investments / savings for my retirement. That 20% wouldn’t have made much of an impact then, but it makes a huge difference later. Budgets always include “how much do you have” and this number comes from the bottom line on the check, but doesn’t take into account the 20% or so that should just be set aside first. Then live within that limit of what is left.
.-= Scarlett Ross´s last blog ..Household Appliance Geek =-.