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Ask HN: What do you wish you were doing in your 20s that you didn't do?

17 points by rayalez ↗ HN
What things should every person in their 20s do that they tend to ignore?

What are the biggest mistakes you were making you wish you wouldn't make?

16 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 44.6 ms ] thread
morpheous
In order of relevance to ME:

1. Give less of a fuck (without being an arsehole or deliberating provoking others), but being more adventurous and establishing my own truths, rather than accepting generally perceived "wisdom" of sheeple.

2. Be more bold (did I mention that already?) - Yes, Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

3. Of course, have more sex ...

sneak
Saving 5% of my gross income. That's really the only one; I was lucky in that my 20s were incredibly amazing due to a bunch of circumstances that I really had no choice in or influence over.
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pan69
1. Be a better dresser.

2. Travel.

3. Plan to stay in touch with the people I met and the friends I made.

mplscoder
One of my mistakes out of many: eating like I was still a teenager.
40Regrets
I would give anything to go back and relive my 20s (I'm in my 40s now). I think about it every day. Here are a few (of the many) of the things I wish I'd done differently:

1. Saving and investing money. Compound returns are a magical force and time is the most powerful factor. Do It Now. Apps like Acorns make it increadibly easy to get started.

2. Take some risks. The older you get the harder it is to take risks because you'll most likely have obligations (spouse, kids, mortgage, college tuition, career hanging in the balance).

3. Sex. 20YO bodies are very different than 30YO bodies (and a hell of a lot different than 40YO bodies). You can never go back, so take advantage of that now. Additionally, I'd be willing to risk rejection by asking the hot folks out. I was always afraid of rejection so I only dated average people. Now I realize if I'd taken some chances with some hotties, I'd have likely landed a few.

4. Travel. Once you start gaining obligations, your travel will consist of semi-yearly trips to Disney or the beach. Take vacations to exotic places now. Backpack across Europe, go on Safari in Africa, take some risks, meet some people.

5. Keep up with high school and college friends but stop caring what everyone thinks. Be your own person. I've spent way too much time worrying about what so and so thinks and not living my life.

ericclemmons
I'm in my early 30s and whole-heartedly agree with this, particularly traveling and saving.

I avoided "exotic" travel because of the risk of the unknown, but with a family, there's a slim chance that'll happen anytime soon.

kerrsclyde
I saved a lot ($70k+) from contractor jobs in my 20's and invested in index funds, this was in the bull market of start 2000. Because the stock market has remained relatively flat since then the magic of compound interest has not materialised - the funds are not worth significantly more than when I invested the money. I don't regret it but I still expect to be working for another 35 years, minimum.
kzisme
What sort of contractual jobs have you worked on to being saving that much? I'm a senior currently, and at age 22 I try to save as much as a I can. Getting a side job would be wonderful.
kerrsclyde
This was in the dot com boom 1996 to 2002-ish, I was working then in ASP, SQL Server, IIS - web dev was a rare skill at that time. The excesses back then were frightening, I saw web site jobs for $50k which now wouldn't cost $500. The main factor though was living with parents, commuting only a couple of miles and being extremely frugal :-)
J_Darnley
Well I have failed on all 5 of those points and am unlikely to make my last 2 years any different, thanks.
throwaway36542
Don't get married. Compound interest by investing passively in index funds.

Not just the sex, but the meeting and getting close to new/more people.

PopeOfNope 

  1. Develop good habits and do whatever you need to keep them. It makes the rest of this list easier.
  2. Keep lifting. The older you get, the more important this is.
  3. Don't get addicted to caffeine and sugar.
  4. Don't take any job that requires death marches.
  5. Quit any job the minute they ask you to work nights and weekends.
Stay healthy, basically.
jchrome
I would take more life risks in my early 20's like traveling/living in different places.

In my late twenties I would take more business risks - creating apps/companies that are seemingly without business model and it would help me learn a lot.

cafard
Sticking with pointless jobs.
GlobalChange
When you guys say "more sex", does it means frequency (more times) or diversity (more people)? I understand that, in a way, more of the later also means more of the former, but I am just wondering which one is more important...