In my youth, I should have…. isn’t that the sad refrain of all adults? I don’t want to live in regret, so I will not beat myself up for what I did or did not do then.
Youth is a time of learning and of making mistakes. Some mistakes are things we did, and some are of what we did not do. That applies to me for sure.
I certainly spent all my money back then. I did not save, just enough for next month’s rent. Since I had a paycheck coming in every week, if I needed money, I just waited until the next pay day, and voila, I had what I needed.
I did not think about experiences vs. things. I just wanted everything. Of course, I could not have everything because I did not have much money. But what money I had, I spent. What did not go for needs at the time went for wants. All of them.
Savings did not come until much much later. And investments all came much later than that.
What I Would Have Done Differently
What I would have done differently, had I enough discipline, would have been to apportion my income to separate purposes. Figured out what my monthly needs were for housing, food, transportation, etc., and save the balance. When the savings grew enough, I would have started some investments much earlier. It would have made a big difference by now.
But that was then and this is now. Clocks do not go backward.
And maturity arrives slowly. Fortunately, it arrived in one way or another, eventually. It was sorely lacking when I was young.
And Another Thing
As a child of the times back then, I was as swept up as many were in the fashions and movements of the times. Fitting in with my peers was a prime motivation for some of the things I did. Unfortunately, fads do not provide a foundation for maturity nor for long term stability. So distancing myself from “the latest” would have been beneficial towards my own personal growth.
Nonetheless
Nonetheless, despite detours, I have arrived at my current condition in relatively good shape. So maybe it was mostly for the best.
Youth
I can report from personal experience, having been young once, that lecturing and telling people what to do is a losing game. It is hard road for each person to learn, we each must learn our lessons for ourselves. I started to grow when I did, and for that I am grateful.
What would you have done differently back when you were 21? Comment Here.
The Fra Mauro map, “considered the greatest memorial of medieval cartography”, is a map of the world made around 1450 by the Italian cartographer Fra Mauro. It is a circular planisphere drawn on parchment and set in a wooden frame that measures over two by two meters. It includes Asia, the Indian Ocean, Africa, Europe, and the Atlantic. It is oriented with south at the top. The map is on display in the museum Museo Correr in Venice, Italy. Image in the public domain, courtesy Wikipedia.
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