17 Tips for Maximizing your Twenties

          This blog post is dedicated to the twenty somethings. It's not easy to transition into adulthood with limited life experience and life skills. These are the things I wish I had known and the advice I’d give to the younger generation leaving home for the first time.

1) Listen to your parents...sometimes. I know that this is a major philosophical shift from your teenage years, but as you matriculate into adulthood you might remember that there is a source of information available to you that has decades of experience being an adult and who are overly anxious to help you resolve life dilemmas according to the philosophy you were raised with. The beauty about being an adult away from home is that you get to veto whatever advice doesn't resonate with you without repercussion. Nonetheless, you might find that your parents actually have wisdom and experience potentially useful to you if you heed their advice sometimes.

2) Date even if you aren't ready for marriage. It may seem counter intuitive to date for fun, but there are a lot of benefits to gaining experience as a dater. Dating allows you to develop "dating skills" that will eventually be useful to you when you want to find someone to marry. For most people, there will never be a time when the demand to be with you is greater than when you are young. It's true that you may have very little to offer a marriage particularly in your early 20s, but don't underestimate the appeal of youth and companionship in the dating market.
 

3) Recognize that turning 30 is not the end of an era. A lot of twenty somethings see age 30 as some barrier when life goals must be accomplished by. Keep in mind that turning 30 is merely psychological. There is no sudden physiological decline or any consequences for being a work in progress. In reality, you are in the prime of your life with a myriad of opportunities that you didn't have in your 20s because you probably have more means and life experience. There is life after 30.

 

4)Take care of your body. During your twenties, you'll want to shape how you want your body to look and feel the rest of your life. It's much easier to maintain your body in its ideal form than to try and get in shape after your metabolism comes to a screeching halt. Did I mention that your long-term health depends on how well you treat your body and that your dating life depends on being in shape? It only gets harder to get in shape when you get older, so get in shape now and maintain it!

5) Learn to cook. You are probably going to eat at least 3 times a day for the rest of your life. Cooking allows you to eat healthy and to save tons of money. If you want to legitimately take care of your body, nutrition is a very important element. My first year away from home I ate only what I could afford and cook, which happened to be a lot of ramen noodles. The consequence was that I was malnourished and lethargic resulting in a mild case of anemia. I burned a lot of meals, but eventually my trial and error approach paid off into healthy cooked meals because I already went through a mistake prone era of burnt foods like below. 

 

 

6) Learn the value of money and the power of compound interest. All of our lives are affected by money. You can either learn money lessons the hard way or you can get an education in personal finance. Have you ever tried paying off credit cards at over 20% interest while making $8/hour? I have. It’s not particularly cost effective and you become a slave to your debt just to keep up. Learning about the power of compound interest will help you decide to avoid excessive debt and get your investments rolling early.

  

 

7) Be prudent about where you choose to attend college. There is a ridiculous disparity in tuition rates across the country. The thing is many of the degrees with expensive tuitions lead to basically the same value of degree among employers as cheaper tuition schools.  Want an example? The $6K that University of Florida students pay per year gets you a similar education as the $40K/year in tuition at the University of Denver. This isn’t a knock on the University of Denver. It is a very good school.. The issue is that after 4 years, a student at each school will have dropped either $160K in tuition or merely $24K with no distinct advantage to having either degree. The bottom line is that there are bargain basement tuition rates at top notch schools. Unless you've got funds to burn or a scholarship, go after a bargain undergraduate education at a high quality university.
 

8) Take a semester or year off in college to travel the world. This is actually my biggest regret in college that I didn't go explore the world. Granted I did take 2 years off to serve a church mission to Germany and then a post-mission trip to a few other countries. Nonetheless, I wish that I had backpacked Europe or southeast Asia. I'll let you in on a secret that travelling doesn't have to be expensive for those that plan well. I flew to Rome at $500 roundtrip and then negotiated cheap hotel rates because it was the off-peak season. Stay in hostels, camp, or B&Bs in the suburbs. You'd be shocked at how little money you actually need if you plan well. There are countries notorious (i.e. Thailand, Vietnam, etc.) for being cheap to travel through, so there are vacations to be had for less money than you think. Even airfare can be had by taking advantage of signup bonuses on airline credit cards or study a semester abroad to allow tuition to cover your travel. A whole world is open to be explored if you get creative with ways to finance your trips.

 

 

9) Don’t worry about finding yourself. A lot of twenty somethings experiment in the name of finding themselves. I encourage you to try new things, but not if the experiment leads to bad habits. This quote from George Bernard Shaw sums up a better approach that allows you to determine the person you become

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. Don’t worry about searching for who you are; focus your energies on creating the kind of person you want to be! You will discover that as you pursue that journey you will not only find yourself, but chances are you will be pleasantly surprised and proud of the person you find along the way.

10) Value your time. Over the course of a lifetime, there isn't any time period more valuable than when you are young and energetic, have complete flexibility with your time, and are shaping the life habits and philsophies that will ultimately determine how your life will evolve. If you waste all your time, you may not like the quality of your future opportunities. However, if you spend time being constructive and investing in your future, it may lead to bigger and better opportunities.

11) Develop great skills. As Meg Jay mentioned in her TED talk about not wasting your twenties, you should be investing your "identity capital" in skills that actually help you in the future. The more time you spend spinning your wheels in jobs that don't challenge you to grow, the less progress you'll make in your career. My last job in my 20s taught me how to be a professional (communication, attire, manners, etc.). Those skills helped me significantly when I landed a job that I leveraged into my current job. Plus, girls dig great skills:

12) Don't wait for the stars to align to move forward with life. I realize that the economy sucks and that you may have overburdened yourself with debt while not knowing what to do with your life, but that doesn't mean you should postpone marriage, children, or moving to Europe until the stars align. Have a little faith that things will be OK in the long run if you are diligent. Here's a quote from Timothy Ferriss:

For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn't conspire against you, but it doesn't go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. "Someday" is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you...

13) Believe in yourself because nobody else will. I blogged about this topic before here. As David Haight used to say "You must believe in yourself. Don’t give in when the going is rough, for you are laying the foundation of a great work, and that great work is your life.” We must believe that we have some purpose and vision in our future. We can be positioning ourselves now to accomplish big things. It doesn't matter if others don't understand what we are doing.

14) Face adversity head on. The interesting thing about being in your 20s is that we all have to pay our dues to get good at anything or to find opportunities where you are competing for a spot. You will get frustrated at times with feeling undervalued compared to what you know you are capable of, but you need to press on. Your Everybody faces adversity on some level. You may have family or health issues. We can't let adversity become an excuse for not trying and moving forward.

15) Get out of your comfort zone and take risks. The best time to take risks is in your 20s. If you lose everything you own, you have 30+ years in your career to rebuild. You can move to Europe or start a business. Most importantly, leave your parents house and learn to live on your own. If you don't challenge yourself, you will become stagnant.

 

16) Develop good habits. The general rule of thumb is that a person has their life habits mostly formed by age 25. While it's not impossible to add good habits after you turn 25, it's much easier to develop good habits in your youth. It's also equally easy to develop bad habits in your 20s and never be able to kick them in your lifetime. Avoid trying things that could lead to bad habits that will hold you back from living the life you want.

17) Don't be an idiot. This is my final very important tip. I will refer you here if you don't remember the rule that Dwight Schrute set forth. The bottom line is don't ruin your life and future based on fleeting moment of stupidity. You can have fun without risking your future.

        Remember that we are all on individual journeys. At the end of the day, it's your life and your stewardship. Enjoy your twenties and invest your time well to get dividends for the rest of your life!