Can You Be Careless in Your 20s?
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Money in the 20s is a blog about personal finance, investing, the economy and business school. |
Your 20s are all about having fun, right? You don’t want to be 50 years old and regret not having more fun. You want to be able to pass on stories to your family. On the other hand, you can be completely careless and mess up your future by the moves that you make in your 20s.
How can you be careless in your 20s?
- You can go out often.
- Travel the world.
- Spend more money than you have coming in.
- Buy crap you don’t need.
- Max out your credit cards.
- Over-indulge.
What are the main negatives of being careless with your finances when you’re young?
- No savings. You don’t want to be 40 years old and in a situation where you have no flexibility. The beauty of starting to save in your early 20s is that you can take it easy when you’re much older.
- Stuck in debt. Even worse than having no savings is being stuck in debt. Imagine having to deal with a credit card bill that you racked up when you were 21 and out of control? I’ve seen many friends screw up their credit just by treating that piece of plastic like it’s free money. The money isn’t free and the consequences are pretty harsh.
- Work in your older years. My old neighbor worked into his 70s because he never started saving money in his early years. I don’t want to mock anyone, but imagine working a job that you hate once your body has already given up on you. How would you feel?
- Can’t follow your passions. As much as I get annoyed by the following your passions phrase, I still totally support the idea of finding work that you actually enjoy. Life’s far too short to spend your time on some job that you hate and don’t get fulfilled at.
Where am I going with this? It’s tempting to be careless in your 20s. To be honest with you, this post is coming live from Puerto Plata. All of my new found friends are out drinking and playing games by the pool. I’m here sitting in the lobby because I have obligations to fulfill. I have writing to do. Not to say that I’m perfect because I’m far from it.
I just wanted to let you guys know that as fun as it is to be careless in your 20s, the consequences can be severe. The trick is find a way to have fun without being totally careless. If you do all of your work and are on top of things, then there’s nothing wrong with going out for drinks. There’s nothing wrong with spoiling yourself. You just have to try to find that perfect balance. If you have no savings then it makes no sense to go on a trip, right? I met someone on a previous trip that used their student loan money to pay for the trip. I’m not sure they’re going to be happy with that decision in the future.
Can you be careless in your 20s? Only if you work for it. The best advice that I read in a travel book was that you have to earn your freedom. I stand by this totally. If you don’t earn your fun you won’t enjoy it as much and you’ll be stuck with credit card debt and other problems for many years to come.
