Financial Advice You Should Have Given to Your Younger Self

financial advice you should have given to your younger self

What would you do differently if you could return to the past? Do you have financial advice you should have given to your younger self? If so, how would you handle money differently? Would you buy less or invest more, or both? Whatever you would have told yourself, know that you’re not alone. We all have financial regrets.

Financial Advice You Should Have Given to Your Younger Self

The following is a list of the financial advice I would have given my younger self. You may agree with many of these yourself and may have other advice that didn’t make it on this list.


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Food Expenses Add Up

When you’re young, food is a source of entertainment and enjoyment. Unfortunately, I spent way too much money on food!

Don’t Eat Out Regularly

While dining out is fun, it does a number on your wallet. Between the time I first got a job at 16 to my mid-30s, roughly 15 years, I ate out several times a week. I cringe when I look back now and think of all the money I spent. However, even if I conservatively estimate that I paid $10 each time I ate out (which I know likely more than that) and ate out twice a week for 15 years, that is $15,600!

I didn’t have much money when I was young, so imagine how I could have used an additional $15,000.

Learn to Cook

If you don’t know how to cook, you’ll spend too much money on food and likely have higher health care bills. That was the case for me. For years, my “cooking” was opening cans of condensed soup and making casserole after casserole.

Not only did these not taste that good, but they also damaged my health. Around the time I stopped eating out, I learned how to cook from scratch with natural, whole foods. Not only did they taste better, but my health improved drastically, especially my cholesterol and triglycerides.

A Beater Car Isn’t the Cheaper Option

Cars are expensive, so often, money gurus tell people to buy a cheap car until they’re in a better place financially. While I understand this advice, in real life, I disagree. I have had my share of beater cars, and in the end, I believe they cost me more money!

Those cars routinely broke down and left me stranded (not something I would recommend for anyone, yet alone a teenage girl or a woman in her twenties). In addition, the repairs were expensive and frequent!

Although many will disagree with me, I prefer to buy an affordable new car and keep it until it dies. (I just handed down my 18.5-year-old vehicle to my son and bought a new car for the first time in almost two decades.) By paying off the car loan quickly, I saved a lot of money over the 18 years I owned that vehicle.

Pay Off the Credit Card Monthly

When I was young, I had friends who treated credit cards like free money. I didn’t do that, but I did join the overspending cycle and only paid the minimum payments. If you use credit cards, especially to earn cash back or reward points, don’t buy more than you have budgeted to spend, and pay off the card every month to avoid interest.

I’d remind my younger self being broke during college is normal. I shouldn’t have used credit cards to create a lifestyle I couldn’t sustain with my meager income.

Find Ways to Socialize that Aren’t Expensive

One of the ways I created a lifestyle I couldn’t sustain was to dine out frequently in college. Like many college students, I used dining out and drinking at bars as a way to socialize. College students and those on a tight budget can get creative and find other ways to socialize that don’t involve spending a lot of money.

Two of my frugal friends liked to cook meals at home with friends or hang out at the bookstore reading magazines and books. These options were much cheaper than dining out or drinking at a bar.

Travel While You’re Young

While most of my advice is about how to save money and live a frugal life, I think spending on travel when you’re young is important. I went to Switzerland, Ireland, China, and Japan in my twenties. I loved traveling and am glad that I spent the money on those trips. Once I had a career and children, travel, especially international travel, became much more difficult.

Now that the kids are older, I plan to start traveling again to make up for lost time. I know that once I’m in my seventies, I likely won’t want to or be able to travel as much.

Wait to Upgrade Your Life Until You Have To

When you’re a teen until your thirties, you upgrade your life incrementally—you move from a dorm to an apartment to a home. You go from an old car to a nicer used one, then to a new one. Making each step is exciting, but don’t make them too prematurely.

 

For instance, when we had our first child, we found our Toyota Echo too small for all the gear we had to carry with a baby. In retrospect, we could have made due if we had tried. Instead, we bought a Toyota Sienna minivan, thinking we’d have more kids soon. However, we didn’t have our next child for another 4.5 years! We definitely moved up in a car (and expenses) prematurely.

Final Thoughts

Everyone makes financial mistakes, especially young people starting out in life. The financial advice you should have given your younger self might help today’s young people to learn and get more from their money earlier than you did. But then again, the advice may not help because often the best teacher is experience. Thanks to my mistakes, my finances are much better than they were in my twenties and thirties.

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Article by Melissa Batai, SavingAdvice


About Melissa Batai

Melissa is a freelance writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking.