I just recently had my 35th birthday and it was a good chance to reflect upon my life and the choices that I’ve made. I’ll be doing a series of “advice to myself” posts and this first one will be to myself when I was just graduating high school and figuring out what to do with my life. The advice will mostly be about money and finances, but a few life things as well.
1. Choose your university major wisely. Not that you should pick something that will only make you lots of money, but just think carefully about job options upon graduation.
2. Consider taking a year off. I really had no idea what I wanted to do when I was 18. A year of working in the real world would have opened my eyes to the wider world. Plus, I could have started uni in a more financially stable situation. One year is nothing in the whole scheme of things.
3. Think about community college or a trade. You definitely can’t go wrong with a practical skill that is in demand.
4. Student loans are evil. Pure evil. Avoid them at all costs. And if you must get them, remember that it’s not free money and that you should really try to spend a little of it as possible and that students who are using loans really have no business using that money for tropical vacations and new electronics and other such things.
5. Get involved in uni in things beyond drinking and academics. It’s a whole wide world of student politics, clubs, study abroad programs, internships.
Great advice. I especially like number 5. If I could do uni over again, I’d definitely do a semester or year study abroad! I’d probably also tell my 18 year old self to study a bit harder…make the most out of the small fortune spent for that piece of paper 😉 Did you study hard in undergrad?
I was actually quite a fabulous student, but I for sure could have done more.