I am about to turn 29 this fall. I’m also about to buy my 3^rd house. I am happily married and the father of 2 children. My wife stays at home to take care of the family while I work 4 days a week and generate a 6 figure income. I am quite happy about how things have turned out so far. Both my personal and financial situations look to be heading in the right direction according to my Microsoft Money software . On the other hand, I can only tell you how much I think I suck sometimes.

When I think of what I know now and what could have been accomplished if I known all this nine years ago. There are tons of opportunities that I hadn’t seized in my early 20s. This is why I suck. While I know it’s not too late for me to wake up, I just can’t stop thinking about what could have been achieved over the 9 years that I just wasted (partially). If I could enter a time machine and meet me the day I turned 20, I would tell myself:

Stop playing tetris and start writing!

While completing my bachelor degree, I found nothing more enjoyable than playing Tetrinet; an online Tetris game where you could battle against 5 others players (that were your classmates during a very boring economics class). I have always loved to write. Back then, instead of thinking that I could:

A) sleep during the whole class

B) play Tetrinet and have fun

I should have added:

C) start a blog since I love writing!

Starting a blog in the year 2000 would have been the biggest step in my career.

You are young, take risks!

When I first finished my bachelor degree, I had a few options in front of me:

#1 Get a decent job in a big finance firm

#2 Continue in my father’s company and deliver bread

#3 Start working online with a few friends of mine.

Since I had debts and I was looking for the classic corporate ladder climbing process, I decided to take the decent job in a big firm. I had left 2 very lucrative entrepreneurial projects aside for the sake of security.

Aim for an income source that depends on your performance

I understood this concept only at 26 where I made the switch to become a financial planner. This is when I learned that if you are really good at something, try to find a job that will pay a variable bonus based on your achievement (not your department’s or the company’s). This is sometimes hard to find depending on which field you work. But in general my advice: I would tell anyone to stay away from the cost centers of a company. Those are the first to get cut during a recession.

Leverage what you have, you are young only once in your life!

I learned this lesson at 25 and yet I could have made so much more if I had started by leveraging student scholarships when I was 20! When you are young, you should never borrow money to buy consumables or go on vacation. However, you should definitely take a look at all your borrowing options to buy or create assets. By assets, I mean something (like an investment or small projects) that will generate a positive cash flow in a near future. The earlier you start, the richer you will be.

Don’t lease a new car!

At the age of 22, I got my first new car. Since I was afraid of having a car loan and the payments were smaller with a lease, I took the latter. This was a huge mistake as I paid  much more for the car in the long run. I should have bought it right away and concentrated my payments toward this debt instead. However, I don’t regret buying new. I kept my car for 7 years and saved a lot of money (and mechanical problems!) this way.

Work on the 20% and skip the rest

I have mastered the Pareto Principle by the age of 26 when I started my MBA (I have written a complete article on the Pareto Principle over at The Financial Blogger). There is a universal law where about 20% of anything will be responsible of about 80% of the result. In business you will make 80% of your revenue from 20% of your clients. At school, you will get 80% of your grades due to 20% of your effort. So focus on the key 20% and forget about the details… they aren’t worth your time .

Last advice but not the least: Marry this girl!

Oh wait, this is exactly what I did at 22… I wasn’t too far off I have been with my wife since the age of 16 and I certainly don’t regret a minute spent with her

_{»crosslinked«}

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

• Saving for Retirement is Like Eating Chocolate As young adults we have to start saving for our retirement.  We definitely don`t want to still be working at 70 because we have to.  I know that if I am still working at 70 years old, I hope it is by choice.  It is important to start saving......
• Which Charity Do You Support? Wanting to Increase Giving While we have given some of our resources to charities and have done some volunteer work locally, I think we can do a bit more. I was reading Mike's thoughts on charitable giving today on Free Money Finance and decided go ahead and post my plans......

• Eight Baby Boomer Money Mistakes You Should Avoid Baby boomers have been receiving a lot of criticism in recent months for their collective contributions to our country's economic problems.  First, we are blamed for an extreme amount of debt driven consumption that inflated highly leveraged real estate and credit bubbles.  Second, we are now being blamed for an......
• The Money Genie Grants 3 Wishes Last week, Adam of Your Money Relationship posted "Money Genie: I Grant You 3 Financial Do-Overs" in which he offers the three things he'd do differently if he could go back in time. Never signing up for credit cards, funding his Roth every year, and not taking on student debt......