What would you do in your 20's?

[-Rowan]

Just wanted to get everyone's thoughts on this.

 

Let's say your 20 again. Out of these 3 ideas, what would you decide to commit to in your 20's and why?

1) Financial Independence (Through increasing income, decreasing costs, investing aggressively, etc)

2) Travel, experimentation, going to new places, trying different jobs, generally doing more self-discovery

3) Continuing to find a life purpose/ideal career.

 

Which would you commit to and why? Right now I'm caught between these three ideas. Can they all be pursued at once?

 

Rowan

[PenguinPablo]

Am 24 and just addressing these now really since I was in school.

- I was planning to travel but seems much less feasible atm due to Covid

- Life purpose aspect for me is to become damn good at meditation and help others with this. Still unsure how I want to approach this.

- Financials is actually my priority right now and am working constantly towards this each day atm...

 

Generally speaking, it's best to pursue 2 major things at a time but prioritize one of those two even for a certain amount of time. Until the progress and boundaries really get pushed. More than 2 is too much and you wont get nothing done. 

[universe]

3.

 

Sure you can do all of those.

2 and 3 are both self-discovery. Grind hard on your Life Purpose but you cant do that 24/7 356 days a year. You need some breaks. And if you work hard on your purpose you should be able to afford some vacation alongside that after a while. If you want to.

[Average Investor]

I'm 24 now, but I would probably have pursued financial freedom more and worked a bit harder. I am trying to get into a better in position financially now. Although, I was not terrible at it. I wasted a lot of money and time in relationships. However, I learned a lot and grew from that. I did not really have a sense for what I wanted to do for a life purpose and I still don't lol. I am trying out some stuff though on the way while I am working on getting my self in a better financial position. 

I did do a good amount of self discovery and such plus I gained a lot of skills. I definitely would not change that. Exploring in college with different majors. I really lucked out by failing an automotive class, or I would have went to be a mechanic. I would hate working on cars every day. I don't mind it occasionally though. 

Money is pretty tough. I have had times where I had a lot and a little even in just the last several years. I think I am coming towards a bigger wave of it as this point and I know how to manage it much better. 

10 hours ago, -Rowan said:

Can they all be pursued at once?

Well, experimentation can lead you to finding a purpose, which will bring you to financial independence. I still recommend learning investing, managing money, and live very cheap especially while you're still young. I think anyone in a 1st world country can live very well with even an average salary. It will come down to doing what you enjoy and love. With what I do right now I still enjoy it, but I feel it is not my calling. It's still great to get up and look forward to what I have to do that day, so it is a start.

How old are you? Depending on the age and where you are at with the kind of work you might not change a whole lot. It will make it a lot easier for you to find a purpose I feel like. I know for me my life has drastically changed even within just a year.  

[-Rowan]

Thanks for the contributions, everyone! Food for thought.

 

@Average Investor Thanks. I'm 22 right now, 23 in October. As the others have mentioned, it seems wise to focus on both Life Purpose stuff (as this could eventually lead to financial independence) and the general idea of financial independence too, kind of getting a balance between the two. But experimentation and trying things out also costs money.  I'm getting there with the Life Purpose course and have only been doing really deep thinking on this in the last few years. However I am in a 1st world country with favourable financial advantages too, so I think i should double down on them and go for financial independence too.

 

I think there is a balance to be had, and Financial Independence and Life Purpose should be the two key focus points for a young person. I suppose how we develop that in our lives is largely context-dependent, as everyone is in a different situation. For now, I'll be reading more about financial independence and how it works, whilst also trying to do more life purpose discovery things that don't cost me a whole lot of time and money.

[hamedsf]

I'd start dating with my sister's female friends 

[Yarco]

Financial independence. Especially if I could also go back 10 years knowing what I know about Bitcoin, writing ebooks for Kindle, and other online business opportunities that would've made it easy to become a millionaire if I just did that at the time instead of playing Runescape lol