"12 Things I wish I knew at 22"

I saw this article on digg.com titled "12 Things I wish I knew at 22" (http://www.thewisdomjournal.com/Blog/12-things-i-learned-by-42-that-i-wish-i-knew-at-22/). I think the author did an excellent job in his rendition, but I thought I would add my personal two cents in too.

1. Stay in school. Don’t quit. This cannot be stressed enough, but something that parents often overlook is preparing their kids while they are young. Its easy to say “stay in school. Go to college”. But something that is just as important is to point out careers while kids are still in high school. Having a goal in mind makes the college process much more successful. I’m going to make a point of showing my kids different career paths that are out there and how they can make a living off their interests. Throwing a kid into college and telling them to take the “required courses” is just not enough.

2. Money doesn’t spoil, it keeps. Start investing early. My theory is that you can drill this into a person as much as you want, but its not until middle age when most people actually figure it out.

3. Don’t buy the first house you look at. Buy the cheapest house in the nicest neighborhood. Be able to look beyond the “wow” factor. Light fixtures, paint color, carpet, and appliances are all replaceable. Consider the location, layout and lot.

4. Establish the habit of living within a budget. I don’t know many people that know how to do this anymore. Its so easy to get loans with no down payments and sky high credit card limits, that most people see no reason to budget.

5. Learn how to negotiate a better deal on everything. The only thing I have to add to this is that older folks are still under the impression that you can negotiate everything when it comes to jobs. Unless you’re interviewing for the CEO position, chances are the only thing you can negotiate is salary. Vacation, sick time, 401k matching… all that is usually written in stone for the everyday employee. Things are definitely not the way they used to be in the workplace. On the other hand, things such as credit card interest rates and prices for services rendered are always negotiable and you should always treat the advertised price as the starting point for negotiations.

6. Keep your medical insurance in force at all times. Medical insurance is so expensive that I understand why a lot of people don’t have it. However, even a minor medical procedure can amount to a years worth of medical insurance. Why take such a chance? If your kid breaks a leg, or if all of a sudden you have to get an appendectomy, you’re screwed. Its just not worth the risk.

7. It’s quality of time at work, but quantity of time at home that matters. Right after moving up here, Jake had an opportunity to work at a really good company, really close to home. The pay would have been a little more, but the possibility to make a lot more was high. However, after discussing it, we decided that the low stress, high security job of his state job was better. His 4 day work weeks, and massive amounts of vacation and sick time made it worth it. Money isn’t always everything.

8. Don’t listen to those who think there is a shortcut to wealth. I have a friend who describes her husbands “ideas” as “get rich quick schemes”. These “ideas” got them into so much debt that they are crawling out of a hole that only seems to be getting deeper with every months addition of interest charges. Unless you win the lottery or have some inheritance from a rich grandparent, working your butt off for 40 years is about the only way to achieve wealth.

8a. Stay far, far away from any Multi Level Marketing “business” I wish they would have the equivalent “say no to drugs” campaign for stay at home moms: “Say no to multi-level marketing”. What comes over women when they start having kids that they feel the need to involve themselves in these scams? Once, my neighbor had me come over to an Arbonne party where the lady tried to sell me anti-aging crap for $50. A few days prior to this, the builder had come to my house for a repair and asked me if my mom was home – I was 27. I told the lady this story and she STILL tried to convince me that I needed the cream.

9. Make sure your spouse’s values line up with your own. It’s a good thing that Jake and I are pretty similar in our beliefs. A lot of people are under the impression that they will be able to change the other person or that life events (marriage, kids) will change them into what they “should” be. Normally, having kids isn’t going to change a career-minded woman into Ms. Susie Homemaker and getting married wont change a man from a slob into a clean freak. It just doesn’t happen.

10. Learn how to network. Nobody tells you this, but this is one of the most important ways to move up the corporate ladder. Who you know is just as important as what you know.

11. Never accept a job just because the pay is higher. See #7

12. Trust, but verify. I’m the kind of person that doesn’t believe anything unless I see it for myself. Maybe that’s why I don’t believe in religion. Maybe it’s why I blow off people that always have outrageous stories. I have found that this trait often reduces the chances of getting taken advantage of. Just the other day someone told me that their hair stylist told them that using Suave products (for those of you who don’t know, that’s the cheap stuff) contributes to hair loss in women. Because it came from a hair stylist she must know what she is talking about, right? Bottom line is that you can trust a source, but until you verify it for yourself, don’t treat it as a fact.