What Advice Would You Give An 18 Year Old?

Today is my 18th birthday, and it really got me thinking about adulthood and the future, making the right decisions for myself and my future. I really need to do a better job of dedicating my time and my life to myself, focus on getting through school, save money. I just don't want to mess things up for myself in the long-run.
So what advice would you give someone who is freshly 18, or what advice would you give your 18 year old self?

 

In the US it just means you're a fully emancipated age and that your parents can't be held liable for you anymore. It also means you're too old for juvenile hall, so if you get arrested you go to the adult jail. And it means you can sign a binding contract. It may seem like a privilege, but it's really just the line you cross to having even more burdens placed on you. Welcome to "adulthood"!

 

My advice would be to remember this mantra:

Whatever is going to happen to you is your responsibility and only yours.

 

Don't throw away too many options, because everything changes.

 

Happy Birthday, Enjoy your Birthday!

 

don't ever touch a credit card

 

Travel lots and read more.

 

Happy Birthday Laci

Don't forget that other people exist as well.

Be thoughtful towards others, and cherish your friends and family.

Human relationships are the most valuable things you will have throughout your life.

 

well the future, no one today really knows what kind of a timetable its on. and we all need to take that into account as best we can.
i would say logic, consideration and honesty are the values for any era, but i'm not saying they are without risk.
extremism isn't someone from somewhere else who might do some harm. its all around us, even here.
obviously, or it ought to be obvious, though it probably isn't, learn as much as you can how everything actually works.
never take any conclusion as final, even your own. never take any one source as a reliable authority.
questioning doesn't mean rejecting or accepting, it means questioning, and i believe, it is a moral imperative,
to question everything.
if you don't find gratification where everyone else expects you to, don't be surprised.
some element of creating and or exploring is involved in every place it actually is.
don't let anyone talk you out of imagining creatively, doing so has nothing to do with growing up.
i think everything i have said should probably be told to 13 or even 11 year olds, if they haven't already figured it out for themselves.
by the time you're 18, you probably don't need to be told any of these things.
probably, though i still keep running into 40 and even 50 year olds who don't seem to have figured these things out.
there is no guarantee that what anyone believes has anything to do with how anything works,
but there is a universe, and we're all in it, that will go on working the way that it does,
whatever anyone believes or doesn't.
don't believe that humanity as a species is doomed to be idiots.
the belief that we are, can destroy us and is doing so.
consideration isn't altruism. it is in our own interest.
likewise environment isn't an aesthetic parlor game.
so there are tradeoffs everyone faces, that everyone's situation is to some degree unique, that no one can give you some simple automatic answers to.
you just have to examine as much as you can of real evidence and exercise the best judgment you have.

really the best advice is not to rely on advice, but to gather real data, and fallow your own priorities, about what kind of world, you want your life, to contribute statistically to,
because all of us, whether we do so consciously or not, are doing precisely that, all the time.

everything influences everything else, without controlling it directly, and that everything includes ourselves.
influencing and influenced at the same time, and that statistically rather then directly.

 

Dont listen to anyone older, they dont know shit

 

if youre going to work...find a job you like doing


it makes life a lot less stressful



and most importantly...marry a rich guy..

 

Wear Sunscreen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI&feature=youtu.be

 

^ I think the best one is this one

here is a link to the original essay


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-schmich-sunscreen-column-column.html

 

Save all your money for retirement.

 

There are a few things that you should know before entering the world on your own.

Learn how taxes work, and do it early.

Learn how to cook. Even small things, you don't have to be a chef.

Despite what people say, establish credit.
If you don't want to get a credit card (they are not evil as long as you pay in full each month). You can get what's called a Loan Credit card (from most credit unions).
You put X amount on the card, and that is your spending limit.
If you don't start establishing credit, it will be hard in the future to get loans for buying a new car, or house.

ALWAYS live within your means.
This means, don't buy that brand new car. That cheap piece of crap that you can actually afford and pay off within 2 months is the way to go.
Rule of thumb. If you can't afford it, you don't need it. (you can be nit-picky about this and say "you need food!" yeah, but buy the off-brand stuff. you dont need name brand. you dont need tv dinners when you can make your own for less)

Go to college and get a major that you are interested in, don't do something you are forced into.

You don't have to go to college to get a good job. Learn a trade instead if that is more your goal. Be a mechanic, or a welder, or learn IT.

Learn about finances, save your money early for retirement, and the second you get a 401k, put money into it.
Read up about retirement accounts. The earlier you put in, the more money you will get in the end to retire on.

 

Fixed
I am due to retire next year Someone Explain How all the Money in the world Will make me Feel Like when I was Eighteen and Had Fuck All
Money is a Myth

 

Stay true to yourself and do not be afraid to change courses in your life path when it feels right for you to do so.

Happy Birthday!

 

Happy Birthday Laci, I'll plan to post some advice a little later on.

 

No one here gets out alive...

 

Everything is temporary! Things that feel urgent today aren't going to feel so important in the future, so don't panic. Time changes so many things, so try to leave as many doors open as you can.

Oh...and there is more to everything than you think there is, so don't compare yourself to your peers. They are probably struggling with the same things (or more!) than you are. No matter how great their lives seem. You are usually doing better than you think you are, and most people don't know what they are doing, it isn't just you faking it til you make it .