The 20s are a pivotal decade where decisions significantly shape future success or failure, particularly concerning finances, personal growth, and relationships. This guide outlines ten common mistakes to avoid to prevent a path toward a broke and unhappy future.
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Your 20s are probably the most critical
time of your life. The decisions you
make in your 20s can either put you on
the path to success or set you up for
failure and make your life much more
difficult. So today, I've got the full
guide for you. How to destroy your life
in your 20s. If you follow all these
steps, you'll be on a path to be broke
and unhappy as you enter your 30s and
beyond. I have 10 fatal mistakes.
Everything from financial decisions to
dating decisions and and the
consequences of each of these bad
decisions. And I do want to say, even if
you've made some of these mistakes, you
can always come back. But it's probably
best to just avoid these altogether if
possible. So if you find yourself doing
these, get your [ __ ] together. And
before we get into it, leave a piece of
advice for someone who just turned 20
below. Maybe even your younger self who
just turned 20. What's your best advice
for them as they enter this defining
decade of their lives? So if you want to
be broke, alone, and miserable by 30,
follow this blueprint. Let's get into
it. Okay. The first way to destroy your
life in your 20s is getting a bad
college degree. So this is what I would
call kind of the first trap of uh
growing up in adulthood because
unfortunately society pushes on us that
you have to go to college, you have to
go get a job and follow this path to be
successful. And while a college degree
can help, I mean I have one and
definitely benefited me, it's not always
the best decision. It's very dependent
on what you study. So I'm going to just
show a list of the highest earning
college majors versus the worst ones.
Please make sure you can make money and
not overspend on the degree. If you do
this wrong, it can leave you with lots
of debt, little skill, and little income
earning prospects. I mean, getting a
degree in underwater basket weaving
isn't going to get you there. So, don't
confuse college with education,
gentlemen. Mistake number two, and this
is one big one that can haunt you for
the rest of your life if you don't
figure it out soon, is not taking your
finances seriously. Many people get
their first real job around 22, 23. They
immediately scale their lifestyle. They
get a nicer car. They get a nicer
apartment. They leave very little room
to save and invest money at the end of
the month. They say things like, "I'm
young. I'm single. I don't need to worry
about this investing thing. I'll figure
it out later in my 30s." And that's a
devastating mistake because time is your
best friend in investing. And delaying
investing just gives away the biggest
advantage 20-year-olds have, and that's
time. When I got my first full-time job
at 22, where I had extra money coming
in, I picked up a few books. I reached
out to people who knew finances, and I
just tried to learn about how money
works and how investing works, what
types of accounts there are, what are
historical returns, and more. And I wish
I did it sooner. I put in a good four to
five years of solid investing and cheap
living and it set me up for the rest of
my life. Compounding works the best when
you start early. And eventually you want
your money to work for you, not the
other way around. Now, if I didn't make
this decision in my early 20s, I'd have
much less freedom. I'd have nowhere near
as much money as I do now. I probably
couldn't have quit my job. And if you're
lucky enough to be watching this in your
20s, especially your early 20s, just
start taking finances seriously. If you
delay this to your 30s or just don't
take money very seriously, you're going
to be playing catch-up for life and and
maybe even living paycheck to paycheck
in a situation where you can't escape.
So, the next trap, and this is somewhat
related, is falling for consumerism. So,
buying all the things, you know, the new
cars, the new clothes, the stuff you
don't need, the Amazon shopping sprees,
all the crazy subscriptions. If it
doesn't make you money, give you more
time, or make you happy, don't buy it.
So, don't scale up your lifestyle when
you get a race. In your 20s, you kind of
have a past to be a total cheapo. Like I
lived with roommates in kind of bad
neighborhoods. I lived with my parents.
I never spent more than 5k on a used
car. And I never got in debt. I mean, if
you're a single 22-year-old living with
three roommates in a beaten down rented
apartment driving a 2002 Corolla with
150,000 m on it while eating nothing but
ramen, that's accepted by society. Now,
if you're a single 37year-old living the
same lifestyle, people are going to
question you and look at you
differently. Don't be a consumer. Be a
saver and investor instead. Like if you
buy too many things, chances are you
just won't have much freedom later in
life to do what you want. So I mean if I
was a consumer, I wouldn't have been
able to leave my job and and accumulate
the kind of net worth that I was able
to. So the next mistake you can make is
chasing comfort and not taking risks
when you can. So your 20s are really all
about trying a bunch of different things
to learn about who you are and what you
want to do. And for many of us in our
20s, this is the rare time window we get
in our lives to take risks, where you're
old enough to work, but too young to
have any crazy responsibilities. This is
the time to go after your dreams and the
life you want. I had this window of
opportunity from about 22 to 28 where I
had basically zero responsibilities and
could do whatever I wanted to do without
any huge consequences. Now, for me, I'm
28. I'm engaged and in 2 years I'll
likely have kids, I hope, and that will
severely limit the risks that I can
take. So, I'm happy that I took the risk
to leave my job when I did. Many people
I'm good friends with in their late 20s,
they have families, which is beautiful
thing. But now, they don't have time to
go start that business or quit their
jobs. They got to be the provider now.
And for you young guys, I want you to
find that balance. I don't want you to
confuse this with being irresponsible.
Like, every action you take should be
calculated, should have a goal, should
teach you something. Maybe you get that
safe job when you're 22 and then you
learn from it. You meet people and then
maybe you can take that big risk at 25.
you can start that business, that
YouTube, do what you want because once
you settle down into a life with, you
know, more responsibilities, a mortgage
and wife and kids, you can't be
irresponsible anymore. You know, this
lifestyle getting married and having
kids isn't for everyone. But, you know,
it's a great goal. It's one of mine.
And, uh, if you go down that path, your
risk appetite will shrink drastically.
So, bottom line, take risks when you
can. And if you don't, you might get
locked into just that boring, repetitive
life wondering what could have been if
you took those risks and went after your
dreams. So the next mistake, mistake
number five and kind of related to being
comfortable is wasting too much time. I
mean, how many of you guys waste away
day after day procrastinating on what
you should be doing? You you get home
from work, you spend 2 hours, you know,
scrolling on Instagram, on TikTok when
you could be building. You're delaying
your dreams. You're you're not starting
that new thing, that that business, that
channel. Many of us are fine, you know,
just relaxing and not building dreams.
And if you're happy doing that, more
power to you. But if you're unhappy and
you want to live an extraordinary life,
you have to make sacrifices. You have to
do extraordinary things. So you got to
stop wasting time and go do things. If
you waste too much time, your dreams
will never come to life. And if I
continue to choose scrolling instead of,
you know, diving into YouTube in my free
time, I wouldn't be here right now. The
next mistake, and this is a very, very
big one. It's going to be a bigger
section. We're just going to put women.
Women in general. Now, now this could be
its own video. And I say women just cuz
my audience is 99% male. For the few
ladies out there watching this, simply
just replace women with men. For many
men, this is a huge part of our 20s
that's just riddled with mistakes. I
mean, people approach dating the
complete wrong way. I think a common
mistake people make is chasing women too
much. And and I mean this in the shallow
way where many men just allow the
pursuit of women to dominate their
lives. You know, I've made this mistake.
You know, people participate in
meaningless hookup culture. They date
the wrong people just cuz they're hot.
They go after the attractive chicks who
just have nothing going on in their
brains. And they do this instead of
building themselves and and allowing,
you know, women to be attracted to you.
Instead, you you spend your energy
pursuing them, and this delays you from
finding your mission. So, many men spend
forever trying to date these types of
women. And meanwhile, I think the sooner
you can date with intention, the better.
I've dated a lot of people in my 20s and
and learn so much from the process, and
you can learn about what you want. You
get better at dating, just get better at
being like kind of funny and
entertaining in a relationship, and you
have a chance to meet many great people
along the way. And dating is just like
anything else. It's a skill you have to
build and something you have to put time
to in order to get better if you want to
find the right person. And once you do
find that right person, it will make
your life better in every way. I mean, I
finally found my partner. My fiance is
someone who helps me build and supports
me. She makes my life easier. Without
her, I I wouldn't be in the mind space
and have the kind of time to pursue the
things that I can pursue. You know, just
to illustrate the difference, uh, one of
my previous ex-girlfriends scolded me
for not making more money, even though I
was doing great at the time. And the
other person I'm with now just supported
me as I quit my job to follow my dream.
So, you got to date the supporter, not
the energy drain. If you make mistakes
here, there's just so much that can go
wrong. You know, you can hook up too
much and you get get a disease. You
could get someone pregnant. You could
end up with a shallow person that's not
a good match. You could marry the wrong
person. Or on the flip side, if you
never talk to anyone, you'll be alone
with no dating skills and no
relationship history into your 30s,
which doesn't help for dating either.
So, definitely find a balance with the
ladies and date with intention. So,
mistake number seven is not going out of
your way to meet more people and meet
the right people. Your network can be
your biggest asset in life. You know,
the people you know, your acquaintances,
your friends, and they I I firmly
believe in this statement that you're
the average of the five people that you
spend the most time with. I mean, if
your friends are healthy and they they
care for themselves, they want what's
best for you, they encourage you to be
better, and they're doing cool things,
that'll make a huge difference. And if
you're friends with a bunch of people
who complain about their jobs all day
and they go out and drink and smoke on
weekends to escape, even outside of
friends, like you'd be shocked at the
amount of opportunities that can come
your way, even just by weekly knowing
someone. I mean, my biggest software
client right now was referred to me by
one of my friends and and I hardly knew
them going into it. Business
opportunities happen, but you have to
get to know people. So, put in an effort
to go get to know people and put in an
effort to make the right friends. If you
don't, you'll be less happy. You might
have toxic people in your life and
you'll just have less opportunities. So,
make sure that this is a priority. All
right, mistake number eight and now
we'll be shifting into some more shallow
things that guys waste their time with.
And this is partying too much. So, for
my late teens, early 20s, I was
definitely into the party lifestyle. I
was going out on weekends, getting
drunk, making bad decisions. And it was
a lot. It wasn't necessarily good for me
because so much can go wrong. And I've
seen people, including myself, right,
get injured, get in trouble, make bad
decisions. And I'm thankful that by 23
24 I just had the realization that
parting will not get you anywhere. It's
not meaningful and I definitely got it
out of my system as they'd say. And now
I have no interest in it. As you go
through your 20s, this is kind of what
happens. I mean early on you could, you
know, treat your body terribly. You can
go out late morning 1 2 in the morning,
drink, wake up the next day and nothing
really mattered. Now it's different. I
have more responsibilities. The the
hangovers are way worse. You know, if I
go out Saturday night, I'm worthless on
Sunday and Monday. Now, it's also bad
like not only from a health perspective,
but from a financial perspective cuz
alcohol can double your bill with
dinner. And you know, if it add it all
up, you're probably spending thousands
on drinking per year. So, the the sooner
you can shift into something meaningful,
the better because partying is often
used and is an escape from your life and
your responsibilities. Now, don't get me
wrong, you still need to have fun, but
just do it in moderation. You know, to
celebrate something in real life or to
reunite with friends. If you party too
much throughout your 20s and into your
30s, it's going to be hard to get ahead.
It'll be harder to maintain good health.
You might have questionable friends with
less money and you'll just overall be in
a worse situation. All right, mistake
number nine is chasing the vices, the
easy dopamine. This includes drinking,
smoking, adult content, gambling. And
these things, they give you the quick
hit, the temporary escape. In terms of
gambling, smoking and drinking. Look, I
have a few drinks a week. I smoke cigars
when I celebrate something on occasion.
I hit the casino a few times a year, but
it's all in moderation. I don't have a
reliance on this stuff. When I gamble, I
don't gamble what I can't lose. And lots
of guys get caught up in this and it
kills their health or their finances.
Like they develop a reliance on smoking
or vaping or gambling. They're gambling
money they can't lose. And then adult
content's kind of its own game. It's
it's really a slippery drug that is best
to avoid altogether, which is
unfortunately harder and harder in
today's world. If you struggle with
this, the best advice would be to remove
triggers. You know, Instagram online
access, be on your phone less, and stay
busy because idle hands are the devil's
playground. and screen time limits and
some of these apps can be great as well.
If you fall for these traps, you'll be
deeply unfulfilled, stuck in a pattern
of destructive habits that rewire your
brain to chase cheap things and not
meaning. This will demotivate you and
be, you know, invisible chains that are
hard to break. Mistake number 10 in the
final one here, it's not taking your
physical health seriously. I'm not going
to spend too much time here, but uh
build healthy habits for both, you know,
fitness and eating because in your early
20s, your body can take a beating and be
fine. But when you get to my age, gone
are the days where you can live on no
sleep, ramen, noodles, and beer. Hello,
beer belly. And hello, pear-shaped dad
bodies. If you neglect this, you'll be
unhealthy and weird looking too soon.
So, there you have it. How to screw up
your 20s step by step. Let me know what
you think of this list, what you'd add,
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