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The 5 Money Lessons that I Learned in My Early 20s
Now that I’ve officially hit my mid-twenties and am now married with a dog, I think it’s high time that I reflect on the biggest money lessons that my early 20s taught me. From moving halfway across the country on a whim to quitting a toxic job with no plan and finally getting my financial house in order, it’s been a chaotic yet highly instructive handful of years. If nothing else, I hope that my sharing all of this can save someone else from having to make the same mistakes that I did.
Lesson #1: You might have to scrape by for a while, and that’s okay.
When I graduated college and signed my first offer letter, I thought I’d be balling out on what seemed like a great salary. This was the wrong assumption for a few reasons. First, life gets much more expensive the second you’re no longer a student. Gone are the days of heavily subsidized healthcare coverage, university discounts, and cheap rent.
Second, feeling secure is nearly impossible when your excessive spending causes you to live paycheck to paycheck. And third, the possibility of a job not working out hadn’t even entered my mind. So when I had to leave behind an untenable work situation without another offer lined up, I received the financial wakeup call of my life.
