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In your 20s, you continue to think you are invincible, just as you did in high school. Nothing can stop you, and anything and everything is possible. Here are some random things I wish I’d known back then. Way back then…

1. Credit Rules Your Life
   • When you are young, you don’t understand and can’t really even grasp the concept that your credit score literally determines the kind of life you will lead. It makes things possible, and even more things impossible. They don’t teach you this in school. Well, actually, they probably do now, but back in the 90s when I was in school, you were Einstein when it came to the theory of relativity, but when it came to spending habits and budgeting your money, you were stumped. Why didn’t anybody tell us that an exceptional credit score was so important? What, when, and where you spend your money counts! It is all consequential. For example, while I was in college, the walkways around campus were filled with credit card companies trying to get you to apply for their cards. You’d get a free T-shirt if you did. You didn’t need a job to get one, which was a major selling point. But the fact that each time you applied for one of them, your credit score was lowered was never mentioned. In fact, applying for more than two cards a year could be problematic. But hey, I had a lot of new T-shirts to sleep in!
2. Friends and Family First
   • When you are young and dumb, like when you are 20, you don’t realize just how important your friends and family are. Neither is guaranteed to be there for you the rest of your life. Friends move in different directions all of the time. They could be your closest road-dog for years, maybe even your entire life, but people grow apart, and if you don’t work on keeping a solid friendship, most likely it will happen eventually. You will wake up one day and ask yourself, I wonder what so-and-so is up to these days? You may not even be able to remember so-and-so’s name. And family, well, I think everyone takes their family members for granted and just assumes they will always be a part of their lives, good or bad. Not true. There are way too many factors out there in the world that you can’t even imagine happening when you are in your 20s. I never thought about fights, or death, or even in-laws when I thought about my family and my future with them. I just thought we’d always be family, so that meant nothing could come between us. Not so much. If you don’t take care of and nurture your relationships with family and friends, things are more likely to go bad as the years go by. I’m not trying to be negative; I’m just pointing out that I would have handled a lot of experiences and situations with friends and family members a lot differently over the years if I had known nothing is forever.

To be continued…