If I could speak to my adolescent self, I would have begged him not to waste his savings on two emotionally manipulative ‘friends’ that he barely even knew.

I still enjoy being generous. Always have. But I am being wiser with my generosity now.

If you’re living at home and find a job, save a lot of your money. That way when you get on your own feet, you already have a good reserve in place and you will worry less. When I moved out I had spend two years working full time while living with my parents and it allowed me to buy an entire appartment full of (second hand) furniture while still having some reserve.

You can invest but be aware of it. Don’t do crypto as it goes south more often than not.

Cook for yourself most of the time and use non pre-made stuff as the majority of your ingredients. A pre-packed pack of carrots over here costs 4x as much as a whole, fresh carrot. The only thing you need to do is slice it at home, which takes 20 seconds maybe. Cooking for yourself teaches you skills, is often healthier and even tastier if you learn some basic stuff about cooking.

Make an actual budget. Most people do it in their heads, but sit down, open Excel or something and write down your costs and income. Then see what’s left after paying your standard costs. Then see how much you want to save. Then see what’s left and see how much weekly budget you have to the end of the month, and stick to it. If it works better for you, take it all out in cash so you can physically see how much you have left.

Plan ahead. If you live alone and stuff breaks, it needs replacement. A new washing machine can quickly cost 600-700 bucks and is an essential in your home. Be prepared to replace things when they break. Have an emergency fund ready.

I live by a simple rule of: if I can’t afford it as a whole while still having a good reserve of money left, I don’t buy it if it is not an essential something. Don’t spend money you don’t have or can’t afford to lose.

Don’t buy food on the go all the time, save some money and cook at home, your wallet and future self will thank you for it

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Getting a job can be harder than it seems, and money goes quick. I’ve done it numerous times and I never learn: try your hardest to refrain from taking an extended break from work if you can help it. I’ve had a few thousand bucks saved up before and shit has ended up happening where I thought I was secure enough to take said break, and then gone jobless for way too long because requirements are getting higher and w/o that influx of cash you can end up destitute way before you know it. It sucks so hard but it’s the hand we’ve been dealt. If you qualify, apply for food stamps. EBT quite literally saved my life. Stay away from loans as much as possible. Only get a credit card if you’re certain you’ll be able to pay it back on time as it can improve your credit score, but you can end up messed up for life if you can’t make the payments.

“Money is meant to be spent.” That doesn’t mean blow it all on drugs and parties every payday, but don’t scrimp on every dollar. Remember the saying: penny wise, pound foolish. Just be aware of your spending habits.

Interest is the devil and the line between interest and usury is very thin. You’ll have to do the math at some point, but generally prioritize paying off debt. Here’s an interesting accounting revelation: a dollar saved > dollar earned. Why? The answer is taxation. In business terms it’s called the Profit Leverage Effect, which is specific to inventory costs and other accounting stuff, but the principle is the same as a consumer (you).

It’s better to be financially aggressive now than later – that means, don’t aim to jump straight into pensioned government jobs right after graduating (I don’t even think that’s possible with the education inflation anyways). Gov’t jobs are seldom competitive until you get into upper-middle and more senior roles, but the work-life balance is great. Generally speaking private -> public is the best way; starting and staying in the public sector ruins your competitive advantage… This also means experiment. Figure out what you like and what you’re good at while you can, and then come around and “settle down” so to speak. Your main advantage is time. You wanna save up and take a gap year? Study abroad for a term? Do a seasonal work placement on a farm in Germany? Do it. Debt when young is a given, debt when old is a shackle.

One thing I should note: so long as capitalism reigns you will have to play the game. Losing at life (financially, career, happiness and satisfaction) is an awful feeling and it can’t be hand-waved away by going “well at least I’m not a liberal”. You can try, but it won’t do you any good.

The worst way of making money is through your own labour (again, taxation). “Rich people don’t pay taxes” isn’t a joke: they literally don’t! 100k invested means you retain about 95% of it, but 100k earned means you retain ~65% through taxation and contributions. This is the case for Canada. All of that for what? Massive governmental corruption with shitty healthcare and infrastructure. Fun!

Network and develop your soft skills. You’d be surprised at how many people do not give a flying fuck about either of them, and it shows. The only people who seem to care about them are wannabe venture capitalists; the rest are in this juvenile mentality of “well I’m smart hmph hire me!!” mentality. Now, if you’re young, networking doesn’t mean anything. Who are you going to know? Your friend who also doesn’t know anybody? Focus on soft skills now, and when you get older, assuming you have your soft skills developed, focus on networking. Networking is very matter-of-fact: go to industry associations (apply and maintain membership), go to alumni gatherings (free), literally go up to folks and say “let’s connect” (on Linkedin) or something. It’s really that blunt at times. Also, the more you network, the more you should maintain them. That doesn’t mean being friends, it means calling them once in a while, going through the social routine, but keeping it professional. Again, network doesn’t mean “friends”, it means “network of people I know that can/will help me in my career”. It sounds very manipulative because it is, and it’s implied that other people are doing the same to you, so the overall effect is a win-win.

If you can’t talk your way out of a box you will never prove to people how employable you are. Don’t expect people to read minds! This is why so many liberals subscribe to the “everyone is an NPC but me” doomer mentality: they have the soft skills of rotting roadkill and expect people to know their entire worldview and being!

As for industry: what others have said is great. I want to point out that capitalism has rotted our brains into believing that hustle culture = good. It’s not. What you should do is evaluate when to compete and when to pivot. An example:

Everyone wants to be a teacher, but the supply for teachers is generally fixed due to population demographics. But… you really want to be a teacher. Well, so does everyone else! There’s nothing wrong with finding a smaller pond, so to speak. Skills are meant to be transferable, and if they aren’t, guess what: it’s the SOFT SKILLS again. Don’t feel pigeonholed into sticking to your life path or whatever; life isn’t a straight line of events.

Networking gets you the interview, soft skills gets you the job. Your workplace competencies lets you keep the job, but soft skills gets you the promotion. Soft skills is the heavier weight!

Oh also: it’s popular advice on Reddit to job hop every year for maximum pay increases. Here’s the thing: DON’T DO THAT. I worked in HR and those people are called “frequent flyers” which means what? It means that I will throw your resume away (literally), place you lower on the interview schedule, place your resume lower in priority, be stricter on your salary expectations, etc. IOW: YOU WILL BE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST if you job hop a lot. The majority of Reddit users are young, male, and tech-oriented, keep that in mind. Also white. The higher up the ladder you climb, the worse this will look.

Im going to tell you what I tell just about everyone these days.

You’re young. Follow your dreams as best you can. Sure. Do I really gotta say that?

Anyway. Learn to find work youre good at that you dont hate. It is RARE to find a trade or line of work that you’ll be in love with and I think that advice given to me as a youngster was idealist nonsense.

Give stability a chance. You’ll appreciate the safety and time afforded to you by a job you kinda sorta like, even if it isnt a dream come true.

Dont feel pressured or hounded by the idea that you MUST have a dream and if you dont have that dream, then you’re a failure. That is idealist nonsense.

I would have liked to know this kind of stuff in my early 20s. If I did, I would be some ungodly high ranking sanitation director or something by now living 3 to 4 times the kind of QoL im living now. And would have known peace much sooner.

Find work that is in inelastic markets such as healthcare. Work that is basically needed at the absolute most apocalyptic times. And they healthcare field has got all manner of work that needs to be done that requires very little training such as nutrition or sanitation. And the good thing about these industries is that they like to hire from within. So you may start working in the cafeteria at the hospital and move up into management or maybe cross train into something like x ray tech or surgical tech.

Some hospitals i know of will send you to school, give a schedule for a job that works for both you and the company and contracts you for a few years after completing your education.

Be good to your body. Never lift too much at work. Be active, but not a gym rat UNLESS you happen to really love fitness.

Get a credit card early and use it judiciously so as to get a head start on building your credit score. Assign something small to it, like your phone subscription, and arrange for it to be paid off automatically whenever it rolls over.