The Great Hunt: Tips to tell your 18-year-old self

Laughingbear

Robin_Davies wrote: »

Do not travel now. You are just wasting time and giving yourself additional problems. After a long break, it is much harder to get back into the routine of learning - studying - revising - being examined. Go straight on to get the best qualifications you can, right now. When you have, you can reward yourself by wasting a portion of your life wandering around foreign parts. But that's really for the losers. The smart ones will complete education and then get straight onto a career ladder which can take you right to the top while you are still young enough to have the stamina for today's top jobs. Aim to make your pile by 50 and then travel in style. Procrastination is the thief of time. Follow the herd and you will almost certainly end up nowhere. If that's what you really want, you have already decided that you will not amount to anything. This is a pity, because you might be wrong.

Oh dear. I don't agree with that at all. Life's not just about making 'your pile'.

Rufus20

When offered a really good pension deal, your employer pays in more then you do, take it. I seriously regret years of not paying a minimal amount into a pension because I though I was too young to need to start.

I was offered a match for everything I put in plus 1% extra from my employer!

Millennium

Download a copy of The Richest Man in Babylon. There's free pdf copies out there.

SailorSam

Put yourself first. Don't be taken for a mug.

Brian_Steele

If going to University, then there are a lot of study and money concerns. Working your way through, for example in a sponsorship, is a great thing, BUT remember that this is both your first chance to see the world as a grown-up and your last real chance to do it by taking a gap year or three month extended holday. You will regret it in years to come if you grew up too quickly and threw yourself into a career before having the chance to broaden your horizons.

I was sponsored and had no money worries through university and did get to do some worthwhile travelling, but I also remember having to get very stroppy with my sponsors when they wanted me to start full time work pretty much the day after my final exams finished when I wanted to delay it, even just to September.

barrenelly

Look after your body (including your brain) because you won't get another. Don't waste your health, your time and your money on losers' pursuits such as smoking and drinking (or worse).

Get your own house if you possibly can – mortgages are hard early on but get easier, whereas rents only ever go up. Renting involves taking money out of your own pocket and putting it in the landlord's; but with a mortgage you take the money out of your pocket and put it into your other pocket. Eventually you should have somewhere to live that you no longer have to pay for.

When you are 18 you can't imagine yourself as an 'old' person, and still less can you imagine yourself having even more fun than you do now, but you may well do so (I do!) There will have been inevitable heartaches along the way but the good times are all the sweeter for that. Later life should be one long holiday, but you have to do a bit of groundwork to improve the chances of its being so.

If you are careful, and lucky, enough to reach retirement in a fit and healthy condition, and still with your marbles, you will not really feel much different from when you were 18. The world will have changed a bit, and you probably won't look as good, but you will still be the same person inside, except that you will know even more than you do now!

whitewing

I would say that fun life does not stop when you are an adult, and that you don't have to feel inadequate because it seems that everyone else has been to more places, had more interesting part time jobs with fantastic wages, got better hobbies etc etc.

You are great! Value what you are and what you have and look forward to your future.

midnightcatprowl

RocketGirl wrote: »

Hi All my 18yr old just got dreadful AS results and has sort-of given up on study, he is directionless and just plays on his computer all day/night.
What can I do to encourage him to live his life and get out of his bedroom!!!

Have you thought of encouraging him to apply for an apprenticeship? Many people who don't do well in exams or find study as an end in itself very difficult, perform quite differently when the study is related to an actual job that they are doing.

There are modern apprenticeships not just in the traditional areas of engineering and crafts. You can do apprenticeships in retail, admin, marketing, IT, all sorts of things. You have a real job with a wage plus free tuition, so it is an earning while you learn situation.

I'm a retailer and in 2012 I took on an apprentice for the first time, she had okay but not very exciting GCSE results, had never attempted anything like A/S levels. Now she's passed her intermediate retail apprenticeship, acts as my deputy in the shop, and, with my support, has embarked on a second apprenticeship leading towards a role in retail management. As a person she's developed tremendously and finds the 'learning and assessment' aspect of the course easier because it is relevant to work she enjoys and gaining the qualifications leads directly to better pay and better prospects.

You can get more information on the National Apprenticeship Service website.

whitewing

We went to an apprenticeship evening recently with my DS. There are some brilliant ones, including BMW that was particularly impressive and was an internationally recognised qualification so employees cold go and work abroad with it.

purpleweasel

Much as i enjoyed my time at Uni i think i would have been more suited to getting into the workforce & concentrating on vocational qualifications.

If i still decided to go to Uni i would tell myself to think of what i enjoy doing and also to think more broadly than my school careers advice when it comes to choosing a career - i think now how much i would have enjoyed working in a museum or similar - but to remain open-minded. After all, i love my job and it didn't even exist when i was in school!

Definately agree with Rufus20 about the pension. Never too soon