If you had the opportunity to do it all over again...

[jeffrey]

I had an interesting conversation with a friend tonight and we talked about if we were 18 again, what would we have done financially different. I'm curious for a basic outline of what exactly you would do if you were 18 again knowing what you know now...

[tabbycat31]

I wouldnt have listened to my parents when it came to college........ I wish I had told them where to shove it when they said I need to go to a small school (I came from a small high school and hated it) , etc. I did everything for them and not for myself.

AS a result, I became severly depressed and have been battling with depression ever since. I don't think that would have happened if I listened to my "gut feeling" instead. Plus I know $$ was not an issue for them because it was not 3 years later when my sister went to one of the most expensive schools in the country.

That and I would have never opened a credit card for a free t-shirt on campus.

[MonkeyMama]

My first thought is Nothing.

I thought of one thing, I would have maybe gone to community college 2 years before State. I could have saved maybe $5k or so in college.

But in general there is not much I would do different. A lot of my regrets financially go back to not investing my money better as a teen, etc., but college years were tight and frankly I don't think I could have done anything different. If you posed the question if I was 16, I would have invested my money in some mutual funds, or chased high yields on my money market. When I was 21 I would have invested better and the same. But at 18 I didn't really make any mistakes, through college. My parents taught me well about money, and I was working on an affordable degree for the perfect career for me when I Was 18, without incurring debt. Wouldn't change a thing. College was a better use than investing then.

I mean if you ask do I regret not going to community college, would I prefer that $5k in the bank? No - because it makes little difference to where I would be today, or where I was right out of college as I saved over 50% of my income and built up savings rather fast. But I could have worked a lot less through college, that is what the big thing is to me. I think back to why I wasted my money when community college would have sufficed?

[Broken Arrow]

Knowing what I know now, I most certainly would have done many things differently.

However, I've always tried to make the best decision that I can muster at that point in time. Therefore, given what little I knew and what I believed was the best option at the time, I don't think I COULD have done things any differently....

I may lament quite a bit about my past, but I don't regret the decisions I've personally made.

[Ima saver]

I would have never married in college just to get out of the house. I wish I had learned about investing and things like mutual funds; but no one taught me about those things. I am glad that I bought a house very young (21) and worked very very hard to pay it off when I was 32. that gave me a good start.

[poundwise]

The main thing I would change is that I avoid credit card and other consumer debt. I, like so many young people, looked at making the payment rather than the long-term cost. It only took a few years of that attitude to result in many years of remaining in debt.

[cptacek]

At 18, I wouldn't have gotten sucked into a MLM, which is the only reason I had debt when coming out of undergrad.

When I was 23, I wouldn't have bought my first pickup on a whim with no research, which is the only reason I had debt when coming out of grad school. And I wouldn't have let my boyfriend at the time convince me to trade that same pickup in when I was 26 for a new one, which, along with the student loans I used to cover my other two mistakes, is the only personal debt I have - other than the mortgage, which wasn't a mistake.

[PrincessPerky]

umm, can't I go back a few years more?

No eh...ok fine

1. Open a retirement plan of some kind...any kind.
2. Learn how to balance a checkbook and pay off car faster.

That takes us to 19..when I moved here ... then I would continue the retirement, aim to pay off husbands CC at top speed, and save for house.

I kinda am trying to help my kids with that goal now by ingraining a 10-20 plan ...10% donation, 20% saving (10 retirement/10 saving when old enough) And by helping them see that debt is a terrible thing, house car or otherwise.

[Like2Plan]

At age 18, I was managing my resources in order to get through college debt free-I can't say I would do anything diferent there.
This is a tricky question because they had not invented IRAs, 401's, index funds (for the average guy, anyway) or 529 plans when I was 18 (am I giving away my age?).
We've come a long way!
As far as investment mistakes (when I actually had some money to invest ).... I don't think I would invest in managed mutual funds or individual stocks (too many accounting details...) I think I would stick with index funds.

[LuxLiving]

I'd make saving for retirement a MUST do!!

[moneybags]

I had to figure savings & investing out on my own, as my parents lived check to check. It took a while for me to figure out. A few early regrets:

1) Save more for retirement right off the bat & invest more aggressively. I didn't need to be in conservative funds at age 22.

2) I was working for a hi-tech company that went public in 1991. I bought a few shares with the IPO, but I wish I would have bought a ton. I did well with what I bought, but if I had more......

[Hedy]

Nothing, really. I may say I wished I'd started my Roth at age 16 or so, but given I'd have been buying at 2000 stock prices, and was a senior in high school via 9/11, I probably would have lost enough money to dishearten me something fierce.

[Ima saver]

I wish I had not bought so many mutual funds and just stuck with index funds. I also wish I had not bought a bunch of tech stocks reccommended by different magazines.

[SnoopyCool]

I would not have taken as much as I did in student loans. BIG mistake.

[FrugalFish]

Weird as it sounds, I would not have been so optimistic and farsighted. Through a lot of hard times I was too busy focused on how tomorrow would be better, rather than fighting hard through the tough times at hand. By being a little pessimistic, perhaps I would have planned for more disasters and expended energies into more productive endeavors. I hope this makes sense!

Fishy

[JoyJoy]

Really nothing. I am thankful for the family that I did have. Dad, Mom and Sis are all gone and I am the baby. I overcame polio and was poster child for the March of Dimes. Married and had one son whom the doctors said would never make it to term. Purchased my first home at age 21 just like Ima. Worked as a court stenographer inspite of health problems from age 17 to 31 when I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Went back to school and took accounting, medical secretarial, interior decorating and paralegal classes. Encouraged by primary care doctor, psychologist and family attorney to always believe in myself and never look at money and things as the real source of my supply.....to look to God for my inspiration and supply.

Never let the opinions of others deter me from becoming the person I want to become.

Married and relocated and life is good! Have 3 sons now and 1 husband!! LOL

[Newbie]

That's a hard question because the first thing that comes to mind is the excessive credit card usage in college a few years back.

BUT that was a good learning experience and it helped make me responsible with my finances today. Then again, maybe I feel that way because my parents paid tuition so I was able to pay it all off when I started working full-time (no student loans to worry about!)

[Ima saver]

I would have majored in business in college and finished college. I was going for free.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Gulp, this makes a lump in my throat but what I would do differently involved only $800. I had earned it on minimum wage student work study and wanted to buy a moped to help with transportation, which was a terrible problem. Instead, thinking we should always stand by family, I gave my money to bail my brother out of jail for a charge related to his drinking. I never saw that money again and transportation continued to be nearly impossible. I couldn't get to a decent job, or to school easily. Under the stress, I ended up quitting school and did not finish for another 14 years. Whether I bailed out my brother or not probably would have made no difference in how his life went, but I think it could have made a difference in mine if I'd had a way to get around....Nonetheless, I see all my past as having brought me to this wonderful present. I am so blessed and even my losing out on the moped and quitting school was part of what led me here. In a way, the no-moped took me where I needed to be afterall.

[kv968]

I would do the same exact thing I did except just a little differently.

One of the "old-timers" at work beat it into my then 19 year-old head to get into the 401k, at least up to the match. To "shut him up" I did and I thank him for that brow-beating everytime I see him.

The only thing I would have done differently was listen to my own advice and been diversified from the beginning. Instead it was a wild ride of 100% company stock for quite some time. I still have a decent (now diversified) amount in there, which wouldn't have been there at all had it not been for the "old-timer". However there'd be much more of it had I been diversified.