Men in their 30s and 40s, what do you wish you had done differently in your 20s with money?
Men in their 30s and 40s, what do you wish you had done differently in your 20s with money?
r/AskMen
Men in their 30s and 40s, what do you wish you had done differently in your 20s with money?
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Been single.
Stayed single tbh.
Invested instead of expanding my steam library with games I would never play.
I bought a brand new pickup. I wish that I would have bought a reliable used car and invested my pickup payments in a Roth IRA.
Investing – compound interest is no joke
Honestly if I listened to my friend in 2017, I deployed to Iraq and had around 30k saved up. Bitcoin was around 2,500 per coin in 2017 and he dumped all he had saved into it and bought I think 20 coins. I bought one coin and sold at 10k for 7,500 dollar profit. He sold at 60k in 2021 during covid and made around 1.2 mil then bought I think 5 new construction duplexes in cash next to each other for around 1 mil and used the other 200k to build himself a gym in the same area. He told me he nets around 10k a month for all the duplexes after maintenance and all that then nets around 25k monthly from his gym after all salary/bills are paid.
Moral of the story listen to the crazy friend who tells you to invest in something you don’t understand but they are obviously passionate about.
I looked up his gym and he could easily sell for 3mil and the duplexes tripled in price so he could make another 3 mil off of those.
Exercise and invest.
Bought a house or atleast a more suitable family car for the future.
Had it.
Honestly I wish I wouldn’t have focused on money in my 20’s. Should have chased the dream and went to school instead of chasing money. Every time I built up money the oilfield would bust and I had to go back to menial work. Kept rotating the cycle for about 10 years until I tore both rotator cuffs and blew a knee working for Walmart. Now I cant hold my camera or boom mic up for more than 10-15 minutes before needing a break.
Learned to budget better
Instead of buying cards and other cool things I wish I bought a 3D printer and a hq printer and just proxies and made everything myself
Max out my Roth IRA every year.
Not like I had the money at the time but, I would have tried to do a bit better about investing in retirement.
Maybe bought a house earlier in life i guess.
Less money wasted on eating out.
Known about Bitcoin in 2010…
Made her sign a Prenup.
Taken my parents up on their offer to stay home and save money for a house rather than finding a roommate and moving out the second I could afford to.
Could have spent a couple grand making my basement bedroom pretty nice and it already had its own bathroom and entrance so that I could come and go without having to go upstairs.
Made more and spent less.
No credit card debt
Not wasted so much at the bar every weekend and actually experienced something far more fulfilling.
Ignoring one time investment things like buying cheap BTC because that isn’t relevant advise.
I bought a house at 21 at the market highs in 2008, right before the crash. So wait until the market cools or crashes to buy a home. E.g. Don’t buy one now. I wish I had done that as it took years to be in the green on that house.
Not give any money to family. I’ve sent thousands to my wife’s white trash siblings and mother. All of that money has been essentially set on fire.
Similar to the above, never let anyone live with you who you aren’t married to or a child of yours. We’ve had in-laws squat in our home sometimes for years. No need to take on the financial burden of supporting and feeding those who won’t support themselves.
Investment, always my biggest regret, if I had invested then I would be not working now
Besides invest cut back on some spending.
There’s only one thing, make Roth IRA contribution far earlier. I did not appreciate what they were till I was 31. I had been maxing out my 401k for 3 years at that point, and I am fairly certain I would be that much better positioned for retirement if I had cut back on the 401k contributions in my 20’s in favor of the Roth. I would leave my contributions at enough to get my company 401k match, max out the roth, then figure out how much I could realistically increase my 401k contributions to comfortably. The whole goal is to ensure a stable path to an early retirement.
Join a union
I didn’t have any money in my 20s, not working union jobs was the main reason why
Saved it
Bought bitcoin
Nothing really. Ive done everything correctly surprisingly.
Nothing really, I got pretty smart about it in my 30s.
Made some
Spent it all on Bitcoin
Spent MUCH less on weed
Drinking and partying. Fun but nothing to show for it. Except Maybe brain damage.
I got into buying nice clothes to feel good after coming up poor… but feel like a sucker for it. Not a huge sum but wish I’d just stuck to wearing comfy T-shirts and basics.
Nothing. We lived paycheck to paycheck for a pretty long time. Had we made more, I would 1000% invest it into broad market etf funds. Left a lot on the table by just being almost poor.
Travel more and purchase a home.
Made more
Invested, instead of dumping all my money in a savings account.
Understood compounding interest
Not so much booze and cigarettes.
Outside of being able to time the market – nothing. I was able to save in index funds in my retirement accounts, travel a bunch, try new things. I didn’t own a car, had a roommate for most of my 20s, and don’t buy things I don’t need, and don’t have expensive hobbies/collections.
I also live far from family and have clear boundaries so they don’t make their problems mine.
Spent half my 20’s at a minimum wage job/ going to school, I didn’t have money to do anything differently with
Took bitcoin seriously
I wish I’d enjoyed it more. Travel or something special.
Saved even very small percentage and invested it.
Purchased more properties
What money?
More strippers and blow.
One of my biggest regrets was not taking a few months after college to explore the world. I jumped right into a job within 2-3 weeks of graduation.
I had a few college friends who had saved up money from part time jobs they worked during college to spend 2-3 months either traveling the US to national parks, or did a big Eurotrip and backpacked around various hostels and whatnot.
I got my travel bug once I got a full-time job, and it sucks doing stuff 1-week at a time (or maybe 2, if you’re lucky somehow).
eat better, exercise, and only buy cars that I can afford with no loan.
I’m single at 33, never had a girlfriend to be honest. Never really had money issues but wish I bought Bitcoin
Other than getting into crypto in like 2010-11 when it was worth pennies, nothing much.
Not gotten into a serious relationship, that just ended kinda traumatic (betrayal by her) i should have Focus on me and further education/school. I mean I’m 37 and will probably pick up new things.
I wish I could go back in time and smack my self in head for not buying Bitcoins.
Invested in bitcoin
Maxed out my 401k from the get
Invested it all in Nvidia. Could be a multimillionaire.
Nothing, no need to