Financial Advice I Wish I Knew Earlier in Life & All the Dumb Money Mistakes of My 20's

#financialadvicefor20s #moneymistakes #jennifercook

My Debt Story

401K The Real Numbers

[jessicabuck-daniel]

Hi Jennifer, can you do a video on negotiating salaries? :)

[meganlasante]

Yes to all of these! I would also have told my 20 year old self that I didn’t need to buy so much household decor- I have gotten rid of all of it now 10 years later!

[noreenpociej]

I shared this with my 23 year old daughter. Thank You.

[kathleenhill]

I was sad about it but the relief of that payment being gone was wonderful.

[brendasparks]

What great advice Jennifer. I’m telling my kids to listen to you today. It was like listening to my story. But unfortunately I didn’t seem to learn anything until I was way way older like almost retired. So good for you that you have learned that lesson earlier. And thank you for sharing. Probably my worst was getting into the credit card debt over and over again.

[liveslisa]

I did all the things you did when I was younger and then some. If I had to do it all over again, I would have stayed out of debt and learned to save and invest money. And I would have built up my 401K as early as possible.

[Betrsafthensory]

Hi Jennifer, I would tell my younger self to "stay away from credit cards and live within my means." Good video, thanks for sharing. 😊

[Michele_]

I second the request for a video about negotiating salaries.

I’m 52 and am pretty good at avoiding debt. However I need to get better at not impulse spending on stupid stuff. We just cleaned out our basement this weekend and I seem to have a serious throw pillow addiction. 🤦🏼‍♀️ We donated quite a bit to goodwill and all I could see was all of the money I wasted on things just to turn around and get rid of them. My biggest issue is impulse spending. It doesn’t cause debt for me but it does cause A LOT is wasted $$$.

[charlenebrissette]

When I look back at all the money I spent on hard partying in my 20’s, I want to smack myself up side my head and worse. If I have one regret in my life, that is it.

[charleneknottsrubini]

Wow, you really did turn your financial life around!

[lindab]

Sadly I am pretty sure most of us have been there, done that. I have been trying to guide nieces and nephews to sock away everything they can into their 401(k)'s because it is SO TRUE you can set yourself up for life if you start saving early on. Luckily they are pretty smart kids and get it.

The other stuff I try to stress as well, but saving is the key here. Nicely done, Jennifer. Thank you for this. It's really just common sense, but sometimes hearing it from someone else will let it sink in more. I will say I was never peer-pressured into anything I did not think was a good idea. I learned "no thank you" very early on, so I try to instill that as well. Along with confidence.

I am sending a link to this video to all of those "kids", now some of whom are in their 30's and starting families. Still a learning opportunity here!!

[pattystripling]

Love it...smiling about it...thanking you for it 😀

[kathleenhill]

I have made some car payments in my time but I learned from Mom that rolling over the previous loan is not a good idea. Also my payment would be 250.00 as a cap. If the vehicle I wanted could not be a deal at that price I moved on. We had a vehicle when I was married that was 417.00 a month and was killing us to make the payment. It got stolen 2 years into the loan and yes I was sad b

[karenogush]

I did all of that back then and then some! Thank God there was no such thing as the Internet and I was too busy working to follow celebrities and their fashions. But the big one for me was peer pressure and wanting to "keep up with the Joneses" (as they used to call it). In addition to what you told her younger self, I would tell my younger self to find new peers to hang out with who didn't want to spend so much money!

[sagenozko]

I loved this video! I made all the same mistakes. I can not wait to share this information with my kids as they get older. Thank you!

[homesteadingwithapurpose]

That color of top and lip color look beautiful on you.

[gailtester]

I was married young. We had cheap rent and no debt. We had good jobs but didn't save. We lived high on the hog like there was no tomorrow. I'd tell that young woman to save half of what they earned.

[govegan]

I wish I didn't spend $5000 on jewelry when I was 22. It took me forever to pay off my credit card. Unfortunately my mother never taught me anything useful.

[fabavb]

I should not have given friends and family so much money when they asked if I could help out, nor should I have let a good friend borrow a bigger amount for an emergency that I was supposed to get back within a week. I am still waiting to get my money back...
At least I wouldn’t let anybody talk me into joining a MLM, although they tried several times

[BeerBikes]

Not using Edward Jones as a financial advisor, gave me a good start but fees were high and weren't a fiduciary.