What would you do if you could be 18 years old again?

[ThatKidNick]

Fresh out of high school and living today in 2015, what would you do to begin accumulating wealth? I am completely lost but eager to change.

 

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[AgainstAllOdds]

1) Get a job; or
2) Go to school.

Whichever path you choose, make sure to use it as a learning experience. If you're "completely lost" today, then you're likely not ready to start a business. Learn from others and minimize the risk for when you decided to go fastlane.

 

[Oswalito]

I would get a job to generate savings in order to start a business.

I would not get into debt.
I would not buy a 2012 Mustang GT at the first sign of entrepreneurial success.
I would not buy expensive gifts for a gf for the same reason above.

Most importantly, get a job, establish your credit history but avoid debt at all costs.

Oh and don't spend all your cash. You're gonna need it for any futute business you wish to start.

That's what I would tell myself if I could 6 years ago.

 

[wade1mil]

1) Accumulate a ton of ambitious friends.
2) Pursue the things I want rather than avoid the things I don't want.
3) Get rid my ego and ignore any limiting self-image.
4) Get a job until my business pays the bills.
5) Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Probably 100 more things...

 

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[Red]

1. Start assessing every belief/mindset I was raised with & logically decide if I should retain them. (most of them: no)
2. Travel, cheaply. Everywhere.
3. Learn about nutrition & it's direct correlation to a healthy & well-functioning body/mind.
4. Know that it's okay to not know what to do next, but never stop absorbing information & producing ideas.
5. Figure out what drives you (mind you, not what you're passionate about).

 

[socaldude]

1. Stay out of debt.
2. Remove my shitty self-image adopted from my environment.
3. Stop obsessing about money and start focusing on skills and value.
4. Stop seeking to impress others.
5. Read as much as you can.
6. Learn about technology as much as you can.
7. Know that I can figure so many things out on my own.
8. That I don't need anybody to tell me who I am or what I am capable of, good or bad.
9. If you presently don't understand something It doesn't mean you can't or never will understand it.
10. Again, have fun be yourself and don't obsess about money, build skills and ask how you can create something of value that people will hand money over for.

 

[eliquid]

constantly build and build and build my own products

 

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[DawnW]

start a blog, meet as many people as possible, pursue multiple streams of income, do contract work, save at least 20%

 

[Pete799p]

This will be different for everybody but for me.

1) Not go to college
2) Learn a marketable skill ie sales, trade etc.
3) Learn Sales- It will help you in all facets of life slowlane or fast.
4) Start a business- Mowing laws, recycling, website, selling burritos at a concert, funny videos on youtube, anything just do it. Don't worry about how much you will make just turn a profit. I had several business ideas that I didn't pursue because I didn't think they were big enough or fastlane enough but the education is priceless no matter how small the profit. Funny story, I once got a box full of buttons for a band I was seeing at a show from a friend. My friends all made fun of me for covering myself in buttons. Joke was on them when I hustled all of them, effectively paying for the trip.
5) Move far away from my home town
6) Learn how to workout properly, avoid all those stupid ego related injuries. It's not how much weight you put up but how you move it.
7) Learn how to eat right- Its really simple as long as you don't over complicated it and it is much cheaper then all the fast food I used to eat back in college.
8) Learn how to save money
9) Learn how to invest money
10) Avoid Debt.

 

[Bila]

- Lead a crazier life and make more mistakes ( so when you are in your mid-20 the chapter is closed and lessons learned earlier in life )
- Love more ( i believe that it makes you fearless in all aspects of life after )
- Disobey ( make your own rules while having a sense of ethics)
- Be revolutionary ( Ideals create better worlds )

 

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[brodog]

Learn how to be more confident
Learn how to make firm decisions fast and change them slowly if at all
Avoid debt at all costs
I already had a great job in IT at 18 back in the 1970s when it was the hob of the future, so I would tell myself to take every opportunity offered and not be a dick by turning things down because I wasn't confident enough to take them on

 

[wade1mil]

I completely disagree about avoiding debt. If you use it to buy TV's or test something you're not sure will work, then yes avoid it. If you can go in debt $50k and pay it off completely when it's due to make $10k, there's no reason not to do it. Debt is an amazing tool if you use it properly.

 

[GreatestManEver]

Fresh out of high school and living today in 2015, what would you do to begin accumulating wealth? I am completely lost but eager to change.

Did you read the book yet Nick, it will help you get a good start.
If your lost, find as many successful people you able to, that you want to be like, and ask them for advice.

 

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[OzzieRob]

1) Would do a course in Entrepreneurship or a trade instead of a degree in accounting/marketing
2) Would get any job and buy as much real estate as possible and live off passive income by the time i was 30
3) Would make a wiser choice of friends
4) Would read every book on Entrepreneurship from Amazon that i could find and start an online business
5) Travel a lot more - soak up other cultures and have fun
6) Would not have bought any sports cars until i paid off my 1st mortage
7) Would not play video games
8) Would learn several foreign languages
9) Would spend a year living on the French Riviera or Amalfi Coast

 

[Mark Anthony Le]

1) Would do a course in Entrepreneurship or a trade instead of a degree in accounting/marketing
2) Would get any job and buy as much real estate as possible and live off passive income by the time i was 30
3) Would make a wiser choice of friends
4) Would read every book on Entrepreneurship from Amazon that i could find and start an online business
5) Travel a lot more - soak up other cultures and have fun
6) Would not have bought any sports cars until i paid off my 1st mortage
7) Would not play video games
8) Would learn several foreign languages
9) Would spend a year living on the French Riviera or Amalfi Coast

Besides #6 what's stopping you from doing it all now?

 

[OzzieRob]

Besides #6 what's stopping you from doing it all now?

Absolutely nothing...only #1, #8, #9 are not yet accomplished but if i was 18 again i would have done everything sooner : )

 

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[mayana]

Wow... knowing what I know now?? At 18 with no kids, no debt, no spouse, no house, no nothing to hold me in one place?

(I started college at 15, so by 18, I already had a lot of work experience, and was a junior in college - so take it with a grain of salt. I also was living on my own by 17, so I knew how to support myself.)

I went to Mexico with my Mexican friend. We stayed for three weeks, and my mind was absolutely blown at how cheap everything was. So....

Since I was born with the entrepreneurial bug, if I could do it all over again, I would have stayed in Mexico with the couple of thousand dollars that I had. The internet was just beginning to become a "thing" back then... I even KNEW it and SAW it, and knew that I should be getting involved, but I was too busy being an 18 year old. Focused on all of the wrong things.

I was offered the chance to stay there - with a job!, and I should have taken it.

So I guess the lessons for a newly-minted 18-year old?

1. Read the Millionaire Fastlane , if you haven't already. This didn't exist when I was 18 - what a shame!!!
2. Keep your eyes peeled for opportunities (pains/needs/trends)
3. When someone offers you a great chance to learn or do something absolutely amazing, TAKE IT. I missed out on a lot because maybe I was in a relationship, or I didn't want to switch or stop going to school temporarily, etc. I'm talking study abroads, trips or vacations to cool places with family, work opportunities out of state - or even out of the country.
4. Don't get a job just for the money - make SURE you are learning something. I got a job as a server at an expensive restaurant, and was "balling" making like $1000 a week at 18 (in the late 1990s!). I should have taken the $7 an hour job (like I did before I was 18) where I could learn and actually get some better experience.
5. Don't get tied down until you are ready (and this means car payments, buying house, relationships, etc), and realize that once you do make those decisions, your future options will, definitely, be affected.

Remember that the choices you make RIGHT NOW, will effect the most powerful changes on your future. It's so much easier to make the good choices that take you where you want to go right from the beginning, than to try to get back on track in your late 20's and 30's (... and so on and so on).

Good luck!!!

 

[Ezio]

Similar thread.
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/what-would-you-tell-your-25-year-old-self.50014

 

[jlwilliams]

- Lead a crazier life and make more mistakes ( so when you are in your mid-20 the chapter is closed and lessons learned earlier in life )......)

Be careful with that one. The first thing that crossed my mind when I saw the title to this thread was a really big F-up I did when I was 18. I gave myself a criminal record that held me back by limiting my options. I was able to avoid prison time, but the incident was serious enough that I was turned down by the military. There are a great many down sides to be classified as a "criminal" and having a felony strike on your card is a bad way to enter adulthood. I was able to get my record expunged after several years without any more trouble so the incident doesn't come up anymore, but it was a major set back at a critical point in my life. 25 years later I still see the cost of that bit of shenanigans.

If I could go back, I'd talk myself out of that one. It was a bad idea and I knew better.

Now, for the OP. The best thing you can do is maintain a positive outlook, a positive self image, and a positive environment. Cut loose any and all toxic people from your life. Be a winner, which starts by thinking winning thoughts.

Getting a job is good advice... up to a point. You need a cash flow of some type, that much is true. I would qualify it with what I think was the best advice from the "Rich Dad/Poor Dad" book and that is to only take jobs that teach you what you want to learn, not jobs that you think will "pay the bills." Case in point, the author wanted to learn sales, so he got a job with a company that had a reputation for the best trained sales team at that time. The commissions were good, but nothing compared to what he was able to accomplish when he started selling his own brand. He wanted to learn leadership, so he joined the Marine Corps. He didn't join for the adventure or the patriotism, though those are real and valid, he joined because they teach leadership skills that he could use in his businesses for the rest of his life. So, yes, you need a job but don't look at a job as a goal. It's a waypoint on your journey. What value do you bring to them? What value do they add to you? Answer both questions before you sign on anywhere.

 

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[Bila]

Of course @jlwilliams ....i dont recommand going to prison for the wrong reasons ( i was arrested once back home for political reasons and i dont regret that )

 

[alfonso]

Ha,
I'd learn to be comfortable in the most uncomfortable settings.
I'd get into sales learn the ropes and how to talk and read/understand people.
I'd would of built up the nerves to ask my mother's friend how he amassed he Wealth.
I'd get my feet wet by starting a business.

 

[EvanOkanagan]

1. Get a high-paying job up north before 19 years old as a power-engineer at a gas plant (schooling is less than a year and friends who do this average 100k or more usually right off the bat or after a year). Most of the time food and stay is paid for as well.

2. Be as frugal as possible to amass a 5% (about 25-30k or so) downpayment for my first house--a full duplex with full basement suites on each side. Should be able to do this in a few months.

3. Buy duplex and live in the smallest/most beaten rental suite in my off days (usually 2 weeks on 2 weeks off) from my gas plant job. This should generate a healthy positive cash flow and be living for free (approx $800-$1000/mo cashflow after all expenses).

4. Don't touch any of the positive cash flow and keep it accruing in its own account... at the same time remaining as frugal as before and amassing a further 20% downpayment (around 100-120k since it's an investment this time) to buy a 2nd similar set up. This time renting all 4 units out and seeing a much healthier cashflow (perhaps 1500/mo or more). Total cash flow at this point $2500+ and achieved around 21 years old.

5. WhIle all this is happening, when I'm on my 2 weeks up north working, read as many books as possible in my off time.

6. While at home on my off days, work on my fastlane business since the whole 2 weeks would be free to do as I wish.

7. Keep living frugal and buidling a bigger real estate portfolio with constant saving and not touching my cash flow only to use for investments. Before 25 years old will have a large amount of equity in the properties and by being diligent with the strategy would be possible to have 4 or more of these same homes and $5,000+/mo positive cash flow or better and be nearly financially independent.

8. By this point should have made a lot of good mistakes and grown quite a bit in those 7 years from reading & failures/learning lessons in business startups. Around this point with the regular cashflow can decide to keep working or focus solely on business.

 

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[Pete799p]

I completely disagree about avoiding debt. If you use it to buy TV's or test something you're not sure will work, then yes avoid it. If you can go in debt $50k and pay it off completely when it's due to make $10k, there's no reason not to do it. Debt is an amazing tool if you use it properly.

I completely agree that debt can be an amazing tool but I still think it is prudent to avoid it. That doesn't mean eliminate it or never use it but look for other means to accomplish what you are looking to accomplish before seeking out debt...unless it is non-recourse or non-traditional, and this advice is not aimed at real estate. For example a lot of kids that go to college find it so much easier to just take out debt to finance their education and living costs, vs. finding alternative ways to pay for college like scholarships or work study programs etc. You may end up with some level of debt but if used as a last resort it will hopefully be much less then those who took the easy road.

Plus my response is to an 18 year old, who I imagine has limited opportunities to take on good debt vs. bad. Hell even when I was in my early 20s with a solid income I still got laughed at by the bank when I tried to take out a $10k loan for my business. It ended up being a blessing as I eventually raised the money organically.

That being said bankruptcy is off your credit in 7-10 years and if you are going to ruin your credit like so many young folks do you should do it for something that at least had the potential to get you more money. I know people who are still working to fix their credit score for bs in college to the tune of a few hundred dollars. Whether its $100 or $100mil it stings the same. Hell I could argue you have more options if its $100mil.

PS EvanOkanagan has a great plan.

 

[wade1mil]

My post wasn't directed at you or anyone else. I wrote it because there are things that I learned when I was about 18 years old that I later defended with passion, only to find out they weren't as black and white as I thought they were. If an 18 year old goes through life thinking in absolutes like this, it can really hurt him or her.

I would put a college education in the same category as a TV in terms of carrying debt. I do not value a college education any more than life experience. I know people with a 4-year degree that I would consider brutally stupid. I also know some people that never graduated high school that I would consider very smart.

So we are in agreement, just saying things differently.

 

[DennisD]

Gameplan for the shortest route to make money for somebody who's never done it before:

1. Live with your parents and spend 3 months learning a skill full-time. If this is impossible, accrue 6 months of living expenses, and then quit and spend 3 months learning a skill full-time. This skill can be knitting, woodworking, gardening, real estate, fishing, cooking. Get an apprenticeship, work for free, use the library, use the internet.
2. Start a tumblr blog (something nobody will really read, just a place for you to write) and write about what you're learning. get good at writing. Learn how to write for an audience.
3. As you're learning, identify problem areas (things not explained very well for beginners, things you wish were taught to you better
4. Quit your apprenticeship and learning. Spend a week full-time writing a short concise book addressing a single pain point. Format it well.
5. Spend $15 to get a website up, spend another full-time week writing a sales page. Put the book for sale.
6. Email everybody that might remotely be interested in the book. Find people who left reviews on similar topics and email them, find bloggers and contact them, contact commenters on blogs, find people on twitter, on facebook. Spend the next month spamming the sales page to everybody that will bare to see it.
7. Capture emails of people who bought it.
8. Repeat the process with your next book, sell it to your existing audience and hustle again to find a new one.
9. When you've identified a product opportunity, use your skills from pimping multiple books to launch another product (software, app, physical widget). You should be practiced by now in creating sales pages and you should know what works and doesn't work for marketing in that industry.

 

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[Pete799p]

My post wasn't directed at you or anyone else. I wrote it because there are things that I learned when I was about 18 years old that I later defended with passion, only to find out they weren't as black and white as I thought they were. If an 18 year old goes through life thinking in absolutes like this, it can really hurt him or her.

I would put a college education in the same category as a TV in terms of carrying debt. I do not value a college education anymore than life experience. I know people with a 4-year degree that I would consider brutally stupid. I also know some people that never graduated high school that I would consider very smart.

So we are in agreement, just saying things differently.

Completely agree, I apologize if it came across as defensive etc.

College debt in my opinion is probably the worst form of debt, you cant even declare bankruptcy to get out of it. Plus the interest rates are in my opinion completely out of line. I have a few friends still in grad school and they are getting loans with rates in the 8's. Which to me is ridiculous when you can get non-recourse CMBS debt in the mid 3's for multifamily and 4's for most other asset classes. Hell I've seen adjustable debt in the 2's.

 

[GreatestManEver]

Gameplan for the shortest route to make money for somebody who's never done it before:

1. Live with your parents and spend 3 months learning a skill full-time. If this is impossible, accrue 6 months of living expenses, and then quit and spend 3 months learning a skill full-time. This skill can be knitting, woodworking, gardening, real estate, fishing, cooking. Get an apprenticeship, work for free, use the library, use the internet.
2. Start a tumblr blog (something nobody will really read, just a place for you to write) and write about what you're learning. get good at writing. Learn how to write for an audience.
3. As you're learning, identify problem areas (things not explained very well for beginners, things you wish were taught to you better
4. Quit your apprenticeship and learning. Spend a week full-time writing a short concise book addressing a single pain point. Format it well.
5. Spend $15 to get a website up, spend another full-time week writing a sales page. Put the book for sale.
6. Email everybody that might remotely be interested in the book. Find people who left reviews on similar topics and email them, find bloggers and contact them, contact commenters on blogs, find people on twitter, on facebook. Spend the next month spamming the sales page to everybody that will bare to see it.
7. Capture emails of people who bought it.
8. Repeat the process with your next book, sell it to your existing audience and hustle again to find a new one.
9. When you've identified a product opportunity, use your skills from pimping multiple books to launch another product (software, app, physical widget). You should be practiced by now in creating sales pages and you should know what works and doesn't work for marketing in that industry.

This is great, hopefully a lot of the young ones read this. Especially the stay with your parents part, too many 18 year old want to live on there own, and end up juggling too many bills, which causes them to work a dead end job, that takes away there most important asset, all there free time.

 

[DennisD]

there most important asset, all there free time.

It's amazing how little work actually gets done in a typical 'workday' in the corporate world. Maybe 45 minutes of actual work all day.

If somebody freed themselves up from bill-paying responsibility, and spend an 8, or even 12 hour days WORKING on their business, you can get a LOT done in a single week... providing you have the fire to actually work.

 

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[Unknown]

If we're assuming that I went back in time 13 years I'd work multiple jobs and invest every dime in Apple stock

 

[brian951]

1. Go to college, but only as a way to build up good work ethic and a high standard for success. (as well as network)

2. Use extra time in college to build a business. (Avoid reading and just DO it to embrace and learn from the failure).

3. Save up money so you have funds to launch a business when you are ready

4. After graduating, if business(es) still haven't made their breakthrough, utilize college degree to get a decent salary job. Don't put manager/company on the pedestal. Grind on your OWN business(es) when you get home. Work as a means to remind you and motivate you to get your own businesses running so you can quit the job. Unless you have the work ethic and discipline of a sage, building the habits and drive to execute on your business is really really hard for most people. Working a 9-5 will help with this because it will constantly remind you to "get out" asap. It strengthens your conviction in what you have in store for yourself through your own businesses.