Pursuing Life In Your 20s
Much of this blog is typically about getting started early in work, career, saving, investing, blogging, whatever. Just as important as these areas is the area of life. If you’re like me, you graduated college (which we call the fun/free days) and then “got serious” about a career. Sure, I still had and have tons of fun after college even while focusing on a career, but it is very easy to get wrapped up in a job or a financial situation and lose track of living life. I want to comment on this a bit further…
The decade of our 20s brings many new things, a career, major financial responsibility, potentially a marriage, maybe even kids. At this point in life, it’s not like we don’t know how to enjoy life, it’s more that we’re starting to encounter new distractions that get in the way of life. Some of these are necessary, some aren’t.
Financial Stress
A major obstacle to life in our 20s is financial stress. Some of this stress is a good thing (i.e. wanting to save money), but much of it is brought upon ourselves. We can all but eliminate this stress but accepting a more frugal lifestyle. Live in a cheaper apartment, don’t go out to eat as much and don’t spend as much money on things. Instead, be smart financially by putting away a good amount of money each month and then enjoying yourself as a result of not worrying about your finances.
Pursuing Other Satisfactions
Since much of our energy goes into our budding career, and for single people, the rest goes towards a social life, we find it hard to put energy and time into other areas that bring us satisfaction.
For me, I would like to spend more time with my family, more time on my own business ventures such as this blog and more time pursuing physical training such as running and maybe a triathlon. Don’t get me wrong, I’m able to enjoy these things to a large extent, as much as is possible working a normal 9-5 job, but my goals are to be able to have a flexible lifestyle where I can pursue them even more.
For individuals who can’t really budge in terms of how much time is spent at work, I encourage you to maximize your time outside of work. You can do this by not watching as much TV, not spending as much time at the bar, and waking up earlier (so you can do stuff before work). These are all strategies I implemented while living alone, single and working fairly long hours.
Employee vs Entrepreneur
Most people ignore work when talking about pursuing life. I think that work can be a major part of your satisfaction that you receive in life. A major way to increase the satisfaction, at least for me, is to transition from employee to entrepreneur or business owner. Being my own boss is a major goal of mine. Not only does it allow me to work the type of schedule that I want to work, but I would love to see a direct relationship between my results and my own effort and being an entrepreneur is the best way to do this.
While most people won’t become an entrepreneur in their 20s, it’s important to just keep the goal present as you move forward in your career so that you can maximize your opportunities to learn skills and build relationships that will help you down the road towards this goal.
What are the ways that you pursue life in your 20s? How do you connect with people and find ways to be more satisfied?
Well that definitely struck a chord! I'm in the same boat. After college I kept wondering which one I could do… have fun or work my butt off… It's hard to get the right balance. Being poor and living way below your means is really a challenge as well. I have friends who bought Beamers and Plasmas as soon as they graduated. I bought books and gym memberships.
I think in order to start feeling better in my twenties (I'm 23) I've begun to accept where I am and leverage my strengths so that I can become successful. What do I mean? A lot of older people want to help out recent college grads. I've reached out and found mentors in many areas of my life an am working with several on business projects with them. I think working for experienced and successful people, even if it's for free, is a huge advantage in life.
However, I think everyone should be an employee for at least a while to understand what it's about. Starting out after college we need capital and some income streams to at least jump start any business. We also need to begin our hatred for the 9-5 so that can fuel our fire for whatever business we're starting. I tried my hand at being a realtor, starting a real estate photography business, and a web development company, and frankly I was too immature and had bad habits to make them successful. Have you started anything thus far? Obvioulsy this blog, but other side projects as well?
How are you tackling this issue and how have you found balance? What are the goals your working for and how to you plan on eliminating the 9-5 from your life?
Ryan, great comments. Well, in today's economy, there is no longer "easy money" or easy opportunities. It takes an extra level of effort, knowledge, skills, capital, etc. to be successful out on your own today. I'm currently positioned in a small business where I might have some bigger opportunities down the road, so I'm not looking to start a "normal" business in the near future. Because the real economy is struggled so badly, it's tough to identify a home run area to launch something. The most obvious avenue I see is to get into an industry, develop your own contacts, and take those contacts with you into your own venture at some point. Usually, this comes later in life though after 10-15 years in an industry.
As such, I think the online side business avenue is the best approach for young people. It doesn't require start up capital and doesn't require a 10-15 year career to back it. The side business can become a nice source of extra income on the side and potentially develop into something bigger down the road. It's really a win-win.
I completely agree with you in that it is good to be an employee for a while. You figure out what you like, what you don't like, what you're good at, you learn an industry/business, you gain skills (way more than in school), etc.
Were your businesses that you launched side businesses or did you "take the leap" in order to try and launch them?
I tend to have a bunch of things going on at once, which is just my personality. Better at starting a bunch of projects and thinking up new ideas than following through. So to answer your question I've always have other things going on to support new ventures, whether it was a part time job or some income from a small business. Living way below my means really helps the cause and gives me the freedom to try almost anything.
I agree with your comment about it being a win-win for online businesses. There's barely any risk and all you have to invest in time, which is the perfect model for young people who have time, but no money. I just wrote a post mentioning Tim Ferris' $100,000 challenge to start an online store with shopify, would you like to compete in that and blog about it with me?
http://www.plantingdollars.com/uncategorized/how-…
I'll have that post to you by tomorrow evening at the latest.
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