A Letter to your Younger Self

Take the money out of stocks at the high point...

Great question! My letter might be of re-assurance. To not to worry too much. That although everything would suddenly look bleak, there is actually a light at the end of the tunnel. To just hold on, and not let the stress get to me too much. And not to worry too much about the future. But that's just if I wrote the letter today. And were not totally out of the slump yet. So this letter may change it's tune if I wrote it next week.

hi dorannwin I would have insisted my son look for a much better job when the Bast@rd who hired him at 41 thousand put his wages down to 19 as they were having financial problems and finally just laid him off. when the first incident happened the job market was still really good and my son had kicked himself every since that he did not job hunt and switch back there before the recession started.Now finally he has a job again and I am so glad.Also I would have tried to make more money and put it in on the rent had I known what all was going to c ome down on us.

I would have informed myself that I was going to lose my job of 10 years, and to start looking for a new one before it just wasn't there one day. A lot has changed in my life because of that and I am now living somewhere that I really don't want to be living because I could no longer afford the apartment that I was paying for. However, I suppose all things considered, things are not so bad for me at this point, and I guess they could have been worse all along. I am fortunate enough to have parents who were able to help me keep on my feet until I got a new job (a year and a half later) and in a way there are a few things that are better now than they were before. A few. There are still some things that are worse than they were, however, and it seems my depression managed to take a strong hold and has been harder to deal with than it was before... Wow, and in thinking about this, I can't believe it's coming up on three years since I had lost that job.

Good topic, dorannmwin! I'm not sure when the recession exactly started, but I think I would like this letter to be delivered to me in my mid 20's. Like you, I'd have to tell myself that credit card debt is a pain in the butt - and to not use the plastic as much as possible (SAVE more money instead!). If I had never gotten caught up in credit card spending, I would have been better off in the long run. I would tell myself to also INVEST instead of spending on the silly stuff. Lastly, I would tell myself to quit where I was working and to dive into my career more seriously .. . I was in my field, but rather lazy as I was too comfortable where I was at - I could have/should have made more money - in hind sight.

Great qustion as always Dorannwin. I always love your posts because you make me think. I guess I would have started college when I was a lot younger and would probably have a better career now. I just graduated college this May and am now starting graduate school this September (getting a Master's in Early Childhood Education). I would also have not gotten any credit cards when I was younger so I could have a much better credit score. I would have also started my online craft store a lot sooner so I could have a better second income to help pay the house off a lot sooner. Well, since the recession my husband and I have changed our phone company to Magic Jack and we have gotten rid of the cell phone for now. I have one credit card bill that I want to pay off by next month then I will only have my student loans (I have heard that this is a good debt) and the mortgage to pay off.

yup, for me it would be a warning about credit cards and also take better courses in school (more english) so that i could become a better author, more art (so that i could become a better artist) and maybe go to teachers college to become a history teacher.

I wouldn't have anything to tell myself, honestly. Our lives haven't changed much since then. Sure things are a bit tighter now, but they've always been tight and we're still learning how to manage our money. We've never had credit cards, our income hasn't changed, and the way we attempt to cut down on spending hasn't really changed. The only thing that has changed is that we're trying harder to pay our bills on time.. we used to only pay what we had to when we had to in order to avoid being shut off.. but somehow we always had back up plans. We're out of back up plans now and we have no one to bail us out anymore, so we're a lot better with our bills.. and that is what has made things tighter on us. If I did tell myself then to be better about paying the bills, I wouldn't have listened. I've always known we'd end up in hot water if we didn't pay our bills on time, but we're impulsive and if we want Olive Garden tonight even though the power bill is due tomorrow.. guess what we choose to do? That's our biggest downfall right there.. and we make excuses for ourselves to feel okay about it, like we work this hard we should be able to have some fun.. and in 20 years we won't remember whether or not we paid this bill on time but we'll remember the memories we made with our family.. things like that.

Wow that is a great question. I guess I would warn myself about the credit cards and advise myself to save more money. Maybe not buy some things that I bought. To try to live on regular pay and not the overtime. Honestly I would advise myself to not buy a house either. House repairs can be costly and the two of us are not handy people. We are going to try to sell our house and hope to make at least a little money of off it.