Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#61

Post by kenneth » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 9:52 PM UTC

crazypyro wrote: post #57

kenneth wrote: post #34

Spent most of 25 having freshly broken up by my long-term girlfriend and quit my job, flying around the world in first class on miles & points, while doing a bit of consulting work and investing, and a lot of spending down my savings (mostly by angel investing all of it). I don't regret any of it. Grew up quite a bit, doubled how much of the world I'd seen (and I started out already being well-travelled), and got to…

How did you have significant money to invest by 25?

Modest liquidity from previous startup successes (low six figures).

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#62

Post by swarnie_ » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 9:54 PM UTC

26, Worked up from a 17 y/o clueless helpdesk body, through sysadmin, currently an Oracle Consultant.

London is an amazing city and i would encourage anyone to come here.

I'm not the best person to ask advice from. I feel most here have CS degrees from top universities. I feel like i'm the exception to the rules who shouldn't be followed.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#63

Post by cwt » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 9:57 PM UTC

I was in a similar situation. I took a break from work and rediscovered the reasons I got into software. Then, I went back to work after a nice long break.

My advice: Don't just save money, invest it in an S&P 500 index fund.

Time is going to fly by and if, like me, you put money away each month, the interest will be a nice reward to yourself and give you new opportunities when you start to look for them.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#64

Post by horselydog » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 9:58 PM UTC

AT 25 I was going nowhere, having dropped out of my expensive liberal arts college education and the ample financial provisions of my parents (my grades were good too, I just lost interest in normal life paths). So I worked menial jobs, learned to want cheap stuff (I have never had health insurance, 36 years and counting) and no doubt I did display antisocial behavior and talked wild crap.

SO now I am almost sixty,and nothing else ever happened, MENIAL JOBS CONTINUED, the most I ever received as official hourly wages was $12.50 per.

I was amazingly happy every day until just past age 50, what brought me down was DEATHS OF THE LOVED ONES, I seriously don't expect to be happy again , much, for the rest of this lifetime. I had a good run at THE LIFE OF A FOOL, somebody has to do it.

As for advice to younger me, I never listened to advice. AND even when younger I knew that you can't serve two masters, and so I fully expected that my monotonous hijinks would have to be their own reward. CUE some Edith Piaf music, let me grab my coat and I am just slipping out the door.

Good luck and stuff.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#65

Post by 45blurlakes » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 10:02 PM UTC

AT 25 I was going nowhere, having dropped out of my expensive liberal arts college education and the ample financial provisions of my parents (my grades were good too, I just lost interest in normal life paths). So I worked menial jobs, learned to want cheap stuff (I have never had health insurance, 36 years and counting) and no doubt I did display antisocial behavior and talked wild crap.

SO now I am almost sixty,and nothing else ever happened, MENIAL JOBS CONTINUED, the most I ever received as official hourly wages was $12.50 per.

I was amazingly happy every day until just past age 50, what brought me down was DEATHS OF THE LOVED ONES, I seriously don't expect to be happy again , much, for the rest of this lifetime. I had a good run at THE LIFE OF A FOOL, somebody has to do it.

As for advice to younger me, I never listened to advice. AND even when younger I knew that you can't serve two masters, and so I fully expected that my monotonous hijinks would have to be their own reward. CUE some Edith Piaf music, let me grab my coat and I am just slipping out the door.

Good luck and stuff.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#66

Post by throwaway2016a » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 10:03 PM UTC

horselydog wrote: post #64

AT 25 I was going nowhere, having dropped out of my expensive liberal arts college education and the ample financial provisions of my parents (my grades were good too, I just lost interest in normal life paths). So I worked menial jobs, learned to want cheap stuff (I have never had health insurance, 36 years and counting) and no doubt I did display antisocial behavior and talked wild crap. SO now I am almost sixty,an…

Thank you for sharing.

If I may ask, why are you on Hacker News? I'm curious. You don't seem like the typical type. I'm curious what draws you to it.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#67

Post by smofnoopttzzaaa » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 10:28 PM UTC

When I was 25, I moved from the DC area to San Francisco, South of Market. It was 1999. I had some money saved up and was living with a friend. I would go to Internet cafes and work on my resume and apply for jobs during the morning, and then I would spend a lot of time just wandering around and exploring the city randomly. It was amazing.

Advice I would give myself: Buy some kind of real estate. No, $300k is not too much money for a house. And your crazy plan about living in an RV in the city during the week, but buying a house in Tahoe and visiting it on the weekends - that's a good plan, do that.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#68

Post by smofnoopttzzaaa » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 10:31 PM UTC

topkai22 wrote: post #59

I was at an amazing job that I loved and debating about proposing to my girlfriend. The catch was I knew if we were going to stay together I’d have to move for her Masters and therefore leave the awesome job. I choose the girl over the job, and while it took me a long time to not be sad I had to make the choice I have never regretted it. 10 years later I can say is I’ve ended up in an awesome place and enjoy life imm…

>> Mine Bitcoin

God, yes, this. I could have been a millionaire by clicking on an .exe that I had downloaded into my Downloads folder.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#69

Post by smofnoopttzzaaa » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 10:32 PM UTC

AJC-Official wrote: post #52

25 and a half now: Working on my CPA certification - 1 more test to go! Proposing to my girlfriend of 7 years next month. Quit my public accounting job in March to do a bootcamp - finish up in a month or so. Complacency is what I felt in my job. I just got promoted in December and was on a pretty easy path to senior, when I realized that I was unfulfilled professionally and that was leading me to waste my personal ti…

>> Proposing to my girlfriend of 7 years next month.

Advice from an older person here - don't wait until you are 30+ to start trying, if you want to have kids. You will all benefit from having more health and energy when under 30.

Re: Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?

#70

Post by wglb » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 10:37 PM UTC

I had about finished the work at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17552027 and about to move to Ann Arbor in 1975. Second job there was writing code generation phase of a compiler. Much fun.