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Why you should take your 20's seriously

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Re: Why you should take your 20's seriously

#161

Post by Retric »

andrewljohnson wrote: post #46
AngryParsley wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's blatant ageism. As much as we hate to admit it, our minds and bodies start to decline almost as soon as we reach maturity. Not only does raw intelligence drop as we age, but some personality traits change. Of the Big Five, openness to new experiences takes the biggest hit. See http://www.gwern.net/DNB%20FAQ#aging and http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/www/external/labor/agin... for the scientific evidence…

Being open to new experiences, in my opinion, is much more a matter of the people you surround yourself with, than with physiology. Sure, your brain may change a little bit in your 20s and not so much in your 30s, but if you have the right friends, perhaps some younger friends, they will drag you into new things. I have felt that palpably running my own company for the last 5 years. In the first few years, it was jus…

One thanksgiving I showed an 80 year old how to put a candle out with a hand gesture. He was really into it an in his words there are far fewer really new things at 80 than you might think. Which struck me as the core of a lot of ageism, when your young doing just about anything is a solid learning environment, but eventually it becomes tough to continue to develop new skills. Your job becomes all about leveraging what you already know not expanding you into new areas the same for your social circle and if your not careful hobby's.

Re: Why you should take your 20's seriously

#162

Post by mattgreenrocks »

gnaritas wrote: post #45
crazygringo wrote: post #39

I "agree", but draw the exact opposite conclusions. You should take your 20's seriously... because it's the only time in your life that you aren't encumbered by building a career, having kids, etc. So you should take your 20's to do the things that you won't be able to do later. Work as a bartender, play in a band, travel the world on the cheap, teach English abroad, date the kind of people you wouldn't marry. You do…

> "Your brain finishes forming in your 20′s". If that's even true (although I doubt it) It is true.

Citing Wikipedia != contributing to discussion.

Re: Why you should take your 20's seriously

#163

Post by philbarr »

donaldc wrote: post #139
genwin wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compound interest at 1% risks losing principal, and inflation is probably > 1% now anyway, so that you lose money on savings. Money spent (rather than invested) in one's 20s offers greater opportunity for enjoyment than when in your 60s, when your choices are more limited, if you even reach your 60s. A balanced approach is best.

Money spent (rather than invested) in one's 20s offers greater opportunity for enjoyment than when in your 60s, when your choices are more limited Would you care to elaborate on this? I don't (yet) have first-hand experience with being in my 60's, but I did watch my parents spend money to their great enjoyment after they retired in their 60's.

Exactly, my parents are in their 60's and both retired and are having a bloody great time. Golf, fast cars, lots of holidays, they're loving it.

Re: Why you should take your 20's seriously

#165

Post by mattgreenrocks »

icesoldier wrote: post #85

The issue I have with seeing life advice posts is that I've begun to see this dichotomy between "follow your heart" advice and "follow your head" advice. And I personally have a split between the two: my degree is in CS and my current job is in programming, but by "pie in the sky" dreams involve writing and performing music. I happen to have more knowledge in the former as a consequence of my degree, but I didn't rea…

You have plenty of time to change your trajectory! Bank some money, and don't give up on software so easily.

Re: Why you should take your 20's seriously

#166

Post by genwin »

will_work4tears wrote: post #131
genwin wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be looking in the wrong town. Consider moving to a town with a greater demand/supply factor. 3 years experience, if you can show your work (e.g. a website) should be plenty in many places.

Yeah, moving out of state right now is not really an option. We are 2 years into our mortgage and have one of those "you gotta live there 5 years or pay penalties" situations, have a new son (six months old now, so complications with that) and parents getting ready to move 2,200 miles here to help watch and experience their first grandchild. Granted, all "excuses" but while I have meager pay and bad benefits, my wife…

Seattle is one of the "right" towns I was thinking of.

Re: Why you should take your 20's seriously

#167

Post by genwin »

enraged_camel wrote: post #146
genwin wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compound interest at 1% risks losing principal, and inflation is probably > 1% now anyway, so that you lose money on savings. Money spent (rather than invested) in one's 20s offers greater opportunity for enjoyment than when in your 60s, when your choices are more limited, if you even reach your 60s. A balanced approach is best.

>>Compound interest at Huh? I'm not talking about a savings account here brother. I'm talking about retirement investment accounts like 401k and IRAs. In their 20s, the majority of those investments should be in stocks, which on average gain 9-10% per year. The compound interest on that is humongous.

Stocks don't average 9-10% per year, not anymore. Since the Dow was at 10K in 1999, the Dow has averaged 2.1% per year, with great volatility (ups/downs). Including dividends, maybe 4%. The gov't has fueled that relatively anemic growth with massive unsustainable borrowing and raping of the environment, so the past is definitely not an indicator of future performance.

Re: Why you should take your 20's seriously

#168

Post by genwin »

donaldc wrote: post #139
genwin wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compound interest at 1% risks losing principal, and inflation is probably > 1% now anyway, so that you lose money on savings. Money spent (rather than invested) in one's 20s offers greater opportunity for enjoyment than when in your 60s, when your choices are more limited, if you even reach your 60s. A balanced approach is best.

Money spent (rather than invested) in one's 20s offers greater opportunity for enjoyment than when in your 60s, when your choices are more limited Would you care to elaborate on this? I don't (yet) have first-hand experience with being in my 60's, but I did watch my parents spend money to their great enjoyment after they retired in their 60's.

Good for them. There's still more opportunity for enjoyment for younger folk, though. Even if a 60-something manages to do the same activity, like snowboarding, it's going to be done in a less youthful body. It's a big waste for 20-somethings to overly focus on their career in that decade, unless work is what they most enjoy.

Re: Why you should take your 20's seriously

#169

Post by randomdata »

usaar333 wrote: post #155
randomdata wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are at a higher risk of birth defects From everything I have read, the risk doubles. That may sound like a big deal, but quoting from memory, it doubles from a 0.5% chance to a 1% chance, which is still exceedingly low odds. I'm not sure that risk alone is enough to warrant holding back on having children later in life.

I assume you mean from 35 to 40? The odds jump from 0.5% to 1% for Down Syndrome specifically; risk of any birth defect would be higher. That said, the bigger issue is infertility, which increases by 20%: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_and_female_fertility

Thanks for pointing that out. That may be what I remembered. What are the statistics for general defects between the two groups?

Re: Why you should take your 20's seriously

#170

Post by realrocker »

cletus wrote: post #19

This is a delicate subject because one can view it as a call for those in their 20s to make the most of that time, which is a fine message, to something tantamount to ageism. While it's true that those in their 30s or older can be closed to new idea, that's not because they're "old", it's because they're people and some people are closed-minded. I find a lot of these complaints are more about the cultural and lifesty…

I agree with the author's view. For the lack of better words, I think the author intends to imply that the struggle to learn new skills in the 20's is what leads to a successful later life. In the 20's you can take a lot of chances, risk misfires and learn from it. A personal cognitive pattern recognition for problem solving emerges from these struggles to learn new things. This pattern recognition when applied later in life with maturity and deep thought result in successful decisions. Please don't make ageism such a taboo. For example I have never heard or seen anyone applying ageism to children and old men. Ageism has a lot to do with biological growth than social apartheid.
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