Up next in 10
Over the last 10 years, I have made a number of mistakes. Here are the 10 biggest mistakes I made in my 20s. Which collectively have cost me thousands of pounds… avoid these.
//Creative Commons Attribution Licence video (Reuse allowed)
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Over the last 10 years I have made a number of mistakes
0:04
Here are the 10 biggest mistakes I made in my 20s, which collectively have cost me thousands of pounds and a lot of regret
0:10
Hi, I'm Rosie. I condense everything I have learned about personal finance
0:15
into these videos, from thousands of books, articles, posts, as well as my personal experiences
0:21
These are the 10 mistakes I made in my 20s that I wish I could undo
0:25
Number 10. Not managing my finances at uni. I learned about money the hard way during uni. I studied at a London university where
0:33
my student loan barely even covered my rent, and each term I found myself going deeper and deeper
0:38
into my overdraft. University is probably the first time they all have proper financial
0:42
responsibilities, such as paying for rent, groceries, bills, plus all of the fun stuff as
0:48
well. Calculating the weekly allowance and monitoring your expenses will allow you to keep on top of your finances during your university years
0:54
Number nine. Spending on the wrong things. I spent on the wrong things so many times
1:00
during my 20s. Spending too much on drinks and going out at uni, or overspending on clothing
1:06
during my early years of my career, or even spending too much on overpriced lunches during
1:11
the workday. I'm not saying you shouldn't spend on these things. It all depends on your values
1:16
But for me, these things weren't actually important, and I'd much rather spend my money
1:20
on traveling, nice dinners, and going on day trips. You've got to figure out what you value
1:25
spending your money on, and one of the best ways to do this is to go through your expenses on a
1:29
weekly or monthly basis and figure out what you like and didn't like spending your money on
1:33
Number eight. Not making the most of my free time during uni to travel more. Now there's
1:38
a conundrum called the money-time paradox. Basically, you either have money or you have
1:43
time, but it's very rare that you have both of these at the same stage in your life
1:47
Think about it. When you're at uni, you have these long summer holidays, but you don't have
1:51
much money. Whereas once you're working, you have the money, but you now only have 25 days of
1:57
holiday a year. So now I'm in the world of work, I wish I'd spent more time going traveling and
2:01
going for longer trips during those long summer holidays. Whereas I had friends who were inter
2:05
aiding or traveling, and they figured out ways to budget and stretch their money so it lasted
2:10
for these longer trips. Number seven. Underestimating how hard it is to get a good job
2:15
Just thinking that a good degree would pave the way. There are so many graduates that I know
2:19
who sent hundreds of applications out only to hear back from a few. I studied physics at a good
2:25
university in the UK and I naively thought that having a good degree would instantly make me
2:29
employable. But I soon found out it wasn't as simple as that. So here are a few things that
2:33
you can do to increase your chances of landing a job. So research the companies thoroughly before
2:38
you apply. Tailor every single CV to the job using those keywords in the job description
2:44
Look into different companies from startups to large companies and not just those with grad
2:49
schemes. Have bullet-pointed answers prepared for every single interview. Apply for the job even if
2:53
you don't meet 100% of the criteria. And talk passionately about something in the interview
2:58
For me, the first job I got out of university, I didn't actually think I was qualified for. But
3:02
the interviewer said they thought they could teach me and I could learn the skills I needed
3:06
because I taught so excitedly about other pieces of work that I'd done. So don't be afraid to be
3:11
enthusiastic and ask questions in the interview. Mistake number six was not negotiating my salary
3:16
So I didn't actually realize that I had the power to negotiate my salary when I was given the offer
3:21
Now recruiters expect you to negotiate and they actually build this into the first offer by
3:26
offering you a lower amount than they're actually prepared to pay. But even when I did realize that
3:30
I could negotiate my salary, it took me a while to get the confidence up to actually do this
3:35
Chances are if they want you and you ask for a slightly higher salary, in a nice way, they'll
3:39
either say yes, they'll negotiate and meet you in the middle, or they'll say no and you'll still
3:45
have the original offer. Number five, not having a financial system in place. To be honest, it took me
3:50
a couple of years after starting out in the world of work to figure out my finances. The best way to
3:55
do this is to set up an automated financial system so you've got your money working correctly on
3:59
autopilot. The best way that I have found is to get your income paid into your main account and then
4:04
set up two other accounts, one for your spending and one for your saving, and you direct your money
4:09
to these separate accounts on payday so you don't accidentally spend all of it. Number four
4:14
expecting to be promoted for good work. It took me too long to realize that I had to ask or push for a
4:19
promotion and actually build a business case for it. In my job I had been working hard and hitting
4:24
my targets, but I wasn't really taken seriously and considered for that promotion until I started
4:28
building out a business case of why I should be promoted and what extra value I could bring
4:33
Even then I had to wait a little while until the annual review and promotion process came about
4:38
Number three, not setting clear boundaries at work. It is okay to say no to work if you have a full
4:42
plate and don't have capacity to pick this up. It's also okay to say no if it doesn't fall in your job
4:48
spec or your responsibilities. One of the ways I found to decline work nicely without actually
4:52
having to say the word no was saying, say, yes I could do this piece of work but I'm currently
4:57
working on this project which will take two weeks and I've got a number of other projects in the backlog, where would you like me to prioritize this? This way you're still standing winning
5:05
you're gently reminding your manager or your stakeholder of all of the other pieces of work that you're delivering. This makes them realize the value and the things you're already achieving
5:13
whilst setting their expectations. Number two, not investing sooner. I was about three years into
5:19
earning before I learned about investing and the key to investing is the longer your money is
5:24
invested for and in the market for, the bigger it grows. So learn about investing as early as you
5:28
can and start off just by investing a very small amount of money into the index funds and then as
5:34
your confidence grows you can look to invest more money and the biggest mistake that cost me the
5:38
most money was holding investments in one single company. At one of the companies I worked at I was
5:43
given company shares as part of my rewards package. This was part of the employee bonus scheme and
5:48
when I started working at the company it was doing incredibly well and their shares were growing and
5:53
growing but a year later the company hit tough times and the share price plummeted. Now what I
5:59
should have done was sell my company shares as soon as they invested, get that money out of the
6:04
company and then reinvested it in index funds or a mix of other stocks and shares. This would have
6:10
meant I would have diversified my portfolio and reduced that level of risk. Reinvesting my money
6:15
into a broad index fund would have been a much safer investment. I'd have had 10 times more money
6:20
if I had sold these shares when they vested instead of waiting. So please learn from my mistakes. So if
6:25
you've realised you're making mistake number two and you haven't started investing yet, you need to
6:29
learn about it. So for a full explanation of how to get started with investing check out my video here
Finance
Financial Planning & Management
Grants, Scholarships & Financial Aid
Study Grants & Scholarships
Career Resources & Planning