What country are you in?

But I will give a few pieces of general advice: if food delivery is popular in your country, do not use it. Ever. It is a notorious money drain basically no matter where you are in the country. If you want to pick up food, force yourself to go out and buy it yourself. Or buy frozen foods for when you’re too tired to cook.

I did the maths for one of my friends who was essentially addicted to food delivery apps (ordering almost every day) and discovered that he had spent almost a third of his monthly earnings on food delivery. Cutting this habit essentially singlehandedly fixed his budget problems and allowed him to start paying down his credit card debt.

Which leads me to my second point of advice: don’t get into credit card debt. It is extremely painful to crawl out of.

Wear sunscreen. Seriously. Every single day. 365. Rain or shine. Sounds like a joke, but just wear sunscreen. In 20-30 years you won’t regret it.

Regularly invest into a broad market index fund. At your age a few bucks a month will compound and you’ll be a millionaire before you know it. It gets a lot harder the longer you wait, so just do it.

One thing that has gotten weirdly apparent to me as I’ve gotten older is that I’ve always taken care of myself, most people my age have not and it’s apparent. I have no real aches and pains or physical ailments, when most people my age have a laundry list of them. People always peg me for 10-15 years younger than I am. Exercise, eat well, drink water, avoid baking in the sun, avoid drugs and drinking in excess, learn to meditate, (wear sunscreen). It sounds like a lot, but I promise you won’t regret it.

Hey,

Many the things you’re feeling, I felt too when I was your age. Off course things might be very different, depending on the country you live in and the culture there, but still I think there are things that apply to people everywhere.

First off I would try to dismiss the idea that life can be planned or figured out, or that you should know what to do with it. Of course its nice to have goals and dreams but the older I get, i realize that all the older people I thought had it figured out are just making it up as they go too. Looking at former classmates now, I was always jealous of the ones that knew exactly what they wanted to be whereas I didn’t really know and still don’t. But many of them pursued those dreams only to find themselves somewhere completely different, so don’t worry about that.

Getting a job, even a bad one is not necessarily as bad as you might think. The upside being that they often attract a lot of other people your age who are going through the same thing. So even if the work might kinda suck, you might have more fun than you think and meet a lot of people. And even a little financial independence can feel very good.

I would also very much encourage you to find hobbies you like. There are many things that you can do on a small budget, and since you’re posting here you have access to the internet and a wealth of knowledge that comes with that. Personally I enjoy photography, and you definitely don’t need fancy gear to do that. I also enjoy sewing and woodworking. In general anything creative where you can see the result of your effort can be really satisfying. Don’t make it about being the best or making it your career. Do it for yourself. Often we feel pressure to accomplish things by society or our parents etc. but don’t underestimate the pressure and expectations you might put on yourself without knowing.

Having a hobby and achieving something there can give you a lot of pride and satisfaction that will make you worry less about all those other things. Its also a great way to meet other people too.

Another thing I wouldn’t underestimate is exercise. Try not to focus about looks or worry about your body but the tiredness after exercise is also a great way to feel accomplishment and to see a progress when you might feel like you’re standing still elsewhere. Also a healthy body will give you more energy to tackle other things.

I know a lot of this advice is a bit generic and easier said than done, but in general Id just advise you to give things a chance and try as many things as possible without worrying about what comes next. Its a bit like hiking lokking at the mountain on the horizon us very daunting, but just walking is not that hard and no matter which road you take after a while you will look back and see the place you started as far away as that mountain.

The main thing I’ve experienced in life so far is that I would never have predicted where I would end up next and that things change all the time. As much as you think you know yourself, what you can and cant do or whats realistic for you to achieve, you are probably wrong and will be surprised 10 years from now.

I hope that helps and I wish you all the best!

I’m 29, so not too much older than you so take all this with a grain of salt. Ive been very fortunate in my life to have good friends and family to support me and jobs up until now were not super hard to get. My life is likely very different from yours.

Enjoy the little things man. Find friends that can be family, don’t pay attention to the entire world all the time like on social media. Hell, I barely use Lemmy and completely got off other social media. Its been a good choice for me.

Find a decent job that pays the bills and figure out what you like. You dont have to figure everything out right away. Things change, you’ll change. Enjoy the ride. Thats what I’m trying to do.

Also dont quit a job before having another lined up. Its not worth it, it may feel like it is in the moment, but its not.

Set up a retirement tax fund - equivalent to a an RRSP in Canada- and set up an automatic deposit of 10% of your after-tax earnings into it.

Assuming you can eat and cover shelter, of course.

Keep that up, and you will have an early, well-unded retirement.

Yes: “advice”, like “help”, never gets an S.

Find the best paying job you can and start investing ASAP. My biggest regret is not investing sooner. It doesn’t even need to be substantial. Anything will snowball, the amount just makes it snowball faster.

Honestly I’d skip college at this point. Even programming jobs are rare now days. Get a trade job. Something that becomes good paying like electrician or plumber. It’s hard on the body, but if you invest well, you might be able to retire before it becomes a problem.

If you want a family, don’t wait for the “right time”. There is always going to be something going on in your life and the world. If you want kids, best to have them while you have the energy to play with them. They can also serve as your reason to get out of bed and reach for more instead of a void in your life that keeps you in bed. This assumes family is important to you of course.