Five Major Money Mistakes I Made in my 20s

One of the many beauties of the internet is the wealth of information out there, especially from armchair experts such as myself. The truth is, if you’re willing to do your research, you can learn so much from peoples’ firsthand experiences.

Today I thought I would share a bit of wisdom I learned along the way and I hope you find it valuable!

I did not focus on making a strong income.

Admitting this makes me cringe SO MUCH and is precisely the reason I have zero filter when it comes to mentoring recent college grads, especially women. When I graduated from a ridiculously conservative college in 2008, I had the mentality of “oh, I’ll get married some day so I don’t need to focus on making a good income.”

CRINGE. So much cringe.

I took a job that paid a salary that almost allowed me to apply for food stamps. After four years as a poor college student, I was a poor young professional and I did even know to care.

If I could go back, I would tell myself to make as much money as humanly possible in my 20s, even if it means sacrificing some of a social life. People in their 20s NEED a financial cushion that is not named Mom and Dad.

I spent WAY too much.

I have always loved fashion, especially designer purses. I also love outlet shopping. WELL, there’s a fantastic outlet mall in Leesburg, VA (roughly 45 minutes from my first apartment) that I would visit on WAY too frequent of a basis. Thinking about how much I potentially spent there makes me want to scream.

Also, I decided to join a gym that had (I kid you not)- aromatherapy piping through the air vents, amazing classes every hour, a beautiful, luxurious pool, towel service and many, many other amenities… when all I needed was a treadmill. Oh, and it cost $100/month.

Finally, my social life has always been a high priority to me which, of course, isn’t an inherent evil. BUT, most of my friends were in the business world and made twice as much as I was and I had always struggled with keeping up with the proverbial Joneses. Soooo, nights out ended up being way more expensive than they should have been.. But I did have fun 🙂

I didn’t side hustle.

In my defense, my very first job out of college was as a second grade teacher which is by far the most draining profession known to man. While I liked the idea of side hustling, I just did not have the energy my first semester of teaching.

I did eventually get to side hustling, which entailed babysitting two very low-maintenance grade school kids and haven’t stopped supplementing my income since.

I lived in a ridiculously expensive apartment.

Sigh, I did love that apartment, though. I lived in Old Town Alexandria in a cute, old 1 BR apartment without any roommates. I woke up on Saturday mornings, made my coffee, and watched boats drive by on the Potomac. It was blissful and I couldn’t even kind of afford it. When I think about the money I torched that year, it kills me. If I had a roommate, I would have saved upwards of $7,200 that year which I could have saved, which brings me to my next point…

I did not save or contribute to my Roth IRA.

If I had *just* saved the maximum (at the time) $5,500 per year of my working 20s and put it in a Roth IRA, it would have been roughly $150,000 by the time I retire. $5,500 is a whopping $438 per month which, while certainly a sacrifice, would have been so worth it.

I know we all made mistakes in our younger years and I’d love to know about yours! Feel free to share in the comments below and have a very Happy Tuesday!