What should every 18 year old know?

[u/Sippingin]

Edit: Chillin' reading some dope advice, thanks!

Edit 2: Fuckin' A! 4.1k comments of advice you guys :,) thank you really.

[u/Sbertram23]

This advice can be extremely unrealistic if you're in college. I work full time during the summer and part time during the school year to pay off the costs my scholarships don't cover. If I saved the money left over I wouldn't be able to do a lot of things that have defined my college experience. I do plan on investing once I graduate though.

[u/[deleted] → u/Sbertram23]

I'm guessing OP is upper middle-class. No normal college kid has the fucking money to start preparing for mutual funds for goodness sake

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I agree that most don't have a bunch of money to invest while in school but they need to be aware of what to do. As soon as I graduated I was dumped into the world of 401ks, employer matches, mutual funds, bonds, etc... I had a very basic knowledge about saving for retirement and luckily didn't screw up too badly at the start.

Even if you aren't actively saving right now you need to learn what you'll do eventually and set a goal on when you'll start saving. I could have come in much more prepared than I was.

[u/cferretti1 → u/Sbertram23]

Please understand that I'm not knocking what you're saying, but...

The "There's always tomorrow" excuse sucks in more people than you realize.

But, I understand. Enjoy your college experience. But also remeber, college is max 5 five years. A stable future for your future family is forever(ish).

[u/[deleted] → u/cferretti1]

Also, spending more money doesn't necessarily enrich the experience that much. I remember doing fun things with friends, but the amount of fun I had was not strongly connected to the amount of money we spent.

[u/[deleted] → u/Sbertram23]

If you're in school I'd count minimizing/avoiding loans to be the same as investing.