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low calorie primitive offers advice

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franksolich:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2700067

Oh my.

The low-calorie primitive, who happens to be in her late 50s:


--- Quote ---SoCalDem  (1000+ posts)       Wed Jan-16-08 06:16 PM
Original message
 
"Oldsters" advice to the young ones.

Every young person I have ever known (myself included), has a tendency to think that "everything will work out", and that they have "all the time in the world" .

It won't
You don't

This is the advice we gave our own..(add your own pearls of wisdom)

1. Get good grades and apply for EVERY scholarship you can.. even the small ones add up.

It sucks to be studying when all your buds are out there having fun, but in 10 years you will probably have to struggle to even remember some of their names, but the grades you get NOW, can help you have a chance at a better future, and all the good things that go along with it.

2. If your family can afford it, do NOT get a shitty little job while you are in school. School IS a job.. the MOST important job you can have, as a young person.

You will NEVER get a chance to go back to high school as a teenager, and those years are too important to waste as you rush from school to job. Employers are notoriously harsh with youngsters too, and often make more demands on their time than they should. The "stuff" you would buy with the "extra" money is not worth the effort it might take you , and you'll only find MORE stuff to buy. Once you are on the merry-go-round, it's hard to get off.

3. Find something you LOVE to do..even if it sounds silly. Careers and wealth often come from the things you love to do. There are careers in all kind of things. Kids get hung up on the "glamour" jobs...professional sports, fashion..dance..acting..music..

Everything you come into contact in your daily life was invented by SOMEONE.. Give yourself the time to open your mind to all possibilities.. Cultivate your interests, and learn all you can about them.

4. NEVER borrow money, if you can avoid it. You may need to borrow money for school or for a car, but DO NOT GET CREDIT CARDS.

(one caveat:..It's not a bad idea to get ONE card, that you can use for car rentals or a true emergency, but do not "shop" with it.. use it only enough to keep it in force..and pay it in full EVERY MONTH)

Once you have that slender little genie in your wallet, you WILL use it. Everyone I ever knew with credit problems, planned to "only use them in case of an emergency". Once you get a "balance" going, a sense of futility sets in and you end up spending even more, since you probably can never catch up anyway.

5. Do not get "car crazy". Advertisers know all the buttons to push, to make you want that shiny new hunk of aluminum & plastic, but a decent used car, will always be a better deal. If you want to impress someone, borrow or rent a car for the special occasion. (see #4)

6. If you plan to buy a home, start saving early. Open a "House savings account", and even if you only put $20 a week into it, you will have started saving for your down payment. If you start this at 20, by the time you are 30, you would have $11,932.68 (3% interest compounded quarterly).

7. Rent the crappiest/cheapest place you can stand..and have roommates to defray the cost. RESIST THE TEMPTATION TO SHARE WITH A GIRLFRIEND/BOYFRIEND. It's hard to negotiate monetary details of living, with a loved one.

8. Learn to cook, and try not to eat a lot of junk-food. This is especially important if you have crappy or no health insurance. Even when prices at the grocery store are high, it;s still better for you and cheaper to cook your own food.

9. Do not marry someone with loads of debt. When you marry them, those payments become YOUR payments too, since they come out of the combined family budget. Couples fight about money more than anything else, so why ask for trouble. You cannot "borrow" your way out of debt, so consolidating debts rarely helps.

10. Get life insurance when you are YOUNG. Have it automatically deducted from your bank account. People poo-pooh whole life policies, but if you can lock in a low rate, someday when you are old and sick, you will thank your lucky stars that you did it. When you are in your 50's and find that your health problems make it too expensive to buy, you will be wishing you had bought that insurance when you were young and healthy. If you are single, out your parents down as beneficiaries, and when you marry & have kids, you can easily change the beneficiaries with a phone call.

11. When you are building your career, be flexible, and ready to move to better jobs, in different places. Stay as unburdened by "stuff & entanglements" as possible. If you get a chance for a promotion, that involves a move, you don't want to have to sell a house, or convince a "homebody" girlfriend. Opportunities do not often repeat themselves. the things you DON'T take advantage of, will eat away at you forever. You have to be ready to DO the "what if"s.

12. Babies NEVER make a bad situation better, and sometimes they even make a good situation worse. It's never a good reason to have a baby just because everyone else is having kids. Have a kid when you cannot stand the idea of NOT having one. When you are in a stable relationship, and your finances are in good shape, and you are ready to give that baby 150% of your love & effort.. that's when you need a baby.

13. Buy LESS house than you want....for a little money as you can .. ALWAYS get a 30yr FIXED rate (with PITI) and pay extra every month.

Consider your commute to work when you do buy a house. If you spend 14 hrs a day AWAY from home, and you spend every extra dime on gas to get to and from work, you might be better off with a crappier house, closer to where you work... or a job that may pay less, closer to where you want to live. If you only have yard work on your days off, and house repairs in every spare moment, you will not get much enjoyment from your house.

Consider your house, as a place to live..not as an investment. Houses do not always sell for more than you paid...and just because you worked hard to get it fixed up, you may not recoup your expenses.

14. Do NOT remove the equity in your house. It may sound tempting, but when you are young, you cannot grasp the fact that someday you will be in your 50's, and having a house that's paid off, is worth a lot more then, than that new car now...or that vacation...or that boat..

15. If you find yourself with "extra money", buy small pieces of land in an undeveloped area near you. They "aren't making any more land", and every place we have ever lived, has grown , and having an asset you can sell , is never a bad idea.

16. Take a vacation every year..even if it's a short local trip. Save for it in advance, and don't overspend.

17. Take lots of pictures. You can never go back and take a picture of your 4 yr old, once he/she's 15.
--- End quote ---

I dunno.

This sounds like good stuff, but it's coming from a primitive, and the low-calorie primitive is omitting other useful advice, such as about keeping an open mind, being compassionate, practicing tolerance, &c., &c., &c.

The Fat Che in the punchbowl shows up, waxing autobiographical:


--- Quote ---Horse with no Name  (1000+ posts)       Wed Jan-16-08 06:41 PM
Response to Original message
 
6. 18. Don't marry someone thinking you can change them into what you want. 

People do not change no matter how many times they tell you they will. What you see is what you get. Also do not marry anyone with a substance abuse problem unless you are a true masochist.
--- End quote ---

Then the low-calorie primitive jumps on the autobiography bandwagon:


--- Quote ---SoCalDem  (1000+ posts)       Wed Jan-16-08 07:12 PM
Response to Reply #9
 
12. A-men on the gossip advice..

We always told our boys to never say anything they would not want to see as a headline in the paper..or on the news.. and to never do anything they would not wanting their grandmother to find out about

2 of the 3 took the advice
--- End quote ---

One suspects the son who didn't, is the son a high-school dropout who's making a high six-figure salary as a computer genius.

It's a medium-sized campfire, with much primitive regret fueling it.

DixieBelle:
^good catch frank - the lowcal's son. I suspect he mows lawns or something along those lines.

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