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Your early 20s are an exciting time of your life, and as a boss babe, you want to live them to the fullest. Here are a few ideas for that:
(p. s.: It’s never too late to do any of these. So don’t fret if you haven’t done them yet; simply do them now!)
1. Get a degree
Let’s start with the boring one first.
You can use your early 20s to get yourself a degree. That’s what society tells you to do.
Now, I am a firm believer that it doesn’t take a degree to succeed in life – unless you plan on becoming a lawyer, doctor, pilot, or anything of the sort.
However, I also firmly believe that even if you do not need to use your degree later on in life, attaining it will teach you many valuable things that will help you on the road to success.
For example, I don’t plan on spending my life practicing law, yet I am already noticing the benefits of having a legal understanding through my law studies.
Technically you can, of course, get a degree at any point in life. In fact, I highly encourage you never to stop learning!
However, I believe that your early 20s are the perfect time to spend at uni or college.
- Firstly, you’ve left school not long ago, meaning you are still very much in the groove of studying for exams, so the transitioning will be more comfortable.
- You most likely don’t have children yet, and many of you are single, so you’ve got much time at hand to invest in your studies.
- The earlier you get your degree, the longer you can draw the benefits from it.
So don’t dismiss the idea of a degree too quickly, even if you are sick of the outdated education system.
2. Start a business
Alright, now we are getting to the more exciting parts.
Your early 20s are the perfect time to start your first business. Mind you, of course, you can still perfectly well start your business with 30, 40, 50, 60 or older.
However, once you are off age, it is a bit more effortless to start a business than in your teens. That’s why your early 20s are perfect.
If you are working on getting a degree, it is the perfect time to grow your business as a side hustle for a few years.
By the time you’ve got your degree, you will have a business that provides you with a full income so that you don’t even have to enter a 9-to-5.
Building a business requires some money, but it is not as much as you’d might think, depending on the business. And while you are at uni or college, you can use your summer and winter break to work and earn some money.
Also, in your early 20s, you are most likely the only one that relies on that money, so investing it in something a bit more unconventional is less painful.
Read also: 10 Signs You Are Entrepreneur Material
3. Move out
In their early 20s, many young adults spread their wings for the first time and move out of their parent’s place.
Now, there is no shame in still living at home during your early and also your late 20s.
In fact, I always believe that you can use the money you save by staying at home to invest in your business.
On top of that, you should cherish the time you live together with your family, since most likely you moving out will be for good.
But, if this is a goal of yours and you feel genuinely called to leave the nest, then go for it!
Now is your time!
4. Understand and manage your finances
Ok, so this one is mandatory. If you are reading this, you can definitely understand and manage your finances in your early 20s.
I don’t want to hear any excuses here!
This is incredibly important yet so often overlooked.
You know the saying ‘knowledge is power‘, right? Well, it actually isn’t entirely true.
It needs to say ‘knowledge is potential power.‘
Understanding your finances gives you the potential to have power over your life. That’s why you need to do it.
However, if all that knowledge stays in your head, it is of no use. You need to implement it to truly take life into your own hands.
Here are some of the topics you should learn more about in your early 20s:
- creating a savings account
- paying off debt
- the bills you have to pay each year
- how to invest your money
- how to prepare for retirement
- how much you can afford depending on your income
- taxes
Especially on the topic of taxes, I want to reassure you. It isn’t as daunting as it seems in the beginning.
Once I got myself a program which leads me through the step by step process and asks me for all the relevant information, I managed to do my taxes within a day.
I’ve been doing it that way since I was 18. And even though I neither have the most significant income nor the biggest expenses, I’ve already saved so much money through doing my taxes.
So do some research on programs that fit the tax system of your country!
(I live in Germany, and for the past four years, I’ve used the WISO Steuer Software, which I bought and downloaded from Amazon.de. It is not ideally made for students, but it works well enough.)
I’d also like to recommend a very affordable course I recently took. It’s called Transform Your Wealth.
Inside the course, many videos will transform your mindset towards wealth, teach you all the essential universal laws that impact your wealth, and (what I especially liked) give you some real and practical tips on how to organize your back account optimally.
Because the creators of the course always say ‘money flows to where it’s organized most.‘
5. Travel often (unless there is a pandemic going on)
Your early 20s will give you a kind of freedom that you most likely won’t have for a long time in your life.
You are young, full of energy, off age, and don’t have children you need to consider when traveling.
Use that time wisely!
Travel with your significant other, travel with friends, travel with your siblings, or travel alone.
Just make sure that you don’t have any regret later on in life because you didn’t use the freedom when it was available to you.
Read also: 15 Ways To Live A Life You Won´t Regret
6. Take calculated risks and make mistakes
You don’t need to have everything figured out yet in your 20s. In fact, your 20s – and even more so, your early 20s – are there for you to experiment, follow different paths in life, make mistakes, and learn from them.
This doesn’t mean you should go out there doing illegal things or risking your life by doing freestyle wall climbing.
It means you should go for it if an opportunity excites you and you have calculated the risks.
Why not start that business?
Why not move abroad?
Why not change your major?
Read also: 12 Signs You Should (Not) Drop Out Of College
When you’re young, you’ve got plenty of time to make up for mistakes should they happen.
Also, it is your life. You are most likely not yet responsible for a spouse and children, so take the risk if the reward is worth it!
7. Determine your values
In your early 20s, you are mature enough to finally decide what values you will live by.
If you become clear of your values this early on in your life, it will serve you well throughout the following decades.
If you live by them, you can be unapologetically you, avoid regrets, and create a life you truly love.
Let’s say one of your most important values is honesty. If that is the case, you won’t tolerate people that lie. You will cut them out of your life as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Also, you won’t lie to reach your goals, which means you won’t be able to take advantage of some opportunities, which will change the course of your life.
If you decide to value personal growth, you will spend your days reading, watching, and listening to self-improvement content. You will spend your money on these things instead of spending that money on partying or cars.
That way, you will have a starkly different life in five years compared to what could have been had you not focused on the things you value.
Your values are like the rule book of the game you need to play to create your dream life.
If you don’t know the rules, your chances of winning the game are slim.
8. Get that haircut you’ve been eyeing
Sometimes we are madly in love with a haircut or hair color, but we keep postponing actually getting it because of some unconvincing arguments.
Well, darling, that’s what you’re the 20s are for!
Experiment! Get that haircut you’ve been eyeing forever.
You will be much more reluctant to try something like this once you work in a 9-to-5 (if that is your goal).
9. Start curating a timeless wardrobe
Chances are that by the time you’ve reached your early 20s, you have mostly figured out your personal style.
This is great because it means you can slowly but surely start to invest in high quality and timeless pieces that can last you for many years to come.
I’m thinking about things like gold jewelry, expensive handbags, and sunglasses.
Take the time and the money to build a wardrobe with high-quality pieces that you can easily mix and match.
Read also: 11 Fashion Hacks For Stylish Women
10. Do the inner work
One, if not the most life-changing thing you can ever do, is getting rid of your inner baggage.
No matter how amazing your parents have been, they have messed you up in one way or another – without them intending to do so, of course, it’s more how you interpreted their actions and words.
This can be as little as them saying ‘no‘ to you once, and you unconsciously interpreting it as not being loved.
It can also be that your parents lovingly corrected something that you did, and you unconsciously adopted the belief that you can never be as good as them.
It’s important to realize that these things happen to everyone. They happened to your parents as well as your grandparents. And it doesn’t make them bad people.
What counts is that you are getting rid of these toxic and limiting beliefs as soon as possible.
The sooner you do that, the quicker you can live as your best version, the most incredible life you can imagine.
Partly, you can get rid of some of these beliefs by relentlessly dedicating time to personal growth.
However, you won’t be able to get rid of the deepest blocks you have by yourself.
You’ll need a mentor or coach to guide you through that process.
So, I recommend keeping your eyes open for mentors and coaches you trust and feel drawn to.
I have a few whose service I intend to book as soon as I have the financial means to do so.
I can’t wait for the transformational work they will do with me!
11. Enjoy yourself!
And lastly but most certainly not least, you should enjoy your 20s to the fullest!
I know that boss babes like us are ambitious. We dream big, and we are willing to hustle to get there.
But don’t spend all day, every day of your 20s hustling away.
You are just going to look back on that unique time and regret not having cherished it enough.
I know it can be challenging to get out of that perpetual state of busyness – trust me, I am guilty of that myself.
But try to do at least one thing each day just for the pleasure of it and not because it will get you anywhere.
If you don’t like to go to parties, then don’t. Don’t feel pressured to do the ‘typical’ early 20s stuff you see in Holywood movies.
Do what’s fun for you and cherish it to its fullest.
I hope these 11 ideas inspired you to make your early 20s one of the best parts of your life.
But never fall into the trap of thinking it can’t get better because, darling, you have NO IDEA how many wonders are still waiting for you out there.
I believe you can do great things, and I can’t wait to see, hear, or read about them.
Much love
Sophie
