Gransnet forums

Sponsored discussions

   Please note: This topic is for discussions paid for by Gransnet clients. If you'd like to have your own paid for discussion thread, please feel free to mail us at [email protected]. If you are a journalist, start-up or student and you want to request feedback from gransnetters, please post in Media Requests.

What advice would you give to your younger self? Share with Legal & General - NOW CLOSED

(624 Posts)
EllieGransnet (GNHQ) Mon 04-Feb-19 14:42:13

We’ve all been asked this question at some point. Our answers can vary from ‘I wish I’d taken more risks’ or ‘I would have stopped caring about what people think’, to ‘I wish I’d had more fun’ or ‘I wish I’d travelled the world more’. But if you really think about it, what practical advice would you have really benefited from when you were younger? What would you have told your younger self? What would you have done differently? A recent survey carried out across Mumsnet and Gransnet revealed that some Gransnet users consciously put off financial decisions. Is going further with your finances something you might have given more consideration to, with the benefit of hindsight? Whatever advice you’d like to give to your younger self, Legal & General would love to know.

Here’s what Legal & General have to say: “On our savings journey, a nudge in the right direction can make the world of difference when it comes to our financial futures. It’s starting off early, saving little and often over a longer period, that can really pay off*. Although it’s never too late to start saving, what tips and guidance would have motivated you to do more with your money and just get started?”

Would you have taken more risks when you were younger? Is there any information you wish you would have known back then, such as how to save into your pension, how to invest your money or even how to save your money from an earlier age? Would you like to tell your younger self to be more confident in the decisions you make? Or perhaps you wish you’d spent more time with friends and family?

Whatever the advice you would like to give to your younger self, post them on the thread below and everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where one GNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).*

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw
GNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

*Open 4/02/19 to 25/02/19. To enter please post on the thread below. One entry per person. One prize to be won: £300 voucher of winner’s choice (from a list). Winner chosen by random draw performed by computer process.

*The value of your investments can fall as well as rise and any income from them is not guaranteed. Legal & General Unit Trust Managers Limited.

Bwills4577 Sat 23-Feb-19 14:04:01

Spend more time looking around you at the world and less looking at what other people are doing

Daph Sat 23-Feb-19 14:15:54

Get out of a bad relationship straight away, it will not get better until you do

marymod Sat 23-Feb-19 14:44:16

Don't ever bury your head in the sand - speak up when you're worried about things as early as possible. Things brought out in the open can be sorted out, but secrets are deadly.

rach31e Sat 23-Feb-19 15:47:28

Have the confidence to find your own path...don't be afraid to be different from the crowd.
Be kind...but not a people pleaser!
Be you...you're amazing smile

NannyCF Sat 23-Feb-19 16:35:19

Don't feel that you have to go with the crowd. Just be yourself. I wish I hadn't taken nearly a lifetime to realise this.

BigMxx3 Sat 23-Feb-19 16:36:53

I would tell my younger self to save more money so I could help out my children more with money

moonsheep Sat 23-Feb-19 17:44:12

To trust my own judgement more and not be so easily led!

Char123 Sat 23-Feb-19 18:09:41

take more risks

hobbisl38 Sat 23-Feb-19 19:10:38

Put as much in your pension as possible! I'm 55 and although I have been paying in to a pension since I was 24 I have put the absolute minimum in. As things stand, I will need to top it up quite dramatically if I am to have a comfortable retirement.

blahblahblah1 Sat 23-Feb-19 20:01:25

It's ok to say no to people sometimes. Don't worry so much about what others think, they're probably not even thinking about you anyway!

Annapops Sat 23-Feb-19 20:03:57

To have walked out on a marriage much earlier and listened to that inner voice. Someone who drinks every night in pubs, spends money entertaining himself rather than his family, plays football all weekend with the additional drinking that entailed, was never going to change into the family man I had hoped for. Not after one child, two, then three. I would have told myself I was being used as nothing more than a chattel and that he didn't deserve me or those beautiful children. I would have told myself there is a better life out there without him and that his treatment of us was so far removed from what is love. I would then never have wasted 24 years of my life on a useless waster.

Anj123 Sat 23-Feb-19 20:14:04

I would tell my younger self to care less about what others think of me, and to look after my skin and teeth!

emmamed Sat 23-Feb-19 20:17:46

I would tell myself not to get married so young and live a few life experiences before settling down.

annodomini Sat 23-Feb-19 20:41:50

A final thought. Don't say 'yes' to him until you have met his parents. grin

Nannyness1 Sat 23-Feb-19 22:00:05

Don't let fear of the unknown stop you taking a leap of faith. Have faith in yourself and don't live with regrets. Treat others as you would want to be treated yourself, and don't carry resentment if they fall below your expectations. Live life to the full and most important, BE HAPPY!

cjrmar Sat 23-Feb-19 22:37:49

Keep your legs crossed!

avery64 Sat 23-Feb-19 22:57:56

When I got my first month's salary as a newly qualified teacher my Dad said whatever you do don't just rely on a pension for your old age. Save little and often as you can and build up your own nest egg. Thanks to him I am living a comfortable retirement and have no regrets about anything i have done in my life so I think the only advice I would have given my younger self is 'Carry on as you are.....you are doing great!'

babs2209 Sat 23-Feb-19 23:15:59

don't sweat the small stuff
don't worry be happy
it doesn't mater what people think
it matters what you think

keffie Sat 23-Feb-19 23:20:23

Difficult because if my life hadn't been as it was I don't know I would have had the 4 awesome youngsters, there other halves and the grandchildren I have today. My childhood was troubled and I recreated that in adulthood and in the horrendous marriage to the ex.

I had to go where I did to become whom I am today so though I wouldn't want to do it all again I doubt I would change much, if anything, as I am O.K with whom I am today, peaceful and content. If I could change anything though I think it would be not to chuck a career way by moving round alot, which I did

grannybiker Sat 23-Feb-19 23:40:54

Believe in yourself!
You are a good person - you don't need to be a doormat for people to like you!.

I could tell myself to be more careful with contraception, but then my life would have taken different path. I'm actually very happy with where I am now.

couzels Sun 24-Feb-19 01:05:26

I would tell myself not to take things so personally and that it does get easier and much better. I would really urge my younger self to eat healthily and keep active.

outaouais Sun 24-Feb-19 04:39:26

Take more initiative learning languages, as early as possible. When TV is crap, make a point of reading. Take more consistent effort at improving physical fitness, via weight training & cycling. Study more & sooner, particularly at university, so earning credentials doesn't slip through one's fingers; they become INVALUABLE later. Do your overseas exchange in Japan, instead of the Netherlands.

toby1kenobi Sun 24-Feb-19 07:57:37

I would definitely say look after your money. Start saving. Don't waste it.

cozitsme Sun 24-Feb-19 08:28:13

Start saving for your retirement, it's only now at 48 that I am starting to panic that I haven't thought about my future enough. Even as a temp, I could have set up my own personal pension plan and would have felt much more secure than I do now. You think you have all the time in the world before you have to think about it when really you don't.

smoran37 Sun 24-Feb-19 08:35:53

Pass the driving test.
Do more things that I enjoy rather than trying to accommodate everyone else.
More exercise. I think my mobility in later years has suffered because I didn't stay fit