The Top 10 Worst Decisions You Can Make in Your 20s

So, a lot of people say that your 20s are a good time to learn and make mistakes and grow as a person. Just, you know, try a bunch of things. Bad decisions don't matter.

You're supposed to be an idiot, broke, single, and nobody expects anything of you. Well, I have some bad news for you. Your 20s are like walking through a World War II minefield in Japan in 1945, bouncing betties everywhere if you make one wrong move.

Okay, not not really. The key in your 20s is to make mistakes, but not let any of that actually ruin your life. Cuz anyone tells you that you can't ruin your life in your 20s is just plain wrong.

And look, I've made no shortage of bad decisions in my life. I mean, I think part of the normal experience of being a male in your 20s is that you're just making mistakes. The key is to try things.

Don't be afraid of mistakes. Learn from them. But don't let those mistakes be devastating or lifealtering.

Your life can be ruined in two ways. Very slowly or all in one moment. And both are equally dangerous and usually due to your own decisions.

Today, we're going to break down the top 10 worst decisions you can make in your 20s. It's going to cover everything from the bad decision that wipes out everything in one go or those small decisions that add up over time. This video is not going to be the key to success, but rather the key to avoiding catastrophic failures.

I've seen both sides of this. I'm 29 now. I've seen people I grew up with get locked into lifestyles that they couldn't afford or locked into addictions and they're trying to fix their health or or maybe they let a woman wreck their lives or made one bad decision one day that just ruined them for years.

And at the same time, others were able to stumble through and not let mistakes get to them and make a few good decisions and now they're chilling and they're they're in a great situation as they enter their 30s. Your 20s are special and important for many reasons. It's really the decade that can set you up and shape the rest of your life.

So keep that in mind. Now, there's one thing we have to kind of be careful with. There's a concept that I think I invented, but I probably didn't.

And this is called the idiot pass. It means that when you're young and in your 20s, you get a pass for being naive and inexperienced in everything and work and relationships. If you're 22 at work and make a bunch of mistakes, you get a pass.

People are going to say, "Oh, well, you know, he's 22. He's new. This is expected.

" But if you're 32 or 40, you don't get that same pass anymore because people assume that you're experienced by then and your idiot pass has expired. You don't get the idiot pass forever. I also want to clarify that this video shouldn't scare you into doing nothing by giving you a bunch of mistakes and decisions because that's also a mistake.

Doing nothing is also a big mistake. Use the idiot pass to learn things and improve, but don't be too much of an idiot to where your decisions [ __ ] you. The greatest investor in the history of the world, Warren Buffett, once said, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and only five minutes to ruin it.

" So, use the idiot pass, but be careful not to make a really bad lifealtering mistake. Does that sound good? All right, now that we know that, let's get right into the top 10.

So, worst decision number 10, becoming dependent on weed, alcohol, corn, gambling, or nicotine. So, this is a lot of stuff, but these things are going to take your life away from you slowly and all in different forms. really any substance or artificial means of giving your body that hit that's just it's not going to lead you to anything good.

It gives you a temporary happiness or a distraction from life, but eventually you're going to have to find real ways to be happy and real ways to enjoy life. Now, I'm not going to sit here and say that you should never drink or never enjoy an occasional cigar. In fact, at least once a year, I find myself at a blackjack table with a drink and a cigar at the same time.

But being dependent on anything in general is bad, unless it's coffee or something. I mean, I'm a coffee addict. We're not going to count that because coffee is the [ __ ] but you know what I mean.

You want to limit the things you're dependent on. A lot of these things start slow, like having an occasional drink, maybe a cigarette once or twice. Then you just slowly do them more and more until you're there.

I mean, I saw so many people who they just had a cigarette once in a while or they vaped at a party and it was just a weekend thing and then it became a weekend thing and when you're stressed and then before you know it, you're a daily user. Some wise guy once said that the chains of bad habits often go unnoticed until they become too big to break. I can't remember who said that, but fire quote.

But there's a big difference between occasional use and it becoming a daily crutch. Cuz the daily crutch is going to lower your energy, your health, even your money if it's gambling or smoking or something. This is an example of decisions that are bad decisions that are not immediate destruction.

Like you have one day of drinking and one day of smoking. It's it's not going to kill you, but it's a slow decline if you keep doing it. Discipline is crucial here because many of these things are just flatout bad for you.

Your body, your brain, even your soul. You don't want to be stuck in your 30s fixing all these bad habits when it becomes much harder. Like these are going to destroy a lot of things for you.

I think Jaco Willing said it very well. No free dopamine. Anytime you earn happiness, it should be the right way.

So you got to earn it the hard way. Find real ways to be happy. All right.

Worst decision you can make in your 20s. Number nine, getting into stupid legal trouble. So this is kind of in the ruin your life in one bad night category.

like you can ruin your life fairly easily, basically overnight in a few ways. So, there's things that can happen very fast and have long-standing consequences. Here are some common ones I've seen.

Number one is a DUI. Drving while intoxicated, driving under the influence. This is probably the fastest speedrun to ruining your life, especially if you cause an accident or hurt someone.

Like, you can literally go to jail. When I was growing up throughout my 20s, like I couldn't believe the amount of people that drive home drunk. Like, it's it's super common.

or they drive home just totally messed up on something. And that is a great way to just ruin your life, ruin your job prospects, everything. Another one that's problematic, getting in fights when going out is another high-risk, lowreward activity.

Same with stealing stuff. Just any little stupid crime. And a lot of this can come from being influenced or by being around the wrong people.

But these things seem small and they can be significant. Like I got in trouble a few times in university, mostly due to partying and alcoholrelated reasons. And it basically gave me a huge headache and and stress in applying for my jobs.

I mean, my university told me that I had to take a therapy class to get something off my record. And it was very stupid and a big waste of time. Now, thankfully, my mistakes didn't ruin me, but they easily could have.

Stuff can stay on your record, making life much more difficult. Don't be that guy that's like, "Oh, it's not a big deal. I can drive home.

It's only 10 minutes away. " That tiny decision could literally change your life forever. Like if you get in some form of legal trouble, jobs ask about it, background checks suddenly are flagged, like travel becomes harder and one stupid night can follow you for years.

Also, doing dumb impulsive things can get you injured. It can damage your body by, you know, doing that stupid thing your friend dared you to do. So, limit dangerous and illegal things, especially getting too wasted or getting into fights.

All I have to say here is abide by the law. Say no to drugs. Buy a dare t-shirt.

Do what you have to do. Playing games with the law is almost never worth it. So be careful with this stuff, fellas.

Don't speedrun ruining your life because you think it's no big deal. All right, worst decision you can make. Number eight, locking into an expensive lifestyle.

So this one is so so common and also kind of a slow burn. So you finally start making money and then you think you're two chains. I can buy anything I want right now and immediately upgrade everything.

A new car, nice apartment, a Gucci belt, better everything. And it feels like you made it. But what you actually did was lock yourself into a lifestyle.

Like, let's say you get a nice job at 22 and you think you're the [ __ ] Now, you buy a car for $500 a month to impress your friends and the ladies cuz you can afford it. But that $500 a month in your car in your 20s, if you invested, that can be several hundred,000 later in life. Now, you've just limited your freedom.

You need that income. You can't take as much risk and you can't invest that money. You didn't upgrade your life.

You just trapped your future self. You took your freedom and just deposited it in a garbage can in a public park. Debt is the enemy.

It is the silent killer. Unless it's a house or maybe a cheap used car, debt should be avoided. Carrying debt through life is like playing zombies except voluntarily with the pistol the whole time.

It's fine for the first few rounds, but later it becomes impossible to do anything. Lifestyle inflation kills your ability to get ahead early, and your 20s are the best time to build that financial gap. So, don't build your whole life into a paycheck.

Too many people are trying to build a life to impress people who don't care about you and don't even like you. In your early 20s, people really care about what others think. But by the end of your 20s, this feeling should die.

It should be taken out back and deleted. In your 20s, everyone wants to fit in, feel validated by society, by women, friends, social life, and a lot of that's just buying [ __ ] I don't want any of that. Screw society.

I don't even consider myself a member of society. Learn how to live with not that much stuff. Like, you don't really don't need much to be happy.

You don't need all these things. Me traveling a lot in the last two years has basically taught me you really don't need that much to be happy. By me avoiding this mistake in my life in my 20s, I made good money, but I kept my expenses low.

Living with roommates, I've always bought a used car and cash, invested thousands per month. And looking back, that decision changed my entire financial trajectory. I went from nothing special financially to having a really comfortable cushion of compounding investments.

If there's one thing I want everyone to know about me, I'm the cushion of compounding. I'm getting carried away in this video, but seriously, who cares about stupid people and what they think? Set yourself up for financial success later in life just by being a little frugal.

Just spend significantly less than what you bring in without sacrificing your quality of life. And this is going to create a life of freedom for your 30-year-old self. You don't want debt and a bunch of wasted time.

All right, worst decision you can make. Number seven, sleepwalking your 20s. So, one of the biggest slow and silent mistakes is sleepwalking mindlessly, wandering around in your 20s with no goals, no direction, no strategy.

Most people don't take their 20s seriously, and they delay everything. They procrastinate. They treat it like a throwaway decade.

They they let their phone and internet fry their brain. They game every day for too long. They just do what everyone tells them they should be doing.

And and then meanwhile, these people deep down, they usually have ambitions. They say like, "I want these things, but I'm it's going to be hard. I'm going to start this later.

" Too many people don't have an objective. They're just coasting through, just drifting wherever the wind takes them. And I think society plays a role into this.

They say your 20s are for messing around through the best times of your life. And you know, sure, to a degree, you have time to make mistakes. But if you treat your 20s like a gap decade where nothing matters, you're going to wake up at 30 and realize that other people didn't throw it away.

They didn't coast. And the people who tried are going to have completely different lives. They're going to have more skills, more income, more, you know, momentum and experiences.

Maybe they went on dates and met cool people or even found their wife. They have good friends in a network and they used the idiot pass to their advantage and you didn't. You were too busy playing GTA 6 whenever the [ __ ] that comes out.

I had moments in life where I was coasting, especially in school and especially at my last job. And you don't really feel it in the moment. It just feels like a later problem.

But looking back, it's scary how easy it is to lose years of your life doing nothing meaningful when you could have been building. You got to think about what you want to do in this life and then make a plan to aggressively pursue it. You know, break it down.

Use the wire vision tool and go make it happen. With everything moving as fast as it is with AI, the economy, it now is not the time to coast and relax. If you want a really good life, you got to do the unglamorous work even when you don't want to.

So, don't throw the decade away and sleepwalk through it because it may create a big mess and not leave yourself much to work with in your 30s. A lot of guys I talk to my age are in their 30s and they feel like they're just at square zero, square one. Whereas I feel like people who tried, they're ahead in the game.

They have their investments already compounding. So make your 30s easier. Start trying things in your 20s.

Don't sleepwalk through them. All right. Worst decision you can make in your 20s.

Number six, never taking meaningful risks. So some people mess up by taking too much risk or a really stupid risk. But way more people mess up by taking no risk.

They follow the safe path way too closely. The amount of people that want to do cool things, quit their job, go move and travel, but then never do it. It It's off the charts.

They never do anything uncomfortable for a variety of reasons, right? The stress that it brings, worrying about what others think, or maybe you don't have enough money. Playing it safe is fine, but it's not going to get you to where you want.

Let me be extremely clear with everyone. You will never have a window of opportunity like this ever again in your 20s where you can take this much risk. Your 20s are really a unique time where you're independent.

You start making your own money and you also have no major responsibilities yet. And that's a unique time to start taking risks. I'm almost 30 and I feel like I have more to lose at this point.

I can't just be an idiot and try things like I could at 22. At this point in my life, many of my friends have families, kids, and more responsibilities. And these are beautiful things, but they can't take risks anymore like they could in the past.

The window of risk-taking is really not that long to go after your dreams and what you want in life. So, if you're one of those guys listening to this and you don't have a wife or kids or a mortgage or family, like take advantage of that right now. We only live one life.

Too many people play it too safe and then 5 to 10 years later, they have nothing in their life that's actually theirs and and a life that they might not have even wanted. Now, you do need courage to take risks. Like, I was [ __ ] my pants when I was calling in my boss to quit my job and and going down that path hasn't been safe, but I knew I had to try it out at least once in my life to see if it worked.

And there's a trade-off. I feel more stressed but more alive at the same time. So recognize that your 20s are prime time to take risks in life and don't make the mistake of playing it too safe.

All right. Worst decision you can make in your 20s. Number five, letting bad people into your life.

So too many people have no filter for the people they allow in their life or even just the things in general they allow into their life. They say yes too often. Yes, I'll go to this thing that I don't really want to go.

Yes, I'll accept this situation and do nothing about it. Yes, I'll continue in this relationship or this group of friends that doesn't respect me even though I'm not vibing with them. As corny as it sounds, you do become who your friends are.

Like the phrase that you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with is so true. Like partners included. And staying with the wrong partner or friend group too long is a bad bad decision.

The decision of who you spend your time with is either going to blast you off into success or drag you down. I feel like I've wasted years of my life sometimes. Like for one example, I stayed in the wrong relationship too long and it was holding me back and making me unhappy every day, but I was comfortable with it.

I lost 2 years of my life there that I can't get back going on dates with someone that I didn't even really like that much at the time. So develop standards for who you allow into your life. For me, I like people doing interesting things and are fun to talk to and they're working towards something positive.

Like you can say no to the wrong people in life. It's awkward, but you'll thank yourself later. Master the art of saying no and develop standards.

Surround yourself with positive people because life's just better when you're not alone and you're when you're with good people. All right. Worst decision you can make in your 20s.

Number four, not leaving the house enough. So, we live in an online world and it's very easy to never do anything. Our day consists of being on a computer for work and then scrolling and then playing video games afterward.

A lot of people live their lives in a routine and then they just do that routine for 10 years and do nothing else. You have to break from your routine. That's why life seems to go by so fast now is cuz we're never breaking from routines.

IRL stuff is underrated. Screens and staying inside is making us miserable and limiting who we could be. I mean, that couldn't be more clear.

Don't make the decision of allowing yourself to live a life inside too often in your 20s. You'll learn a lot by getting out of your routine and going different places and going and trying to meet people and make connections and learn something new. My advice would be to learn how to talk to people.

Learn how to put yourself in unconventional situations. Like go to a coffee shop alone one day, go to a workout class, like whatever it is. These are underrated life skills that we need to hone in on in our 20s and you can't learn them inside.

Dealing with people in public is a skill to obtain. And usually you must obtain it by going out and doing things. So don't be that super awkward 35-year-old who has never talked to a person in his life.

Get out of the house. Do some cool [ __ ] All right. Worst decision you can make in your 20s.

Number three, and we're getting into some serious ones. This is making a bad education or career decision. So, what defines a bad degree or a bad career?

In my opinion, getting an expensive degree with no payoff for your career on the other side is basically a guaranteed way to set you back 10 to 15 years financially. You'll likely be paying off a ton of debt and be living paycheck to paycheck. And sadly, this is a new challenge for our generation that's littered with minefields.

I mean, this is a millennial Gen Z problem as school's gotten out of control. It used to matter less when school wasn't very expensive, but now this is something very serious. Education is outdated and expensive.

It can still be viable, but really do the calculus on the income potential of your field, the long-term growth of the field, the demand, and make sure that you're making a good education decision and your career. If you pick the wrong education career stack and then at 32 you realize you hate it, like you can still switch for sure, but it's setting you behind a lot compared to the people who have been in that field for 10 years. You can always switch.

Switching careers is super normal, but there's no denying it can set you back. It sure is a hell of a lot easier to just get it at least partially right the first time. It can take a lot of time to fix these mistakes.

I got lucky here. I went to university. Originally, I was a biology and science major cuz I wanted to do premed.

Then I switched to Compsai because I hated lab work and I didn't put much thought into it. I just kind of picked something and went. And luckily I got into a great company.

It blasted off my career and I'm doing better now than if I stayed in the previous path which would have required like 8 years of school. Lots of people didn't get as lucky in the system. In my opinion, it might be time to ignore some of the old advice of going with what sounds safe or what your parents said or what everyone else is doing.

I studied coding for 4 years and now I don't even write code anymore. AI just does all of it. If you're not careful, then all of a sudden you could be 80 grand in debt, paycheck to paycheck on the other side, not able to invest in your 20s, which is crucial to getting ahead.

Things are especially tough right now with AI and industries shifting very fast. So, don't be afraid to make quick switches if you realize you're not into something or it's a bad place. I did that and it saved me.

But be very thorough and careful about the trap of education as well as the career path you choose. Like, I don't want to discourage people from going. I'm just saying be careful.

All right. Worst decision you can make. Number two, not building skills or assets outside of your job.

In your 20s, you have time and boatloads of it, both to develop yourself and time in the markets to buy assets. If you spend your 20s working dead-end jobs, not upskilling, not learning or meeting people, you're just killing your potential. Same with investing.

If you can even put a few hundred a month away into the stock market, you're going to be golden in your 30s and beyond. Don't delay either of these or you're likely going to be in pain financially for your entire life. Now is not the time to play games.

It's so much easier to become a millionaire if you start investing even a little bit in your 20s. And it's much harder if you have to catch up later. I don't know about you, but investing $200 a month sounds a hell of a lot easier than 2,000 a month.

If you spend your 20s screwing around, there's going to be other people who are building their investments, their skills, their networks, and meanwhile, you're sitting there like an idiot. I mean, how do you think they'll look at 35 compared to those who did nothing? One of my life philosophies is this.

Don't ever for any reason under any circumstances at all to to to anyone for any reason. Sorry, had to sneak an office joke in there. My policy is this.

Everywhere I go, I try to learn. First it was coding, then public speaking, now AI stuff. Learning never ends and skill acquisition never ends.

And on top of that, every month I invest what I can. I don't invest a minimum. I literally invest the maximum amount that I can.

This has gotten me to a great place at 29 and I want you to do the same. So be careful. relying on one skill set, one job, and try to learn wherever you can.

So, be careful to fall into a routine and not build skills or not build assets. Try to learn and invest wherever you can. All right, the number one worst decision you can make in your 20s.

And this can wreck everything else for you is getting the wrong woman pregnant. So, I put this as the worst decision on the list cuz it can wreck everything else in your life at once. And before I get into this, I just want to just clarify.

Nobody believes more in procreation than me. Like if you're in a good stable marriage, having kids is great. It's a blessing.

I'm not talking about people who had this happen, but they're in a stable and married life. I'm talking about the oops situation where it's the wrong person, the wrong timing, you just wanted to have fun one night. You have no foundation.

Maybe you're not even together. Maybe you barely know each other. This decision can alter the trajectory of not only your life, but multiple lives overnight.

I've seen this happen a couple times where a guy has potential, he's building something, he's got some freedom, then boom, wrong relationship, wrong woman, pregnant. Now everything changes. Now you're tied to someone who you may not even want to be with for the rest of your life.

Could be someone who doesn't even like you that much or wants to make your life difficult. Now you have child support. Now there's stress.

Now there's fighting and drama. And your future really isn't yours anymore. So that one decision, one night based on likely your own impulses instantly locks in a partner, your finances, your location, your priorities, and your freedom.

And even if the relationship doesn't last, you're connected to that person for the rest of your life. Like this is not a small mistake. This is a life pathaltering event.

Maybe it works out like maybe some people. I'm sure it's worked out, but usually makes life pretty tough. I haven't seen this end well most times.

The reason this is such a brutal bad decision is because it's very avoidable. number one. And if it does happen, your money takes a hit, your your life options, your peace, your career flexibility takes a hit, your ability to take risks have takes a hit.

Single parenthood is just brutal. It's a brutal thing. It just makes your future way more difficult.

It makes it tough on both parents, your money, and often the kid, too. So, bottom line, be careful who you sleep with. And if you insist on playing that game like a degenerate, I don't want to contribute to the awful sexualized culture we have, but at least be smart enough to use protection if you're going to go do that.

This is not one of those mistakes where you can just laugh it off and move on. This can change your life permanently in one night with one decision. So, your 20s aren't about being perfect.

You're going to mess some things up. That's part of it. But if you can avoid a catastrophic mistake, it's going to make your life better.

You're going to be put on a completely different trajectory. Damage control is good. You're going to be putting yourself on a good trajectory as you enter your 30s.

And then the gap between you and those who are making the bad decisions is going to grow and get bigger over time. Thanks for listening everyone.