To ask if you could go back in time is there anything that you would do differently?

[Cakeandbake229]

And if so how come?

I am currently trying to get a balance between having no life and trying to save for a house (I am late 20s) and trying to travel whilst I have little to no commitments (I am in a long term relationship).... it just made me wonder whether anyone can look back at their lives and say they would do anything differently?

Myself- a bit sad really but I regret getting so drunk when I was younger and putting myself in vulnerable situations, I rarely drink now other than the odd glass of wine of an evening!

Quite a lot of people on here saying they wouldn't have had children?! Why exactly is that?

Maybe it depends what age your DC are now? Mine are 18 and 17 so maybe I'm at the sentimental stage and looking back with rose coloured glasses? I think on balance the stress, worry and general hard work is vastly outweighed by the laughs, pride and general fulfillment of having them. I don't regret having them at all, maybe I would have had them a little younger and not 13 months apart though :o

I've said and done lots of things I regret and I wish I could undo, especially the hurt I caused to a couple of people , but the one practical thing I would return to was twenty years ago when I remortgaged my small flat ... I should have put the thirty thousand I raised as the deposits on three buy to let new build houses instead of investing in a business that crashed and burned ...ah well ..

I'd have properly considered my parents' suggestion that I could come to the UK for uni. It is highly likely (honestly) that I would have been able to get a good scholarship to Oxford or Cambridge. I now understand their teaching style would have suited me extremely well, and I would almost certainly have had the personal mentoring that would have led me to a proper career using my skills and interests. The main reason I didn't was that, living in the southern hemisphere, I would have had most of a year gap from finishing school, and I was bored silly and desperate to start at uni. I got good degrees, but have lost my way on and off partly through choices that seemed sensible at the time but would have benefitted from better guidance. I've achieved very little in the last ten years while my children have been at school.

I regret not having an old head on young shoulders......

Not spent money on so-called ‘it’ handbags, shoes, clothes, make-up. Nor on the stacks of glossy magazines that drove that idiocy.

Not sold my tiny share in a start-up business in 2007. It was bought by a competitor and I made £200k. Unfortunately the start-up was an online gambling platform and my share would now be worth about £3m.

Not sold my flat in 2007 in order to marry DH and buy our place together. The mortgage was £1200 a month and it would be worth £2m today.

Unsurprisingly, my only investment strategy today is to buy well and hold.

I would have worked on my self esteem earlier so not to do a lot of the stupid shit I did up until the age of 26.

Not get into debt.

Going against the usual advice, I’d have married DH sooner and had children younger. We would have loved to have a third child.

Got a dog long before now. She has already improved my regularly low moods tenfold.

I would meet dh much earlier, and have lots more time with him and more children together.

Cross post chumsnet

When I was above 18 I had a horrible boyfriend, and a lovely friend who was interested in me. I often wondered if I had dumped horrid boyfriend and gone out with lovely friend (who was hinting to me to do so) how different things may have turned out.

Otherwise be better with money.

I'd have made more of an effort with my marriage and then hopefully my husband wouldn't have walked out on me

I would have studied different A levels so I had higher earning potential than I do now.

I wish I had been brave enough to travel more. I was a home girl and didn't have a friend or boyfriend to go with so I didn't go. And then life happened. I've lived abroad as an adult with dc but I wish I had travelled freely.

I do not regret my DC even though they have their challenges!

Not got seriously drunk (for the first time) on a bottle of gin when I was 29. Understandable reasons but it started me on the slippery slope of alcoholism.

After my divorce I would have bought a house rather than a car. It was the same bloody monthly payment (albeit the car was only for 3 years) but I could have rented it out easily (directly opposite a hospital). I even went to look at the house in question, and then decided against it. God, what an idiot!

I would have gone to university and had a couple of years off to travel .

There are many things I would have done differently... but then I would be on here saying there are many things I would have done differently.

Sliding doors moments, as in who knows what would have happened had we made different choices?

Hindsight is a bitch.

I wouldn’t do anything differently not because I’ve had a charmed life so far ( the opposite in fact) but because all the negative, difficult things have made me who I am today.
If I hadn’t met and married my exh I wouldn’t have had my children, other children possibly but not the ones I have. I would go through all the years of shit again so I could have them.
No regrets, several mistakes made but no regrets.

I’d have done a professional degree rather than a marketing degree. I started off a high earner then plateaud, whereas DH has had a progressive career and his transferable skills have taken us around the world.

I wouldn't have married DH. Although I would still have my wonderful beautiful children. Just not him.

Je ne regrette rien.

I’ve had what most people would deem a ‘hard life’. But I have three amazing kids and a husband I adore and honestly I wouldn’t change a thing that would risk that.

God yes. Sooooo many regrets about how I've treated people and the decisions I've made.

I would have frittered away less money every month before we had DC and both worked FT. We could then have afforded a bigger house now. Not the end of the world, but I shudder to think how much we could have saved. I would have travelled more before DC.

Cakeandbake - my kids are grown up and I am a granny as well, but I am not particularly maternal and have a difficult relationship with the oldest which was caused by my ex. I think I would have been happier with legions of cats.

Kill Hitler

I went to uni in 2001. First in my family to go etc and it was at a point where people thought that if you went to uni you would get a good job, as that's what had happened to all the middle class kids who went. So if I could go back, I would give myself some employability tips to get a better head start. Either that or go back further in time so my dad worked at the foreign office, like Charlotte on my course.

Not spent loads of money on shit

I was an absolute dick to several men when I was 20/21. Lots of 2 timing and gaslighting. Really awful. I really regret it now.