Things you regret not doing when you were younger...

[coffeeicer]

Try to keep this short - I’m 24 ‘prime of my life’ etc etc in a relationship with someone a fair bit older (15 years) - relationship is great, very happy in terms of that, we’re planning to buy a house next year and have a baby in the next 4-5.

The only issue being I keep having the fear that I will get to later in life and fear that I have missed out on certain things and will have ‘wasted my youth’ so I suppose my question is for those later in life - As inspiration for planning the next year or so, what regrets do you have for things you didn’t do?

Travelled further and wider.

Life is full of ifs and buts. If I'd gone travelling, I'd never have afforded a house. So its all relative

I wish DH and I and travelled more in our 20s before we had our DS, taken advantage of foreign sabbaticals for him and so on.

Now that I'm approaching 50 (how???), I sometimes find myself wondering what I would have done in my 20a if I'd been single. I wouldn't change my life, but we met at 22 and I'm curious sometimes.

And I would have pushed harder with my career so that it was there for me to go back to after having DS. Instead I did an MSc and went into a different field.

Going for a graduate job, instead of a job I could have got straight out of school.

Not wasted my younger years with an older partner.

Wished I travelled more in my 20s and stopped worrying about how fat I was at a size 14. Wasted energy.

I missed out on a few things academically - should have gone to study Pharmacy after my HND instead of starting work.
Should have broken it off with ex partner instead of being carried along.
Should have gone for my PHD a few years later.
But as a PP said it's all relative. If I had done these things I wouldn't have got into the job that supported me for many years and wouldn't have met current DH.

I regret putting on weight, which harmed my self-confidence. Despite the weight gain, I still received lots of interest from men, and I regret not having sex with more of them, due to the self-confidence issue.

Travelled more, made more time for my friends and family. Dated around a bit more before getting into a serious relationship.

Not been so cautious. I did the diligent thing and went and studied, got a job straight after, and stayed settled down. Now I wish I'd toured south America with a few dollars to my name and done odd jobs and just been a wanderer for a bit,

Taken advantage of my priviledges

Not wasted time partying so much

I wish I'd joined the FBI and become a criminal profiler (honestly).

Genuinely no regrets. I worked hard and had fun in my 20s, then got married at 29 and had kids in my 30s.

Wish I hadn’t wasted my money and saved every penny so I could have owned a bigger house with a big garden now. That’s it. Think it’s about the money for me as everything else worked out fine.

Wish I'd gone to more festivals and on more holidays. They're cheaper and more fun before you have kids.

I wouldn't be marrying a 40+ year old in my mid twenties! He will be an old man when you are still young, it won't end up just being your youth you waste. I'm the same age as you and 'settled down' to family life pretty early, given my chance again I would be free and single

I wish I'd got on property ladder sooner ie before boom in 2000s.

I wish I'd gone for graduate roles, I assumed I wasn't good enough and worked in shops after uni.

I'm pleased I enjoyed my 20s, had great social life. I had DC at 38. On reflection I would have preferred early 30s.

I wish I had travelled more and been able to do more with my friends in general.

In your situation I'd add, with my similarly aged friends, not your partners friends. Exploring countries on a budget with your closest friends is a totally different experience to the kind of settled holiday you have when older.

I know it's majorly boring, but my generation was the in between generation - after the baby boomers with their final salary pensions and before this generation with their auto enrolment pensions. We didn't have workplace pensions and of course in my twenties I was busy spending every penny on partying, then in my thirties I had a massive mortgage. Now in my forties I'm fortunate to have a good salary, but a huge percentage of it is going into a pension as I try to catch up those missing years.

So I wish I'd started a pension when I was early twenties, even £20 a month would have made a huge difference.

I won't mention regretting getting married and wishing I'd stayed single and travelled more

I wish I'd travelled or even done a pointless gap yah. My working life was a waste of time as I didn't earn enough to move out of my parents house so I regret focusing on it so much. It was boring and with travelling I might have done more interesting things and met better people

I was talking this over with DC the other day saying i wish id studied more science/stem at secondary-wouldve loved to be a vet & youngest said'well look at everything you've done&we wouldnt be where we are now-'butterfly effect' (v.wise for her12yrs)..so i kind of agree you can only do what you feel in the moment but i tend to live by the adage,'we're here for a good time,not a long time'..its always meant my life has been full of adventure&excitement..if a little unconventional (but that was what appealed to me-you have other priorites )plus another saying'no-one ever wrote they wished they spent longer at work as their epitaph'..ive worked with many ill old people with limited time left who only regret that they took life so seriously&didnt enjoy themselves more..

My PGCE.
It seems so much more unobtainable with two children, a mortgage and currently no car.

I spent all of my 20s clubbing, partying, festival going and travelling the world. Don't regret it at all. I know what pp mean about doing better financially but in my 30s we got married, bought an okay sized house in a nice area which then took 10 years to make okay. Now in my 40s earning okay, kids at primary so costs have gone down. I know other people have made more sensible financial decisions by buying in their 20s but I have so many amazing memories of scuba diving in the Caribbean or dancing on the beach in Thailand or watching lions in Africa etc, wouldn't change that for the world now I'm a dull surburban wage slave doing my 20th load of washing for the week 😂.

Travel travel travel. And get into a decent exercise regime

Studying harder to make myself a good career.
Traveling. I had a child young and count go anywhere with just some clothes and money and see the world. My little brother has traveled to all different places and I'm pretty jealous of that. I was never bothered about it when I was younger, but I'm nearly 30 now and I feel I missed my opportunity.