If you could go back in time and be 18 years old again, with no guarantee of having the life you have right now. Would you do it?

[fivenonrouses]

Just that really. Would you?

The prospect to me would sound very tempting. Undoing the many mistakes I made. Being more serious about my education. Enjoying uni, the fun of being in halls with my friends, and being completely care free.

Youth is wasted on the young, sometimes!

No
Have my dream life, my goals at 18

• marry at 25 (did at 26)
• have 3 kids before 30, 2 g/1b ((did by 29)
• earn over £100k by 30 (did at 31)
• buy 6 bed house in London (did by 28)
• have £300k pension by 55 (have £150k age 40, in track)
• get all 3 kids into RG unis via state education (on track)
• buy each child an investment house/ someway to release funds from (did age 32)
• get senior mgmt role in bank with team (did age 37)
• get onto national board and earn < £200k by 45 (currently earn £150k and have an unpaid NeD role, on track)

Failures:

• maintain body (got autoimmune conditions, now 3st heavier)
• buy south coast holiday flat/ caravan (not affordable)
• have good relations my family (super dysfunctional, have with about 40% of the most normal ones .. and excellent with DH)
• get 5A at A Level (got 4A and 1B)
• enter regulalr half marsthons (core issue means cant run more than 3.5k/30mins)
• retire at 55 and travel (doesnt seem likely given how £££ uni is and 3 kids born withinr 4yrs :(. )

Obv could all go totally wrong, very grateful

Anyone else a similar eager beaver planner when younger?

Definitely not. I was living with my husband when I was 18 and bought our first flat two years later. We had a reasonably comfortable life in our 20s and early 30s and travelled a lot until we had our daughter when I was 35. I stayed at home for some time to be there for her magical young years and then went back to work when she was 7, and am still working part time now at 66. We're still happy together, and our daughter has found and married her soulmate, which is all I could ever have wanted for her. I enjoyed my teens and younger years so much, but wouldn't change anything important.

I would have to do it all over again, otherwise my wonderful daughter would not exist.