What would you tell yourself when you are 18?

There was an article I read a while back from Debt Kid (Click here for the entire article) that talked about the things that you would tell yourself if you could go back in time.  I thought about ten different major that I would try to tell myself as an 18 year old.  While it was nine years ago, I can imagine how hard it would be to get the point across to my younger, cockier self.  Here is my top ten, in reverse order:

10.) Take sports much less seriously
Playing Division III athletics did not stop me and some of my teammates from taking it way too seriously.  While I am proud of what I accomplished throughout my career, I was playing athletics without a scholarship.  So basically I was taking something way too seriously and doing it for free.  That makes a lot of sense considering I rarely even play the sport now.

9.) Use your time in college to set yourself up for graduation
I talked in a previous article about how a friend of mine used college to save up a down payment for a house and then he was able to live there rent free for seven years (Click here for that article).  Really, I wish I would have been able to do something similar.  It would have saved me the fun of living at home for a few years (Click here for that article) and given me a nest egg to start with in life.

8.) Take more business classes and study up young man
If I had to guess when I was 18-years old, I would probably be doing computer programming or something related to website building.  While that does entail part of my job, I do wish that I would have taken more business classes in college.  My supposed bout with mono made me drop an accounting class.  I really wish I would have finished that and taken others as well.

7.) Don’t buy a house until you have a 20% down payment and stick to that
I have talked about this before (Click here for the article) and mentioned how much I love paying PMI.  If I could do it all over again, I would have not as paid off as much of the student loans that I did.  Instead, I would have banked the money and used it to purchase my eventual house.

6.) Prepare for your eventual move out west
It may be tough to swallow (Or believe for that matter) but when you are a junior in college, you will meet a beautiful, athletic, and intelligent girl who will eventually bring you to Colorado.  Suck it up because it is going to happen and you are going to marry her as well.  The good news is that you will definitely think she is out of your league.

5.) Do more relative internships that could help you with your career
Like with school, I took the easy way out with a number of internships. There were some summer jobs that were great and helped me learn things but I took the very easy route with internships.  I wish I would have challenged myself and tried to find new places where I could learn more about what I wanted to do.

4.) Start a social networking site that can make you a billion dollars
I could call it Facebook and see if there were users at different colleges that would be interested in trying it.  The second option would be setting up a video site called Youtube and seeing where that could take me.  Who would have ever guessed these would be worth a little bit of money now?

3.) If given the opportunity, spend more time with your family
I flat out worked too much when I was younger.  It was a time where I was building up a site that I was working on and wish I would have spent more time with my family.  Now that we are all apart and in different states actually, I definitely would have shown a greater appreciation for my loved ones.

2.) Start a blog earlier!
With this blog, the problem is that it takes time and many articles to get users reading it.  If I had started years ago, the hard part would be over and I would have thousands of readers.  Instead, the hard part is now.  However, everyone reading this deserves a huge thank you for visiting the site!

1.) Take school much more seriously
I should have taken school much, much more seriously.  Instead of doing a second major just for the heck of it, you should have taken relevant classes that could help you now.  No offense but a second serious major for what I am doing now would have helped you big time in the long run.