3 Must Do Items for 20-35 Year Olds

And trust me when I say I know what it's like to make your own life difficult. Does your life feel like Groundhog Day on repeat? Welcome to the Eye of the Hurricane Podcast. Check out this guy. This was me at 20 years old, and I was about as tan as I could possibly get. And I thought it looked great. But the truth is, I wasn't thinking about what my skin was going to look like decades later. I could care less. I was worried about how I would look that weekend. And I think that's the thing when you're in your 20s and early 30s, is you can make a lot of choices that feel harmless because the consequences take their time showing up. But trust me, they do eventually get here. So if you're between 20 and 35, there's three things that I want to kind of throw on the table that if I could go back and tell my 20-year-old self, I would stress. And that's going to be about your skin, your heart, and your money. Now, those three may sound totally unrelated, but all three have something very important in common. And that is they all have a cumulative effect. So what you do today adds up. And by the time you're 50, those decisions are going to make a big difference in your quality of life. So, first thing, quick note, I'm not a medical doctor. This isn't medical advice. I'm just sharing my perspective and experience and the things that I wish that I would have started earlier. So your health decisions, it goes without saying, are between you and your healthcare professional. And the financial part of this conversation is general and perspective as well. So if you've got specific questions, ask a professional about your specific situation. But let's talk about the first one. And that's going to be protecting your skin. So if I go back to being 20, I didn't see the years of cumulative sun damage that was happening. All I saw was a tan that I liked. In fact, I taught golf in Austin, Texas. I lived in the sun. I never wore sunscreen. And I had such bad burns on my scalp. There were times I literally could pull chunks of skin out. And horrifying, I can think back to thinking that was funny. I had no idea that the burns I got when I were 20 would have a huge increase on the probability of getting skin cancer when I was 50. So we have it in our family. And if I could go back, I would have worn sunscreen every single day. But beyond skin cancer, your visual aging process is going to speed up if you get a significant amount of sun. So when you get to 50, trust me, the last thing you want to do is look older than your age. So it makes sense now to start protecting your skin. You can enjoy your life outside, you can spend time outdoors, but instead of looking for really high UV days to go bask in the sun, I would look for deals on spray tans. That's something that I would do. I wish the guy in the picture would have understood that. And if I went back, that is something that I absolutely would do differently. So with that said, let's talk about the second one. The second one is going to be your heart. So the actual thing I would ask my healthcare professional about is getting your what they call LP little A checked. And what it is, it's a particle in your blood that carries cholesterol. And it's if it's an elevated level, it increases your risk of cardiovascular disease, you know, earlier in life. And here's why it belongs in this conversation. And that is that your level is largely determined by genetics. And most of the time it stays stable throughout your life. So they can measure it at age five. And that baseline stays pretty consistent throughout your entire life. And you can feel very healthy and have an elevated level. I'm in the top one percentile in the world for high LP little A. So it's not usually included in the standard cholesterol panel. And knowing about it, what it does is it gives you and your health healthcare professional more information about your overall risk. So it doesn't mean that it's an inevitable heart attack if you have a high level. It just means that there's something worth understanding. And you start to realize that lifestyle changes, like normal LDL cholesterol, where you can vary it, lifestyle changes don't move your LP little A number. But that LP little A works in a way to where it magnifies your overall risk if you have other risk factors. So whether or not you smoke, exercise, have high cholesterol in general, all of those things, once you know your LP little A is high, you will adjust what you do, knowing that you have a risk factor that you can't really control. So I wish I would have known, again, 30 years ago, that mine was so high because I would have picked a lot more salads up than I did burgers and fries. I would have exercised more. I would have done some different things to lower my overall risk as I get into my 50s, 60s, and beyond. So I would just check the check the number, see where it's at, and then you can research and see whether or not you're in a position to um make any changes. So I would just ask my my medical professional, have I ever had my LP little A checked? And if they say no, I would ask to have that test done, get the information, do some research, and make some decisions on your own when it comes to that. So the last one I want to talk about is your money. So I would get help making a financial plan as soon as you start earning money. There's a lot of people that think I'll talk to a financial advisor when I have enough money. So I would encourage you to start that conversation earlier. You know, find someone that's qualified that you can work with, that's at your stage of life. You know, figure out everything that's associated with that. Make sure they were a fiduciary, they're acting in your best interest. But the big thing is when you're in your 20s and early 30s, um, there's a lot of maneuverability. And good decisions then, assuming the normal market conditions, when I say I know, can mean a whole lot of work at the end of your years of working to the IP. You choose to not do so. So it gives you a lot more flexibility down the road. Um, and the small decisions you make in your 20s are massive when you're 50 and 60 and beyond. If you wait till 30 or 40 or 50, like some people, all of a sudden the ability to make changes and have an impact gets less and less by the decade, and they get significantly less. So I would just get in front of somebody, show them where you're at, tell them what you're trying to accomplish, and learn quickly and early about the importance of being able to save money the right way, because down the road, you're gonna look back and it's gonna be one of the best decisions you ever made. So those are the three tips I would give my 20 year old self. I hope you find them helpful. If you've got any additional thoughts, other things that you'd like to see addressed, please throw it in the comments. And if you have any thoughts on those particular ones, I'd love to see those comments as well. Thank you for taking the time to jump in and watch this episode.