Through the Looking Glass...

Halley has heard us talk a lot about her brothers 'adulting' shenanigans and I felt it appropriate to pull together some  Adulting Advice.

You got this Hal!!!

Please leave your adulting advice in the comments below!

Growing up is a cruel, cruel joke.

While there’s no guidebook for “adulting” – the act of performing adult tasks like cleaning the toilet, running errands at the post office and wearing clean clothes – there are friendly people on the Internet who’ve offered their advice.

Here are 21 valuable pieces of “adulting” advice:

1. “When the phone rings and there’s nothing on the caller ID, keep your guard up. Somebody is probably trying to separate you from your money.”

2. “You can’t eat out every night. Learn to make a few things besides Ramen.”

3. “Don’t worry about failing with stupid things. You don’t know how to wash a certain garment? No problem, look it up and try. What’s the worse that can happen? Don’t just go back to mom to have her do it. When you’re 25 and totally self sufficient, and you have those friends who can’t even make a grilled cheese cause they’re afraid it won’t turn out right, you’ll see why I say this.”

4. “Learn to cook. Make a budget and stick to it. Clean every day. It’s easier to do a little cleaning every day than a huge amount once a week.”

5. “Only buy as much food as you can eat until your next grocery trip, and learn to be okay with eating the same thing a few days in a row. For example, for breakfast you might be tempted to buy cereal, milk, eggs, toast, muffins, waffles and yogurt just because they all look good. But chances are you won’t finish them all before they go bad. Just pick a few things, like cereal, milk, eggs, toast, and eat cereal or eggs/toast for breakfast that week.”

6. “Sometimes you need to ‘budget’ your time and energy as well, and if eating a ready-meal every now and then allows you to focus better on school/work/etc, it’s a fair choice and is miles better than skipping a meal.”

7. “People will call you an adult and tell you you are older, but you’ll never really FEEL like an old adult. You’ll always just feel like you.”

8. “Cleaning never takes as long as you think it will. Just do it.” 

9. “No matter the cost, see a dentist every three to six months or else you’ll end up like me with thousands spent getting my teeth under control.”

10.” You know that childish version of cynicism and sarcasm that you think is intelligent and witty? It isn’t. It’s smug.”

11. “Want to be good at something or have a skill? Start practicing now. If you start at 18, you might actually be good at it by the time you’re 28. It might become a career or a hobby to get you through the day job. Plus, learning another language opens up so many opportunities nationally and internationally.”

12. “Don’t let individual people’s opinions of you affect you, but be open minded when the world has something to say.”

13. “Being an adult means there’s no one double-checking your decision to make sure you’re doing the right thing. When you’ve lived your entire life with parents who remind you to make regular doctors appointments, do laundry, etc, it’s hard to start making yourself do those things automatically without prompting. There’s a lot of things that I objectively know is good behavior but don’t do just because I’ve never had to make myself do it alone before. So to others about to follow my same path – start developing those habits early.”

14. “Keep your family close. The real world doesn’t care anything about you, but your family always will.”

15.  “Do not screw your credit score up. Make sure what you buy with credit, you have the ability to pay it off within a month or two. It is a long road to credit score recovery if you start off on the wrong foot.”

16. “Learn to do laundry properly. Not just cleaning and drying, but also how to fold and iron correctly. It might seem like it’s pointless to keep everything squared away now, but later you’ll appreciate everything not being in a heaping, tangled mound.”

17. “Work smarter, not harder (but work hard when you have to).”

18. “Don’t waste your time and energy on people who make you feel bad about yourself.”

19. “Do not get a pet the minute you move out on your own. Most animals live ten or so years. There’s no telling how many times you’ll move. Or if you’ll develop allergies. Or how often your financial situation will change.”

20. “Keep. Your. Paperwork.”

21. “Stop using words like ‘adulting.'”

#legitadvice 

Leave Your Almost Adulting Advice in the Comments Below!