If I could go back with what I know now...

[accolay]

How it should have been done. Maybe if you didn't know specific world events but you had the knowledge that only experience and wisdom can give you and you were say...I dunno..16 again.

The people I would have stayed away from and wasted my time with and the ones that I should have spent more time with...

Assume I'd be retired by now, probably a number of years ago.

[Miss Piggy]

I would have chosen the right college major and the right husband the first time around. And I would be retired by now.

[Just Joe]

I would have hopefully taken education more seriously. Back then I just wanted out of the classroom!

Might have given vocational training a chance. Would have considered a military re-enlistment.

Would have avoided debt and a decade of compounding debt interest.

Might have tried harder to maintain some personal relationships. I had alot to figure out when I was younger, obvious things were seldom obvious. Made mistakes along the way. 

Would have told a number of people in HS and a few afterwards to never speak to me again. They were not good influences, were distractions, and sometimes bullies.

Wished I was a better long term planner when I was young. Five years in the future was a lifetime away, but it really wasn't.

All in all everything has turned out great but it sure took a long time. I feel like everything is happening 15-20 years later than it should have.

[Dicey]

I'm so happy with where I am now that I wouldn't change any of it. I'll be 60 soon and I'm five years post-FIRE, so certainly not very early, but I feel like I'm living the dream. My life isn't perfect, but it's damn good.

[Travis]

I would have hopefully taken education more seriously. Back then I just wanted out of the classroom!

Might have given vocational training a chance. Would have considered a military re-enlistment.

Would have avoided debt and a decade of compounding debt interest.

Might have tried harder to maintain some personal relationships. I had alot to figure out when I was younger, obvious things were seldom obvious. Made mistakes along the way. 

Would have told a number of people in HS and a few afterwards to never speak to me again. They were not good influences, were distractions, and sometimes bullies.

Wished I was a better long term planner when I was young. Five years in the future was a lifetime away, but it really wasn't.

All in all everything has turned out great but it sure took a long time. I feel like everything is happening 15-20 years later than it should have.

I definitely would have done better in my undergrad.  I missed a lot of government-sponsored grad school scholarships and internships because my GPA wasn't high enough.  I got my Masters eventually, but I had to pay for half of it when it could have been a free-ride at an ivy-league or foreign university.

If I gave any thought to financial literacy back then I'd be FI with room to spare by now.

[A Definite Beta Guy]

I'd drink a lot more water, ingest a lot more caffeine, and eat a ton more fiber.

Definitely put a lot more effort into getting internships back in college. Probably would've gone to a better college, too.

[Just Joe]

I would have hopefully taken education more seriously. Back then I just wanted out of the classroom!

Might have given vocational training a chance. Would have considered a military re-enlistment.

Would have avoided debt and a decade of compounding debt interest.

Might have tried harder to maintain some personal relationships. I had alot to figure out when I was younger, obvious things were seldom obvious. Made mistakes along the way. 

Would have told a number of people in HS and a few afterwards to never speak to me again. They were not good influences, were distractions, and sometimes bullies.

Wished I was a better long term planner when I was young. Five years in the future was a lifetime away, but it really wasn't.

All in all everything has turned out great but it sure took a long time. I feel like everything is happening 15-20 years later than it should have.

I definitely would have done better in my undergrad.  I missed a lot of government-sponsored grad school scholarships and internships because my GPA wasn't high enough.  I got my Masters eventually, but I had to pay for half of it when it could have been a free-ride at an ivy-league or foreign university.

If I gave any thought to financial literacy back then I'd be FI with room to spare by now.

Exactly. i worked my way through college post-military and it took a long, long time as it happened while starting a family, DW was working on a degree part of that time too, first house, etc.

Had I gotten my education done immediately after HS I would have been an officer in the military or skipped the military all together. Still would have needed to pay for my college either way and I really wasn't in a position ot do that straight out of HS with my itch to be away from the classrooms at that point.

[soccerluvof4]

The only things I would of done different is I would like to have gone to college and experience that.  And I would not have believed the girl at the time that said she could not get pregnant (I was like 19)   Other than that I have done pretty good by myself, retired at 50 am happily married with 4 kids.

[TheWifeHalf]

We wouldn't have bought a Dodge Caravan, I think 90-91???
3 times in various parking lots, complete strangers would stop me to ask "How many transmissions have you had"!!!!!!
Eventually, we had to get a new one, cost us nothing at the time.
But they took chances with my small kids, I will never buy a Dodge/Chrysler again.
Chevy Chevy either.

[2Birds1Stone]

How does the saying go? Hindsight is always 20/20......

[BookLoverL]

I would have tried harder

a) to get better practical skills
b) to get better social skills
c) to become an actual expert in something rather than only having a broad pool of shallow knowledge.

I'd still keep the broad pool of knowledge, but I spent an awful lot of time as a teenager reading fanfiction, and I could definitely have been spending that time gaining more marketable skills, but at the time I trusted that because I was acing my classes, I would have the right set of knowledge later to be valuable without great social skills.

(Spoiler alert: acing secondary school classes is not actually a particularly marketable skill, except when marketing yourself to universities.)

Also, I'd have possibly tried to get some money-earning side hustle started back then.

[Just Joe]

I'd add given a do-over I might have hopefully paid more attention to the means to FIRE.

I remember distinctly looking at the well to do people around me and wondering how they got to financial stability and wealth. They weren't teaching/telling/sharing how b/c perhaps I wasn't asking the right questions or I wasn't listening carefully enough. It was a long time ago...

Seems elementary but at the time but the only path I could visualize involved college b/c that was how I was raised (perhaps unintentionally).

In my do-over dream I might have pursued the trades more. 

[mak1277]

No regrets here.  I'm happy today and every step (and mis-step) I took led me here.