31 Lessons from 31 Years on Earth

From my perspective as a guy in his mid-forties, 31 is still pretty young, but the guy shows he’s picked up some solid wisdom in his 31 trips around the sun.

My favorite part of this post is not the fact that he tells us 31 lessons he’s learned, but the fact that he has for each year he was alive. 

This 31st birthday, I went back and considered 31 valuable lessons that coincide with each year of my life. Some are specific to personal finance and investing, while others are general. 

31 Lessons from 31 Years on Earth

Arrow

I, like you, was a helpless little butterball. Thankfully, human parents make huge sacrifices to help their helpless kids. But that courtesy ends at some point. Eventually, you’ve got to learn to help yourself.

1) It’s Tough Being Helpless

I was the youngest of three boys. If I didn’t play nice with my brothers, I might get shoved down in the snow. The same thing happens in adulthood, but the shove and the snow look a little different.

2) Be Nice to Bigger Fish

Some of my earliest memories at home involve playing games—rummy, Parcheesi, Magic: The Gathering—with my parents or brothers. Turns out that real life, too, involves a little bit of math, strategy, luck, skill, politics, memory, pattern recognition, etc.

3) Play Games

In kindergarten, Eric and I built a sick tower out of foam blocks. And then Robert came over with zero hesitation and kicked the tower. Our creation was strewn about the carpeted floor. Our 12 minutes of work turned to rubble.

4) Some People Want to Watch the World Burn

Embarrassed about I-don’t-remember-what, I threw a kickball (in anger!) at my gym teacher when she tried to console me. 

5) Don’t Compound Your Negatives

Teachers, it turns out, disapprove of students hurling kickballs at them. I compounded one small negative with a much larger one. Don’t let your negatives compound.

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