4 skills worth learning in your 20s

Aahh… twenties. The first (real) crossroad of life everyone encounters. Fresh out of college, you’re just not sure where to start; not sure what skills you acquired in college you’ll be taking into your life-long career.

It’s the time for mistakes, learning through experience, and understanding things the hard way.

But there are some skills not taught , or not emphasized at least, in school that are actually helpful to us in the long run (not only in our career, but to our personal lives too), and now you don’t need to know what they are the hard way. Below are four of these valuable skills that you, when learned early,  can really benefit from:

If you don’t know how to cook , it’s definitely worth learning how to cook your own dish in your early 20s.  Cooking is a skill worth the time and effort to learn because it will come in handy along the way. As you start to become independent, learning how to cook your own food will help you save money and reduce your dependence on instant food and fast food, giving you a chance to live a healthier lifestyle.

 

Not only is cooking your own food a healthier option, it’s also very rewarding: cooking for your love ones has a certain feeling of fulfilment when you see them enjoying what you cook. You’ll also have a handy skill to impress that special someone. *wink, wink* 😉

Every day we communicate with people– be it through a text message, a phone call, a face-to-face conversation, or even through an email. But it’s baffling that many of us still haven’t mastered the skill of properly communicating our ideas. You can probably see it in the office during important meetings, or even through formal business emails; no matter how you spin it around, the message just  isn’t there.

The ability to communicate your ideas clearly and effectively will not only come in handy in your day-to-day conversations and emails (and text messages), but also help grow your  influence and network as you grow in your career. You’ll eventually rise up the ranks in your workplace, meaning more responsibilities and authority for you; if you can’t properly communicate with your subordinates, your employer might think twice about that promotion.

 2. Financial Management:

As you start working and earning your own money, you’ll eventually need to learn how to properly manage it. Many people (and I mean many) have gone through the mistake of mismanaging money, which often result in being broke or  bogged down by a large debt.

Financial management is hard work: making a budget plan and committing to it, planning short-term and long-term investment plans, finding out how to effectively save your money without compromising your needs– it’s tedious work! Why bother with all these when you can simply spend, spend, spend, and spend some more right?

Well, for starters, proper financial management can bring you to your getaway paradise sooner than later. If you’re in your 20s now, you have approximately 40 years until retirement age: do you want to spend the next 40 years working sweat and blood to pay off your huge debt in the bank? Or do you want to spend your last 20 years in a cruise ship to the Maldives? The choice is yours.

As you advance in your career, you also get higher in the corporate ladder. Soon enough, you’ll be managing a team of your own. And as a manager, your team will be looking up to you as a leader.

Leadership doesn’t mean bossing your team members around because they have a lower pay grade than you; that’s just being unprofessional and being a bit of a jerky (PG-13 language, you get what I mean.) Leadership is about earning the trust of your team through respect and mutual understanding. A good and effective team operates as a whole and not individually; as the team’s leader and head, it’s your job to make that a reality. Without well-polished leadership skills, you and your team will go through a rough time and blunders waiting to happen.

There you have it! 4 skills you could consider learning as you build up yourself and your career. Do you have any other suggestions or skills you can add to the list? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!