Advice you would give to your 15 year old self

[Champion The Wonder Horse]

Don't feel obliged to keep your confirmation pledge.

[magpie seanie]

Don't feel obliged to keep your confirmation pledge.

At least I had the sense to not take the pledge. The school principal (a pioneer with a penchant for beating up kids) was apoplectic about it and made sure the whole parish knew about the one heathen that wasn't taking it.

[screenexile]

Confirmation pledge is an interesting one. I kept mine vehemently and then started drinking when I was 18. I wouldn't have been a big drinker compared to some but I had some big nights. I would be happy enough for my young ones to keep their pledge and not drink too early.

In terms of getting drunk yeah I would get drunk a bit but I could count on one hand the number of times I was blind drunk and in a state and I would take every one of them back if I could. Nothing is worse than that!! Never get so drunk that you black out and can't walk etc. it's the worst thing you can do!

[The Iceman]

buy a house when you get done with university - you can afford the mortgage - trust me
dont let anyone get in the way of your dreams - especially yourself - will save time later
spend more time with your grandparents

I'd tell myself and all my friends the exact opposite. Get over this very Irish and British idea that you simply must own a house ASAP.

I was paying rent in my 20s when I could have paid a mortgage. I have friends who bought houses and rented them out and in 10 years some of them will own more than 10 houses each that were paid for by renters like me! I would rather have 10 houses to sell when I'm 50 or have the rental income than be sitting with one house to my name....

How would people afford their, for example, 150% mortgages, if they left uni in, say 2006 and then lost their jobs a few years later?

What happens when you're 50, have ten houses to sell and nobody to buy them?

Effectively advising a 15 year old to get into property speculation at 21 is lunacy in my opinion.

advice I would give myself at 15 - not you - this is not advice I would give you - relax
I graduated from post grad in 2002 - I was paying rent that could easily have been a mortgage. I had friends who bought house and rented them out - housing executive tenants - long term renters - steady income - i dont see anything wrong with that advice  -wind your neck in

[foxcommander]

Don't just read what's in the book and regurgitate - try make sense of it. Things will stick in your head easier that way.

[johnneycool]

Don't feel obliged to keep your confirmation pledge.

At least I had the sense to not take the pledge. The school principal (a pioneer with a penchant for beating up kids) was apoplectic about it and made sure the whole parish knew about the one heathen that wasn't taking it.

Pledges aside, I'd encourage any teenager not to drink too early as it does no harm to develop your social skills in sobriety, rather than thinking your jack the lad with the lush in, yet not be able to string a sentence together in company without it.

[seafoid]

Confirmation pledge is an interesting one. I kept mine vehemently and then started drinking when I was 18. I wouldn't have been a big drinker compared to some but I had some big nights. I would be happy enough for my young ones to keep their pledge and not drink too early.

In terms of getting drunk yeah I would get drunk a bit but I could count on one hand the number of times I was blind drunk and in a state and I would take every one of them back if I could. Nothing is worse than that!! Never get so drunk that you black out and can't walk etc. it's the worst thing you can do!

I would be the same. Could never manage 10 rounds and never wanted to.

[Hughie]

One regret I have from University:

Never, ever, ever, ever turn down the ride.

There will be plenty of Tuesday nights when you're sitting in the house and nobody wants to come near you, and you'd give anything to go back to those college days. You'll have plenty of time for sleeping when you're working. You'll never get those nights back that you were too tired/lazy/couldn't be arsed answering the phone/going out/she's cet. At that time of the night no-one would know and you'd feel a lot better in years to come that you made the most of it when the opportunity presented itself.

Should add that I'm no oil painting - as evidenced by many nights bored out of my head reminiscing about bygone days! 

[magpie seanie]

A corollary to that train of thought Hughie was this maxim: "A good run usually ends with a girlfriend, a bad run usually ends with a minger".