Please could you warn us about something, anything based on your own experience?

Don’t use your university, and student loans, as a homeless shelter.

Never leave anything nasty or dangerous where kids can access it. I looked at the pipeline acid cleaner when I was four and thought, that’s a pretty pink color, it should be good. It wasn’t. It burned bad going down and coming up.

Don’t count on anything lasting forever.

Get it in writing.

Always keep the receipt!

Never take a girl badger-baiting on a first date.

Do not settle in love.

Never run across an icy road with your hands in your pockets. If you slip and fall, you can’t catch yourself.

My friend warns to prepay for your luggage or you’ll leave it behind :)

I warn to prepare yourself mentally about the loss of everything. Loss of things and people. Don’t get possessive about anything. Stop owning the environment. take everything as your “companions” (thing or a living being) that come and go when the time comes. Sounds cheesy but that’s the only way I can to express it. And about possession… you understand about it only with experience. Prepare to lose and remember that you can’t lose what you don’t own :)

Talk it over with your dog first.

It is of no benefit to research a company or product after one has invested into them.

In today’s world, there is little excuse to not research beforehand.

check em’ out

Plan very well for retirement
Never stop studying (yes, even after 50)
Have more than one job (or one job and your finger in many pies)
Don’t laugh off friends they’re important
Count to 1000 if needed before replying!
Look after your teeth
Don’t put up with second best in love

DON’T LISTEN TO OTHER PEOPLE!!!

Their views are their own, and may not be applicable to you.

LEARN FOR YOURSELF!

When you’re about to be born, aim for the well-to-do, not mentally-deranged, northern European family.

Whatever you do, don’t choose to be a poor American.

Don’t have debt or cc debt if avoidable. Keep your credit good & don’t over-indulge in drugs or alcohol.

If you get a pop-up from your system tray admonishing you to update something, close it: DO NOT try to use it to do any updating!

It’s probably “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”* malware.

*My term.

You know how old people say depressing things like, “at last I have my health”? They’re not crazy. F*cking body can just decide to stop working one day – when you least expect it.

Also, stop waiting. Some of us have burned through the best years of our lives waiting. just waiting.

When sewing always wash the fabric first to prevent shrinkage later.

Do everything in your power to reduce your student loans. That mistake you made to go to college A can financially haunt you for years. They can feel like a noose around your neck when your college degree isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

Help yourself.

Always treat any firearm as loaded, even if you just unloaded it.

I worked in a photo-lab during college. We got all the film from Oregon and Washington and had to process it overnight. First tip is lots of people will see your pictures. We called the cops a few times a week for kiddie porn (I’m not talking bathtub shots). It was perhaps the most depressing job ever.

But we got in disposable cameras. We had dumpsters full of them every night. On my break one night I discovered that they had totally usable AA batteries in them. This was back before the iPod and built in batteries. I went through about 3 bucks a day in AA with my diskman. I would spend my lunch breaks ripping apart disposable cameras and yanking the batteries. Then I gave them to my sisters kid to sell at school. One day I was ripping one apart and made a huge mistake. My buddy Jessica was with me helping out and I pointed out that there was a very large capacitor and talking about it being used for the flash in the camera. I got to close. I blacked out from the shock and she called 911. I have been electrocuted a lot and it was by far the worse.

Some folks need to re-read the entire question.

When someone tells you something is too hard, don’t use that to predetermine your success. Certainly, take their advice, but decide yourself once YOU do it if something is hard or not.

I have an example, but it’s not Fluther worthy, as it’s not about anything important in life. It’s about a video game. Lol. But I can do whatever the fuck I damn well want, broski.

So I’m playing this game, trying to beat it on difficult mode with the hardcore mode enabled. First time I see a game where you can stack difficulty levels together, too…this one level is an ice level, and this guy was telling me that he was traumatized by it, because he tried like 60 times before beating it. Oh yeah?? Well it only took me five tries. This isn’t a whole thing about me being all awesome, it’s about how this guy thought that I would never be able to complete the level. What the fuck does he know? Why do people always define a limit to skill and knowledge based on how far they can go?
And I didn’t beat it by luck, either. (in this game, that is impossible, anyway) All through this game on this hard mode, I use what proves to work, and don’t change until I make it ahead and need to trial and error, and eventually beat the levels by getting shit done. I’m not saying I’ll be able to finish the game, but when I heard this guy tell me about the hard mode, I pretty much gave up without even trying…thankfully, I tried. So that’s my warning; try shit out yourself. I guess that’s easy to say for a video game, as opposed to real life experiences, but I have no life, besides alcoholism, and it’s not like anyone wants to know about that here, anyways. :D

It counts as a warning in my eyes, because if I had let myself be discouraged by this person, which I honestly just about did, I would have missed out on something that is really fun. And frustrating too, I do not deny.

Don’t talk about politics with the elderly! It seems the phrase “out of touch” had delved into the 5th dimension with some folks! Hanging on to a political party because you liked a guy whose been dead for 30 years makes no logical sense… Geesh… I mean, parties change as often as the people than run them!

Don’t borrow money from friends and especially relatives! And believe me, I speak from painful experience.

Don’t watch any tv commercials.

Read it again before hitting “send.”

Don’t itch your eye after dealing with chili pepper.

Try not intermingle business relationships with personal relationships.

Don’t lump people in a box based on assumptions. Additionally, get to know them individually before treating them as you ‘assume’ them to be.

Don’t ever start a sentence with, “my kids would never . . . ”

Unexplained muscle aches might be a really big deal. Get you to an ER.

My mom told me now to save money early.