Being young is great. Most of the parts of your body still work great, you have a full head of hair, you’re energetic, and you have a world of opportunity in front of you. However, there’s going to come a time when you start to get older. And as you get older, you’ll have new responsibilities, complete independence, and perhaps most importantly, less time to recover from mistakes.

年輕真好。身體大部分零件運轉靈活，頭發(fā)濃密，精力旺盛，機會唾手可得。然而，總有一天，老之將至。隨著年齡的增長，肩上的擔子重了，生活完全靠自己打拼，可能最重要的是，有更少的時間去彌補錯誤。

You see, we all make mistakes in life. Maybe you spent more money than you should have on a car, you passed up on a great job opportunity, or you didn’t try as hard as you could have in school. It’s a part of life and we learn from it. But there are certain mistakes that are much better made while you’re still young and have plenty of time to recover.

你看，在生活中，我們都犯錯誤�；蛟S，你在汽車上花的錢超出了預算；或許，你錯過了大好的工作機會；或許，上學時你不勤奮好學。這是生活的一部分，我們從中獲得經驗。但是，某些錯誤最好犯在年輕時，你將有足夠的時間去彌補。

I’m definitely not telling you that you should purposely go out and make these mistakes (because they’re a pain to recover from). But these are all mistakes that are much better made when you’re younger so that you can learn from them and not have them ruin your entire life.

我當然不是說，你應該有目的出去犯這些錯誤（ 因為從錯誤中恢復很痛苦）。但是，這些錯誤，都是越年輕時犯就越有利，以便你能從中吸取教訓，而避免讓它們毀掉你的整個生活。

1. Starting The Wrong Career

入錯行

Wouldn’t you hate to be 45 years old and discover that you absolutely hate what you do for a living? It’s a reality that a lot of people face and it can be difficult to fix. You see, when you’re 23 and find out you don’t like the career path you’ve chosen, you can easily explore new career options.

45歲的時候，你發(fā)現，你討厭維系你生活的謀生手段，此時你不會感到遺憾嗎？這是擺在很多人面前的現實，而且很難補救。要知道，23歲時，你發(fā)現不喜歡自己選擇的職業(yè)道路，開拓新天地易于反掌。

We no longer live in an age when people are expected to stay with one company until they retire. You can bounce around a little bit and find out what you want to do. When you get older, just switching careers whenever you want isn’t as simple.

在一家公司一直工作到退休的時代已經成為過去。你可以跳跳槽，看看哪行適合你。年輕不再時，隨心所欲地換工作可不是易事。

You have to consider your family, retirement, the difficulties you might run into with starting from the bottom in a new industry, and plenty of other issues that someone in their early 20’s just doesn’t have to deal with.

你必須要考慮家庭、退休以及在新行業(yè)中從頭來可能遇到的困難，還有很多20多歲的年輕人無需應對的其他事情。

2. Dating the wrong person

嫁（娶）錯郎（娘）

The divorce rate in the U.S is extremely high. Other parts of the world aren’t doing too much better either. While everyone gets divorced for their own reasons, I think we can all agree that it’s better to find out that the person you’re with is wrong for you sooner rather than later.

美國的離婚率極高，世界上其它地區(qū)也好不到哪里。每個人離婚都有各自的理由，我覺得大家都會同意這種觀點，發(fā)現你的配偶不適合你宜早不宜遲。

Hopefully you find out whether or not the person you’re with is right for you before you tie the knot, because around 50% of first marriages end in divorce.

但愿在結為連理之前，確定那個人是否合適，因為第一次婚姻中的50%以離婚告終。

3. Messing up your credit

信譽掃地

Ruining your credit is never a good idea. Even if you ruin it while you’re young, it could affect you in the future. The upside of having bad credit while you’re young instead of older is that you have time to build it back up.

毀掉信譽從來不是好想法。即使你年輕，毀掉信譽也可能會對你的將來產生影響。年輕時比年老時失去信譽的好處在于，你有時間再次贏得信譽。

It can take 7-10 years to rebuild your credit if you have a history of late payments, loan defaults, foreclosures, or bankruptcy. During those 7-10 years, you’ll have a hard time financing anything unless you have a cosigner or put down a substantial down payment.

如果你有拖欠付款、貸款違約、取消抵押品收回權或破產歷史，重建信譽可能需要7-10年的時間。在這7-10年里，你很難籌措資金，除非有共同簽署人或預付一大筆定金。

Most people tend to make most of the bigger purchases in life when they get older such as a house or their dream car. If you have bad credit, you can kiss all of that goodbye.

生活中，大多數人年齡越大越傾向于購買大件商品，例如房子、香車。如果你信譽掃地，那就只有緣而沒有份了。

4. Making bad investments

投資不謹慎

If you’re investing money for your retirement, making bad decisions can mean you’ll be working your entire life. Whether you choose to pay someone to do the investing for you or handle it all yourself, it’s a lot better to take risks when you’re younger.

如果你為養(yǎng)老做投資，不明智的投資可能意味著你將辛勞一生。不論花錢雇人還是自己做投資理財，承擔風險，越年輕承受力越強。

If you invest in stock or even real estate while you’re young and the market takes a hit, you’re not ruined. Investing is a long-term venture, so the younger you start, the more fluctuation you can withstand and still come out with a positive return.

如果年輕時投資股票或房地產，市場震蕩，你不會一蹶不振。投資是長期冒險，投資越早，就越經得起漲落，而最終獲得正收益。

5. Blowing your money

燒錢

What would you do if you went broke at 60 years old? You would be working your behind off when you really should be relaxing and getting ready to retire soon.

60歲的你成了窮光蛋怎么辦？你該真正放松，準備享受退休生活的時候，卻不得不甩開膀子接著干。

But if you’re 25 and broke, you still have plenty of time to earn more money. Also, nobody will judge you because it’s not unusual for people in their 20’s to not have money these days. You might have blown your money on a nice car or have an obsession with all the newest gadgets.

但是，如果25歲的你破產了，你還有足夠的時間賺更多錢。還有，沒有人因此對你說三道四，因為，現在20多歲的年輕人沒有錢很正常。你可能買了輛好車，揮霍了一筆，或者曾癡迷于新潮小設備。

When you get older, you’ll be able to look back and realize how dumb you were for spending $20,000 on a brand new car when you were only 20 years old. But when you’re older and waste your money, you’ll REALLY have nothing to show for it.

當你變老時，回顧過去，你開始懂得，花2萬美元買輛新車，那時只有20歲的你多么讓人無語。但是，當你已不再年輕，而且還亂花錢，你就真得什么也沒有了。