Not to be harsh, but trading and manifestation are not going to get you anywhere. Focus on your studies and relationships, try new activities, keep off drugs, exercise and eat healthy.

Yeah, the boring stuff is how you make life good.

does manifestation actually work

Not unless your parents are rich.

I wish someone had told me index funds only, forget trading, just grind compound interest for decades.

Also: lift barbells, floss, read more doom-scroll less.

Don’t bother with trading. Timing the market is a fool’s game. It’s all about time in the market. Just stick your money in and let it sit there. As you age you will want to move your money to safer investments and focus more on wealth preservation.

Also focus on spending time with your loved ones and doing things that make you happy. When people are at the end of their lives, no one wishes that they had grinded harder or obtained a higher status.

Also not realistic to be in a good headspace everyday. You’re just going to burn yourself out trying to do that. You’re going to have bad days. You’re going to have slow days. Just do your best and hope that tomorrow will be better.

| does manifestation actually work

only the part where you are doing shit to make things happen works. I guess if you have nothing left to do towards a goal then doing affirmations doesn’t hurt to use it to make yourself feel better, but it’s not going to make something happen for you.

Manifestation doesn’t work.

You set goals and work towards them. Discipline, work and the ability to learn from your mistakes will take you further than wishing on a star.

Stop with the trading. Get sensible investments like index funds in a 401k or something. You can’t simply manifest something. If it helps you to have mantras to repeat that’s awesome and can be helpful to some people, but you have to actually live those words. Manifest it through your actions.

Just invest in mutual funds, max out your roth ira contributions every year. Don’t try and make a living by trading, set aside 10-15% of your income to mutual funds and leave it there until you’re old. Get a job and max out your contributions, or at least max out employer contributions.

Wear sunblock.

had some bad losses in trading lately, took a short break and now trying to actually fix my risk management before going back in

Good for you getting out. Don’t get back in. No more day trading. Day trading is anti-social shithead behavior, anyway. If you don’t feel bad for doing it, take a closer look. It doesn’t pass any kind of pro-social test.

if you’re older and already been through your 20s, what do you wish someone told you back then?

Someone did tell me this, but I was a stupid kid. I followed it, but I started stupdily late.

Maybe you’re smarter than I was, but forgive yourself later if you’re not - you’re at least in good company.

Here is is:

"Time in the market always beats market timing. Buy conservative things with real value - ideally that routinely pay a dividend. Hold on to them.

However powerful you think you know compounding interest is, you’re wrong. It’s substantially more powerful than that.

Get it - compounding interest - on your side right now, and keep it there, anytime you can.

Don’t take out any debt that you can possibly avoid."

Yo! I’m 25 years old, so not quite a wisened ancient, but I think I still have some good advice to dish out to a youngster such as you.

MANIFESTATION DOES NOT WORK!

Actions work. You want money? Find ways to make money. You want to travel more? Find the time and the funds to travel. Wagering your success on wishful thinking is nonsense, and I say this lovingly.

If you want a better headspace, I suggest journaling; it doesn’t need to be serious or regular, just write down your thoughts and think through your options on paper, process your emotions in ink.

Also, taking some time once in a while to clear your head can do wonders. No music, no books, no videos… Just you and your thoughts. Sit on a park bench or just in your room and be quiet. Relax. I like to do this on my daily walks; I call it “raw-dogging the world”, and it’s a little weird at first, but it’s good.

TRADING IS TOO RISKY

Look, I know some people can do it and succeed, even long term, but you have no reason to believe you’re one of those people. You know how I know you have no reason to believe it? You have no industry backing. I suggest you get off trading and do some long-term, boring, diversified investment and stick to it.

Trading can be part of a good investment portfolio and strategy, especially if you’re willing to put time into learning how to do it well, but it should never (and I mean never) be the way you make money, unless you have institutional capital backing you. Which you don’t.

If you’re American, maybe you can stick to an S&P500 index fund and be satisfied; I prefer an all-world fund.

Seriously, trading should be maybe 5 in every 100 bucks you invest, if you’re crazy. If you’re sane, it’s 0.

Physical Fitness

Please, please pay attention to your physical fitness. I was very fat (obese) at your age, and it was terrible. At the time I didn’t realise just how terrible it was, but when I shed the weight I felt like such a moron for having been so unhealthy for so long. Also, I was so weak! I’m not strong, per se, but even the little working out I have done in the years since has changed my life.

Seriously. Eat right, stay at a healthy weight, and do some basic exercises regularly. Go for walks or something, some push-ups and squats, nothing fancy. Just stay reasonably physically fit. It will pay dividends later on, but it will also feel WAY better RIGHT NOW! I swear.

Career

I’m still figuring this one out, but so far my strategy of aggressive upward mobility has worked out fine. Don’t be afraid to change jobs, send out applications to random stuff that seemingly doesn’t fit your experience level or CV… Just, try to get a job you don’t hate and that pays good enough, and then try to get a better job (or a raise). Again, definitely don’t take this as gospel or anything (you should take the physical fitness advice as gospel, by the way; I’m serious, it’s insane the difference it makes), but it’s what’s worked so far.

Friends and Hobbies

I regret letting go of my social life entirely. I’m very asocial and bad with people, but it can be fun if you know how to balance it with everything else, and it gets really much harder to get back into being social after you’ve gone years without engaging with anyone. So, get friends and stay in touch! Just a little, if that’s all you care to do, but at least do something so you don’t lose them.

For hobbies, I definitely think that spending hours doomscrolling on TikTok was a terrible mistake I was making at your age. Or YouTube. Seriously, read more. Read literary fiction, old books new books, any author, whatever. Just read more. Non-fiction too, from actual experts (not wannabe gurus that pump out self-help drivel). Read more, learn more about a variety of subjects, educate yourself.

Again, these are things that I noticed I failed at at your age, and now as I have changed or am still changing my habits and priorities, I’m seeing the difference it makes.

Parents

I don’t know what your parents are like, but my parents (and my family in general) is very helpful and supportive. If you can rely on them, do rely on them. It’s OK. But also, make sure to spend quality time with them and pay back their efforts with love and appreciation, and probably most of all, pay them back by being happy. If you’re feeling unhappy, if you feel stuck or lost or anything like that, speak with the people you can trust and rely on, and let them help you. They want to see you happy, and they will do right by you if you let them.

This is my experience, and I do hope you can do that too, though I realise it might unfortunately not be the case.

had some bad losses in trading lately, took a short break and now trying to actually fix my risk management before going back in

Unless you have insider trading knowledge, start with a huge amount of money, or find some other way to cheat, Trading is just gambling.

If you want to invest, put your money in index funds. I used to say the SP500 or 100, but unfortunately Musk has been allowed to just offload his losses into those funds.

SP500 High Dividend Yield (Other companies have similar) are a decent option, they focus on the 500 companies with historically high dividends.

if you’re older and already been through your 20s, what do you wish someone told you back then? like what actually mattered vs what you thought mattered at the time.

1. Stay active, you don’t need to be in the gym 24/7, but find something athletic that you enjoy doing, try to stay in the habit of doing something athletic for an hour every other day at a minimum.

2. Avoid the sugar trap. I get it, soda tasts good, cookies taste good, but the more sugar you eat, the harder it is to avoid sugar later. Get in the habit of eating healthy while you are 20, it will save your life later.

3. Learn to snack better (if you are a snacker). Snacking is fine, snacking on poptarts, mini doughnuts and soda will kill you. I use chia-seed pudding when I am getting snacky, very low calorie, and as a bonus it has a lot of fiber. Make it with a nice tea, and its a tasty, healthy snack that can last the whole time between lunch and dinner.

4. Avoid the manosphere/redpill/Christian Values/Alpha Male trap. It doesnt impress the ladies, it wont make you friends, it just makes you miserable (and then telling you that its everyone elses fault, but they totally see how great you can be if you just buy this 69.99 protein powder).

5. (And this is probably the most important) Learn to not be a an asshole, the bar is literally so low for men that just being a decent human being will get you plenty of attention. Learn to be respectful when women say no, learn to not care if somebody else is gay/trans/black/fat/bald etc, and especially learn to not make fun of people for it. Learn to talk to people, and hang out without putting them down. Learn to be genuinly happy for others successes, and how to build up others.

This will make you actual friends that stay with you, will impress the ladies (seriously, im of average looks and build, and I have a GF, 2 FWB and 2 more sometimes partners, all just from being an actually kind, decent, safe person), and will set you up to have a much more fulfilling life.

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Manifestation is just wishful thinking. If you want your life to change, you have to take the actual steps to change it.

Failure isn’t always a negative, it can be an educational experience to carry on. Don’t be afraid of failure, use it to learn, be afraid of success. It’s fickle.

Strengthen your core. Back pain in your 30s is a bitch.

Floss daily.