It’s the results season, and I’m not even talking about football. Exam results, with teenagers across the country thinking about taking that next step after leaving college or school behind.
Such is life, many of us have high ambitions from an early age of driving nice cars, buying big houses and going to lovely places on holiday all over the world.
There’s nothing more I like hearing than a young person’s ambitions and targets. I love to drive people forward both in work and out because I feel it is important for us all to hold such aspirations in life.
If you don’t set goals, how do you know where to head? That’s my mindset, no matter how impossible certain targets may seem.
Recently I visited my old secondary school, Hartlepool’s English Martyrs, and Middlesbrough’s Trinity Catholic College, to talk to students. I was so encouraged by what they had to say.
Some were Year 10 and others in Year 12 and many had similar outlooks. It was interesting to hear how the Year 12s were planning after completing A-levels – the longer term had started to get real.
I asked some of the Martyrs pupils, during mock interviews I was helping conduct, where they saw them themselves in ten years’ time?
One said to me he envisages running a very successful business out of the UAE, with his parents not having to work anymore. He wanted this by the age of 25.
To some people that would be ridiculous but to me that’s fantastic. Why shouldn’t you have such ambitions?
Another Year 12 student I spoke to said he wanted to go to the USA on a sports scholarship, like I did – dreaming the football dream. I told him to go for it because it was one of the best experiences I have ever had.
As someone aged 28, who graduated from university not too long ago, I think younger people should grab any opportunities with both hands.
There is a balance, of course. Young people’s expectations are heightened more than ever because of social media and influencers.
We are constantly battered with being told how we should be driving a Range Rover by the age of 25 or holidaying in Dubai three times a year.
Unfortunately, it’s more often not the reality. By all means have lofty ambitions, but don’t jump too quickly.
Be the best version of yourself today, tomorrow is a different day.
In the next week or so, the exam results may not have gone the way you wanted. That picture perfect outlook isn’t always on the cards.
There’s nothing wrong with that, it is how you respond. Tomorrow is a new day.
I have always said that there is a lack of financial education given to young people today. It has taken me longer to get where I wanted to be financially at my age because of mistakes I made when I was younger.
It is easy to be attracted by social media posts highlighting how you should be investing early on as a young adult, but you need to understand the basics more than anything else.
It comes back to budgeting. Don’t overcommit yourself, make sure you have a bit of balance.
An experience for me at University was how I had a monthly budget of £250. I found myself spending £200 in the first week, so would leave myself with £10-15 a week to spend for the rest of the month. I won’t be the first or the last!
But get into the habit of budgeting if you can. Write down what is coming in and what you will have to spend, then do the maths and with what is left, have some fun.
Pensions, investments, property … are all important, but only when the time is right. Don’t build yourself a black hole where these things get even further away.
Don’t kid yourself into thinking you have to make it straight away, despite what TikTok tells you. And if you do things correctly now, see where that leads to.
You never know what doors will open in the future.
*For further information or to book an appointment with Harrison check out his adviser hub https://linktr.ee/harrisonsmithea [linktr.ee]