# Looking back on your life, how much would you have paid to do things differently. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 3, 2011, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-on-your-life-how-much-would-you-have-paid-to-do-things-differently/591276 "2011-08-03T03:55:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-on-your-life-how-much-would-you-have-paid-to-do-things-differently/591276/1 "2011-08-03T03:55:13Z")
Lets suppose you could send a message to your past self. What would you tell yourself, and how much in todays money would you say your believeable advice was worth. [Inspired by this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=618697) For example, I would have paid tens of thousands of dollars to know doing the particular arts undergraduate degree I did wasn’t worth it, saving myself years of unemployment and all the post-grad fees I spent to correct it. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-on-your-life-how-much-would-you-have-paid-to-do-things-differently/591276/2 "2011-08-03T04:10:40Z")
Tens of thousands to GTFO within 6 months of graduating from high school. Allowing my family to choose where I went to college simply fucked everything up. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-on-your-life-how-much-would-you-have-paid-to-do-things-differently/591276/3 "2011-08-03T04:49:20Z")
I’d pay my entire net worth to get a different set of parents. But seeing as my current net worth is ~negative $20k, I don’t know how much this sentiment is worth. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-on-your-life-how-much-would-you-have-paid-to-do-things-differently/591276/4 "2011-08-03T05:56:38Z")
…bought out pimply Bill Gates at the eve of fortune! ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-on-your-life-how-much-would-you-have-paid-to-do-things-differently/591276/5 "2011-08-03T06:25:17Z")
Hm, the problem with my 2 very abusive exes is that I actually learned valuable stuff from them, so if I avoided them I would not be the person I am today. Perhaps if I told myself to not do the competitive dressage and jumping and take martial arts/self defense instead, and accepting the chance to go to West Point and be an Army officer instead of what I chose I would be better off. [to be blunt, the null chance of escaping being raped was why I didn’t go to the point. I did not see the value of putting up with public and private harassment to get the ring. Perhaps with a strong self defense background I might have escaped being raped.] ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-on-your-life-how-much-would-you-have-paid-to-do-things-differently/591276/6 "2011-08-03T07:07:09Z")
Nothing. In fact, I’d pay good money to keep it the same. There were some tough parts and plenty of bad decisions, but without going through those I wouldn’t have worked out my rough points and grown in to what I am. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-on-your-life-how-much-would-you-have-paid-to-do-things-differently/591276/7 "2011-08-03T15:18:28Z")
I wish that I’d established myself as an independent adult the second I turned 18. If this meant serving up fries while I scraped through college, then that’s what I should have done. And I shouldn’t have gotten married at 19 because I was so desperate to get away from my parents. I wish that I’d finished college. And I definitely should have dated more. Sure, every boyfriend I ever had wanted to marry me…but I miss not having had a wider dating experience. I’m OK with not ever taking up smoking, drugs, or serious drinking, though. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-on-your-life-how-much-would-you-have-paid-to-do-things-differently/591276/8 "2011-08-03T15:19:45Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > I’d pay my entire net worth to get a different set of parents. But seeing as my current net worth is ~negative $20k, I don’t know how much this sentiment is worth. Just goes to show you get what you pay for. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-on-your-life-how-much-would-you-have-paid-to-do-things-differently/591276/9 "2011-08-03T17:23:25Z")
A previous landlord declared bankruptcy and screwed me out of just under a grand in deposit money (as [detailed here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14062125&postcount=105), if you’re going “Bwuh? How?”) and frankly, even if I could go back in time and tell myself that, there would still be no legal way to stop it from happening. If there was, then that would be worth a couple thousand bucks (to adjust for inflation + emotional satisfaction). I might, however, have [del]trashed the house[/del] left a tiny bit of cat and ferret poop in a litter box if I’d have known, and that would likely also be worth a thousand bucks’ worth of satisfaction. Getting two more years’ of job experience instead of a worthless MA would probably be worth … well, two years’ worth of salary, assuming I’d have been able to find a job.