25 important life skills you need to learn by your 25th birthday

Life skills and personal development are very important, to be able to function on your own in this world. Even though you still live with your parents or just moved away, but still rely on their help while you take your first steps in the world, as a young adult, think that they will not be here forever.

You need to learn the basics, so you can pass them on, someday, when you will have children of your own. Or, if you don’t want any kids but still have nieces and nephews, it’s nice to be that cool aunt or uncle they can look up to and learn stuff from.

We have put together a list of the most important things you need to know as a young adult, and we speak from our experience and others like us.

25 important life skills you need to learn by your 25th birthday:

1. Cooking… anything! (but not everything!)

Hey, I’m not saying you should turn yourself into a professional chef ( unless you want to, of course). You need to learn to cook for yourself, more than eggs and french fries. It’s a basic skill anyone should know, especially as a young adult.

Why? Simple. It saves you money, because eating out every day is expensive, and it’s a lot healthier. Making your own meals is how you know exactly what you have in your food.

Related: WHAT KITCHEN ESSENTIALS YOU NEED IN YOUR HOME FOR COOKING LIKE A PRO- 5 EASY TIPS FOR NEWBIES

2. Cleaning & housekeeping

Nobody wants to live in dirt. No one likes it. When you were growing up you had your mother there to clean and cook and organize the house for you. Now, those days are over. You’re an adult, so you must do that for yourself.

You don’t want to call your mother everytime your house needs cleaning and organizing, or your clothes need washing, do you?

It’s simple, really. From DIYing your own cleaning products, to creating your list of essentials, learning how to properly use your washing machine is your next step. I know it’s big and scary, but it comes with a book, and I know that might scare you too, but reading a book doesn’t kill you.

Related:
7 LAZY PEOPLE MOM APPROVED CLEANING HACKS YOU NEED TO KNOW NOW
HOW TO HAVE A CLEANER HOME – 5 EASY TIPS FOR NEWBIES
WHAT CLEANING ESSENTIALS YOU NEED TO HAVE IN YOUR HOME – 5 EASY TIPS FOR NEWBIES
HOW TO PROPERLY CLEAN YOUR TECH DEVICES – 5 EASY TIPS FOR NEWBIES

3. Simple sewing

I know that we live in a time when ripped clothing and trashed jeans create the normal look for young people now, but you still need the ability to hand sew.

Threading a needle and doing a stitch is something anyone should know, in case a whole appears in something you still need. Like socks or underwear.

When you’re young, you’re low on cash, so you can’t afford to throw away every clothing item that goes bad. Doing a little stitch here and there keeps your clothes, okay and your wallet intact.

A simple tutorial is this next one, from the gorgeous Wendy, from WithWendy:

Source: WithWendy

4. Basic home repairs

Of course, I’m referring here to the little things. Changing a lightbulb, repairing a clogged toilet or sink, should be something everyone is capable of. Learn how to use tools like screwdrivers, just in case you ever need it.

Other useful skills include painting your house or even some tasks a little complicated like fixing your shower. There are places where you can find courses for those sort of things, for very little money, or you can even learn them for free if you know someone that does that.

5. Smart shopping

A nice and wallet-friendly skill is the one regarding shopping. It doesn’t matter if it’s shoes, clothing, accessories, or especially food. You need to learn how to shop for less money, how to save money while shopping and how to create shopping lists.

I am a very strong believer in the idea of “what is old for you, is new to me”, that’s why I prefer saving my money and buying most of my clothes and some accessories from thrift stores. Or to DIY them, If I can.

Related: HOW TO SAVE MONEY WHILE SHOPPING – WITHOUT COUPONS

6. Organizing your time

The biggest problem we face, as young adults, is time management. When we were in school, we had a schedule, we knew what we had to do in every hour, and after school, we also had a schedule for homework, projects, and housework helping moms.

Now, we feel like the animals, finally set free from our cages, even though we were never closed anywhere. That’s the main reason we tend to go crazy and waste our precious time, and often procrastinate.

The valuable skill every young adult needs to learn is how to organize time, especially if you are a freelancer or an artist that works for herself/himself. Create a schedule for your week, plan ahead, and set alarms for every task.

Related: MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY – HOW TO MANAGE YOUR TIME AND GET MORE THINGS DONE IN ONE DAY

7. Grammar!

This is one of the most important issues with the world today. With all those emojis and abbreviations happening in our world, no one is using proper grammar anymore!

You need to be able to speak and write correctly. There are books and courses you can take for that, but, lately, I found something better. Did you know there’s an app that helps you write correctly? And it’s called Grammarly.

I personally love it and have used it for a few months now!

8. Communication

“The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.” – Qui-Gon-Jinn, Star Wars – Episode I, The Phantom Menace

Another great quote from Star Wars that we can apply in real life. You need to learn how to communicate, not only talk. You have to be able to express your feelings, to share valuable information and to know what to say and when to say it.

9. Safety – online and in the real world

Learn how to protect your privacy online – your passwords, your accounts, and your private (dirty) pictures, in some cases. There are a lot of people out there that try to violate your intimacy, and you need to know how you can keep them away from your precious online life.

Also, for the real world now, learning how to protect yourself is a very important skill, it’s the skill that my mother likes to call “how to NOT be stupid” – she’s a safety instructor.

You need to know how to deal with a bad situation, just in case it ever happens.

Young women should know how to guard themselves, and I think everybody should definitely pay attention in safety meetings at work, even if working in an office.

10. Basic first aid

A possible life-saving skill and one most young people ignore. You never know when you’re in a social situation and somebody needs first aid. Do you know how to help your friend dislocates or breaks a bone? What are the signs of a stroke or a heart attack?

There are people who teach this, but there are also tons of tutorials and classes online you can take.

Accidents happen, everyone knows that. Unfortunately, we can’t prevent all of them, so being prepared is always helpful.

What you can not ignore is the need to have a first aid kit in your house. It can be a nice box, or you can just display them in a drawer dedicated only for that.

You need to have in your kit, always: band-aids of all sizes, elastic bands, medical tape, cotton and medicine for cleaning and treating yourself until you get to a doctor.

11. How to write your resume

Source: Classy Career Girl

Getting a job is the main priority for young people who just finished school. How you get the job you want depends on how well your resume looks. And I don’t mean only the style of it, I mean how well it is written.

12. Budgeting

Money is tight now, on our own, for most of us anyway. You need to learn how to create a budget, how to organize your income and spendings.

Learning how to create a budget is quite simple and the benefits are many.

Related: LIVING ON ONE INCOME 101- HOW TO BETTER MANAGE YOUR MONEY AND STILL ENJOY YOUR 20S

13. How to be debt free ( pay/stay away from)

This skill is related to budgeting. Every young person is most likely to have debt or risk creating at least one. What you need to learn is how to pay your debt off and also how to keep away from others.

The big ways to do this are: spend less or earn more or both. Having a budget and a side hustle is the best way to start. The other advice that I think is pure gold is the “snowball effect”.

Start paying your debt from the smallest to the biggest, one by one. Once you start they will roll like a snowball.

We’ve started doing this and our journey to freedom is now at 1/3 from the road!

Related:
HOW TO LIVE YOUR LIFE, WHILE PAYING YOUR DEBTS – 3 STEPS SYSTEM
10 SIMPLE WAYS TO MAKE EXTRA MONEY EVERY MONTH – OFFLINE AND ONLINE
HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE AS AN ARTIST WITHOUT HAVING A WORKSHOP
AN INTROVERT’S SECRET – THE PERFECT SIDE HUSTLE FOR EVERY WALLFLOWER

14. Personal Bookkeeping

This is a skill that every home needs, in my opinion. I’m not saying you should go to school and study to be an accountant to do this because that’s not for everyone. I studied that in college and the classes were horrible, really.

What I’m suggesting is to have a notebook or an excel file you update every time you spend or make money.

It’s a simple chart, with 3 fields: Date(input the date of the change of money status), Details(write down why you spent/received money as detailed as possible) and Total amount (what you get after the change).

15. Prioritize

Learn how to prioritize basically everything in your life. You need to be able to figure out what’s more important: playing World of Warcraft or getting a job, for example.

Being able to arrange your daily tasks according to how important they are, really helps you learn how to save time, beat procrastination and be more disciplined and organized.

Related: HOW TO BEAT PROCRASTINATION AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE -MOTIVATION EXERCISE

16. Keeping your focus

Stay on your target at all times. It’s not that hard to learn how to be focused on the task at hand, but it’s a skill us, as young adults need to know how to master.

With all the social media madness, games and distractions we have out there tempting us at every move, we must learn how to stay concentrated and finish our tasks.

17. Be funny! (in your own quirky way)

Find your humor. Learning how to be funny is important, to help you and others around you relax a bit, especially in bad situations.

You don’t need to copy anyone to be funny, just be yourself. Andy and I are known for having a unique, strange humor, and not many of the people around us get it most of the time, but that’s okay, as long as we like it!

18. Etiquette basics

Source: Deer Pearl Flowers

You don’t need to learn everything about it, after all, we’re not royalty, but you need to know how to properly arrange a table for eating when you have a family event for example.

It’s also nice to know how to act while in a social gathering. You might find yourself in a nice restaurant someday, you don’t want to act like a caveman, do you?

19. Understanding Politics

Again, don’t need to go to college for this one either, but it’s important as a young adult to know a little bit about your local politics, so you can act on it. You should be informed about who and what are hot right now and why.

Why is this so important? So you can vote properly and help build the right system for your country.

20. Respect

Learn how to respect others. Their beliefs, rights, voices, likes and dislikes, opinions. Especially if they differ from yours, you don’t need to be rude. As they respect you and your ways, you should also respect them.

It’s a valuable lesson to learn now while you are young, later in life might be harder.

21. Receiving compliments and criticism

Okay, I’m going to talk a little bit to you ladies now. When your man tells you that you are the most beautiful woman in the world, just accept it gracefully and thank him for that, don’t go all  “I don’t believe you! Bla…”, or answer with “Why?”. That kills the moment and might bring some bad feelings to your guy!

Same goes for criticism, everyone. If someone comments badly on something you did, accept it. Think about it, and work on the issue presented to you. Don’t react too volcanic, because not everybody wants to beat you down or break you.

22. How to take care of yourself

Proper hygiene is something every young adult should know. Also, learning how to DIY your beauty care routine, even if you’re a guy. You need to know how to shave, wax, pluck and how to create your own skincare routine.

Trust me, it will save you a lot of money, and it’s nice to know that you can pass that knowledge on.

23. How to live a healthy life

Of course, I’m referring here to discipline yourself into being active and creating healthy eating habits for yourself. There are tons of videos, tutorials, and articles out there made just for that matter!

Related: HOW TO BREAK SUGAR ADDICTION FOREVER

24. Learn to share

Some of you might already know how to do this, having siblings growing up and all, but for the ones that are like me, one kid, the only grandchild and so on, when reaching adulthood might be difficult to share, because we were used to having it all for ourselves.

25. Find your happiness

It can be a hobby, the perfect job, or as simple as paying your debt! Learn what makes you happy and just be!

We hope you liked our 25 ideas about the important life skills that you should learn by your 25th birthday!

Our question for you is: What other life skills you think are important to know, as a young adult?