14.

“When I left a cushy and secure job at a television station to freelance in film and TV production services, my father cautioned: ‘Put away 10% of each paycheck for a rainy day.’ I didn’t take his words to heart — and when, shortly after my first anniversary as an independent, the industry slowed to a crawl, I encountered some tough times that I barely survived. I recall that, at my lowest point, I had the next month’s rent in hand — just barely — but no money for food besides a small baggie of pocket change. My heat had been shut off in the middle of an Alberta winter, and I had to ask my father for a loan to pay the gas bill and for groceries. So by the time work eventually picked up again, I had learned my bitter lesson and began to follow his advice assiduously.”

“Forty years later, I retired with a surprisingly well-capitalized retirement account, and membership in a gold-plated private healthcare plan. And in three weeks, for the third straight year, I’m forsaking frigid Canada to winter in Mexico. 

In my young adulthood, I suffered through 18% mortgage rates, 12% unemployment, and a decade of stagflation, but I think in many other ways, young people today are facing at least as fraught an economic climate as I did back in ’81. And I understand that today, others’ ability to ‘put something aside for a rainy day’ might be more limited than was mine. But I strongly encourage those who can, to do so.”

—u/theartfulcodger

Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ravenishak/advice-not-to-ignore