YOLO lifestyle is adopted by a lot of millennials who pursue the carefree life and living the fullest. Even through they are young and ‘choose’ to be carefree, the future self will not be happy about it. I learned the lesson the hard way.

Before I moved to Switzerland, I was living in Singapore. My husband is living in Switzerland. We were 12hrs flight away from each other and 7 hours’ time difference. I was paying rent in Singapore, which by chance is the second most expensive residential property market after HongKong. My husband was paying rent in Zurich, which by chance is one of the most expensive residential property market in Europe. And second highest rental market in Switzerland. Besides that, we visited each other minimum once every two months and flew across the globe, in New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, China or Europe. We have contributed greatly to the global economy from our international spending footprints.

After I moved to Switzerland, we cut the rental expense in half, we saved all the flight tickets expenses and we both work 100%. We were living the life more than ever! Luxury hotels, Michelin restaurants, multiple times overseas travels, expensive purchase, whatever we want, we were able to afford within our means. Because somehow we had the impression that we will be able to live like this forever, till we retire. And we are still young, we wanted to live like YOLO, because the future will take care of itself, as we thought.

Who would have know that some major events happened in life and our household income was cut more than half and more expenses are unavoidably incurred, such as a huge unexpected medical bill due to health reasons., even after the insurance subsidy.

We had no idea what is our monthly expenses as we never tracked it, so I was a bit panic about the fact that we have now much less income. I was more panic because we did not make an effort to save when we were earning. You could imagine how I was shaken and woke up from the YOLO style.

It is easier for us to escape the problem than facing it, that is why YOLO gives us a good reason to not thinking about our financial future. When we are young and have lots of energy, it is the golden time to work hard and maximize the earning capabilities, because when we are older, we can reap the benefits and work less.

No matter how young or old your are, you should always think about the financial future. Take a certain percentage of your income and put it aside for saving or investing, after 10, 20 years, your future self will thank you greatly.

For all those who are young and working, I suggest you to do 3 things:

1. track your monthly expenses

2. save a fixed percentage of your salary first thing you get your pay. Don’t touch it unless for emergency.

3. Start investing in a long-term portfolio, even if it a small amount to begin with.

Live financial responsibly, for you, and your future self. Ditch the YOLO style and be conscious about your spending, saving and investing. Trust me, you are not missing anything out of the life!