Opened retirement account at age 17 and achieved lifelong financial security

I had no intentions of opening a retirement account prior to this course and it was something that I would have thought I needed to do it, like, 30 - 40 years old. But I ended up opening the account at 17 and now at 36, I feel really, really good about where I am. Hi, my name is Andrew Pugliese. I am 36 years old, so I have graduated about 20 years ago. And I currently work in human resources as a data analyst. I had an interest but I didn't know enough about investing before I took the course and was instantly, sort of, drawn to the topic. A lot of the decisions I've made, the investments that I've made, really tie back to some of the basic fundamentals. Thankfully, I've never found myself in, like, credit card debt or with a house with an upside down mortgage or anything like that. I've just been carefully taking my steps throughout my life and I think the course was a really good baseline to get me started. I think - especially for young people - really understanding what an asset is and making good decisions. I don't want to say it's not hard because, again, you need those basic fundamentals but once you have them you start making better, informed decisions. So, I feel like I'm less likely to fall into investment opportunities that really aren't investment opportunities and just making good decisions. I also do think getting started as young as possible really does make a difference. I've had conversations with my parents who, unlike me, did not have the opportunity to go through this course, got started later in life and had to play a little catch up later - later on in their careers. It's put me in a position to not worry about money very often, if really at ever. I like to think that I'm financially secure. I have a grip on everything. I would recommend that college students - even as early as high school - to just start getting those basic foundations. Even throwing just a few dollars in an investment account a month. That's how I started, that's where the class kind of led me towards and then eventually you build up. So the earlier you get started the better.