25 Life Skills to Learn Before Age 25

With the summer break beginning, you may be wondering what to do with your four months away from school. If you aren’t on a study term, have a summer job, or if you find yourself with lots of spare time after work each day, you may become quite bored. You could take a vacation, read some educational books, or simply relax during your time off over the next four months, but I recommend learning new life skills.

Some of the life skills listed below may never be needed (such as #22), and some may be needed almost every week after you graduate (such as #12); however, all of these skills could become important at any point in your life. You may find that you already know how to do some of them, or perhaps you haven’t had an opportunity to try any, but it’s unlikely that you know how to do all of the skills listed below. 

If you have time this summer, try to learn some of these 25 life skills before you turn 25-years-old. You’ll thank me later, particularly if you’re ever stranded on a deserted island.  

This summer, you should try to learn how to:

1. Budget and save
2. Change a tire
3. Fix small leaks around your house or apartment
4. BBQ
5. Wash your own laundry
6. Make small talk with strangers
7. Sew and knit
8. Bake and cook (more than just Kraft Dinner)
9. Use some basic household power tools, like a drill
10. Change the oil in a vehicle
11. Navigate a paper map and a compass (you never know when you’ll need to break out these relics)
12. Iron your clothing
13. Use a fire extinguisher
14. Ride a bike
15. Tie a necktie
16. Plant and grow food in a garden
17. Carve a turkey and filet a fish
18. Perform First Aid and CPR
19. Tie survival knots, such as a clove hitch knot
20. Properly prune bushes and small trees
21. Jumpstart a car
22. Build and start a small bonfire with only the items you can find in a forest
23. Stop someone’s bleeding and temporarily aid non-emergency injuries
24. Write a professional resume and cover letter; and
25. Strategically invest.

After reading that list, you must be thinking that you’ll never need to know some of those skills. However, it is always best to be prepared for the worst. Besides, how fun would it be to learn how to build and start a small bonfire from scratch this summer? Just make sure you have a fire extinguisher nearby. That way, you can cross two items off your list at once!

Have a great summer, everyone!