20 Life Skills Millenial Women Don’t Have But Should
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It’s bad enough that a general life skills class isn’t mandatory each year of college — and yes, it takes several years to thoroughly learn most of these life skills — but on top of that now, the world we live in caters to our disinterest in some of the most basic skill sets. Whatever the problem is, there’s an app for that. If we want, we don’t have to communicate with anybody outside of work, and some of us telecommuters don’t even have to talk to people at all. With the push of a button, we can calculate things, locate things, translate things and decode things. But can we do any of that with our own minds? Here are 20 essential life skills millennial women don’t know but need to know.
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Social media diplomacy
Your social media is now viewed by absolutely everybody. If you are passionate about a topic, you will receive hateful comments. You have to know how to respond to those in a productive, mature manner. If you don’t, your wrath will likely go viral, it will be misconstrued, and your reputation will fall out of your hands.
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How to negotiate a raise
It’s sad even to say this, but times are finally catching up to common decency, and we now live in a climate in which fewer people (not nobody, but fewer people) bat an eyelash when a woman demands a raise or a higher position. Now you just have to learn how to do that through a speech that is informed and eloquent. “I should get more money” won’t cut it.
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How credit works
Surprisingly, a lot of millennials — that means people up to age 35 — do not know how credit works. Some 30-somethings believe that opening a credit card is only a bad thing. That’s simply not true. Some think having loans on your record is only a bad thing. That’s also not true. So long as you pay back any type of credit (loan, card, etc.) at the rate agreed upon, you build credit.
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What a Roth IRA is
Since Roth IRAs don’t necessarily grow as quickly as the fancy stocks and bonds we see on Wall Street, a lot of millennials think they’re a waste of time. But in fact, Roth IRAs are some of the safest and most important investments to make for your future.
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How to find a book in a library
You have no idea how to do this, and you know it. Those little numbers and letters on the side of the book– you don’t know if they signal which floor the book is on, which year it was written in, or what age you’ll be when you meet your husband.
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How to spot an unsafe cab
Since most of us use shared ride services like Lyfts and Uber now, we’re sh-t out of luck when we visit foreign countries or small towns that don’t have these. If you don’t know how to spot an unsafe taxi or a fraud taxi service, you can be at best ripped off and at worst put in danger.
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Safe food temperatures
Do you know how high the temperature of raw chicken can rise before it grows hazardous bacteria? Or how warm sour cream can get before it will make you sick? You should.
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How to intuitively count calories
We depend on little trackers on our wrists or apps in our phones to tell us how many calories we’ve consumed. We depend on them so much that we don’t know how to listen to our own bodies anymore! But ultimate happiness and balance come from listening to your body not from reading an app.
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How to move on the cheap
Admit it: every time you have to move, you somehow end up buying forty boxes you didn’t need and using the paid-by-the-hour movers for four more hours than you needed them. Learn the logistics of moving and how to plan ahead so you can save hundreds on move-in day.
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How to identify a good health plan
You might look at a health plan with a $3,600 a year premium and say, “Forget it!” instantly reaching for the $2,900 a year one. But did you look to see that the one with a higher premium has only $15 doctor’s visit copays, while the cheaper one has $50 copays? Did you see the higher premium plan only has a $1,000 deductible for the year, and cheaper one has a $2,000 deductible? Learn to understand the numbers.
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How to assess threatening neighbors
If you’re a single woman who is apartment hunting to live alone, you need to know how to evaluate a neighborhood. You need to go back to the neighborhood at night time and see how it feels then. You need to see what it’s like during peak party hours during the weekends. How many sirens do you hear if you hang out there all day?
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How to buy a car
One day you’ll want to stop leasing and start buying, and you will not have a parent with you at the dealership to talk the dealer into knocking $900 off the price. Learn what questions to ask, or what types of payment plans are available.
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What the hell is tax deductible
You’d be surprised at how many things are tax deductible, especially in this economy when more people are working freelance and part time than ever. Things like babysitters, new clothes, car washes, phone chargers…if you work from home you’re probably missing hundreds if not thousands of dollars in deductibles.
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How to change a tire
We don’t live in a day and age when you can stand on the side of the road looking helpless. The odds are the wrong person will pull over before the right one does. So fix it so you don’t need someone to pull over.
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How to tell time without a watch (or phone)
There was a time when people knew what time it was based on where the sun was. Now, if you guessed what time it was, you’d probably be way off. You need your phone or watch. But in an emergency situation where there are no phones, you may need to tell time by the sun.
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Your rights with law enforcement
As a woman, it’s so important to know that if a cop wants to pull you over, you have the right to wait until you’ve driven to a well-lit area where you feel safe. You don’t need to stop on the side of an empty road in the middle of the night.
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How to judge someone without Facebook
We can’t so much on social media to tell us who somebody is, that we’ve stopped trying to learn for ourselves. But you should learn basic things like facial movements and body language that indicate somebody’s intentions. Maybe you couldn’t look them up before meeting them, you know?
Resume created for a music industry job seeker by The Whole Orange
How to write a resume
Since a lot of us are part-time this, freelance that, and interns over there, writing proper resumes can be tricky. But you have to know how to do it, or you will not be taken seriously when you no longer want to be an intern.
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Basic self-defense moves
Just a few classes can teach you how to get out of a chokehold, or what to do if somebody grabs you from behind. Even if the classes aren’t free, they could save your life.
How a fire extinguisher works
Do you know? Come on–do you? Didn’t think so. You may not even know where your fire extinguisher is.
