Transitioning to life as a young adult is stressful because it includes a lot of uncertainties and unknowns. There are so many big decisions with outsized consequences that need to be made, such as deciding whether to start working immediately out of high school, go to a trade school or go to college. These are decisions that will affect the trajectory of your life for the next several years. In order to navigate what can be a very disorienting and confusing landscape, there are a few simple tips you should follow.

Be Careful Who You Trust

When you find yourself in a vulnerable situation like this, you need to be careful in who you place your trust. The unfortunate truth is that there are many people who are aware of the vulnerability of people in your situation or position and will try to take advantage of that. Scammers love to target the people they believe are easy targets, which includes people with little life experience. For example, they may pretend to be a credible, legitimate business in order to obtain your private information through a spoofing attack.

There are actually several ways in which scammers may attempt to trick you into giving them sensitive details about you, such as your bank account information or social security number. For example, they may give you a call pretending to be your energy company and tell you that, unless you provide them with the information they are requesting, your electricity will be shut off due to a lack of payment. Similarly, they may send you an email directing you to a payment portal for one of your bills that looks almost identical to the legitimate portal that you typically use, but is actually a fake used to con individuals into divulging their sensitive details. Examples like these are why you should always be skeptical and double-check any information you are presented with, such as by accessing your bills in the ways you typically do, like by going to your utility company's website directly.

Try To Pay Your Bills on Time

There are several important reasons why you should always try to pay your bills on time. For one, doing so will make it much harder for people to scam you by claiming you owe them or their company money. After all, if you are confident that you always pay your bills before they are due, you will immediately be suspicious of any claims to the contrary.

Paying your bills on time will also help you build good credit, which is very important for your future. Having good credit will give you access to favorable interest rates for credit cards, auto loans and mortgage loans. This means that you can borrow money at a lower cost to you over time because interest will add up more slowly on the funds you are loaned. In addition, it will also give you access to higher loan amounts for major expenses such as buying a car or a home, thus giving you more purchase options.

Take Things One Step at a Time

You need to take things one step at a time if you hope to succeed. The reason for this is that trying to tackle too much at once will make it much more likely that you will get overwhelmed and start making mistakes that are avoidable. Dividing your attention between too many things is something that will lower the quality of the decisions that you make and the work that you do. However, you also need to be aware that everyone makes mistakes and they can be fixed or mended later on. If you make a mistake or change your mind about something later, you will always have options for ways to address those problems.

As a young adult, you need to be careful who you trust, try to pay your bills on time and take things one step at a time.