Your 20s are going to be rife with exploration, fun times, and lessons well-learned. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, I haven't decided which!) most of our lessons come from when we make mistakes.Your 20s are the decade where you go from your parents' house and bankroll to managing your own financial household, to planning for families and retirement and tackling your college debt; with all that change going on it can get pretty dicey.Don't worry, you're not alone. Here are seven money mistakes (almost) everyone makes in their 20s.You won't negotiate your salary.PayScale reports that 60% of millennials don't negotiate their first salary.I know I didn't for my first job. I half-heartedly attempted to at my first job in NYC and got promptly smacked down, which stung a bit in the moment.But it didn't mean I lost out on the job or that they treated me any differently. And it taught me an important lesson about asking for the things you want: the worst anyone can say is "no."Wait a minute ...I'm just beginning to figure out how to pay my own bills and you want me to negotiate with someone OLDER and WISER about a job I'm simply grateful to be offered, anyway'Yeah. It's daunting. But this salary bar will set the salary bar for all future negotiations. It is that serious. It's never too late to start negotiating.You'll live life without a budget.Many twenty-somethings don't get hip to the idea of a budget until later on in the decade when it comes time to save up for something important, like a house, wedding, trip to Europe. etc.Or if you're like me, you'll budget like a maniac during those ramen noodles and futon years and relax a bit as your earning power increases in your mid-to-late 20s. Many millennials also forgo budgeting because a record number of them (30% in this 2012 study) are still living at home with Mom and Dad who are footing a large amount of the bills.Either way, budgets are important for staying on track with your spending so that you're a) only spending on what fulfills you most and b) contributing to your financial goals.No budget = higher susceptibility for making further financial mistakes in your 20s and 30s like more debt, less money for retirement ... the works. Here's a great getting started guide to building a budget if you need one or are thinking of revamping your existing model.You won't contribute to retirement.Ooh. This is a toughie. I hesitate to call it a financial mistake and instead prefer to refer to it as a "financial circumstance."Many 20-somethings graduated college in the middle of the recession. Rising student loan burdens coupled with high unemployment and lower entry-level salaries have created a perfect storm for millennials not having enough money to contribute to retirement, even if they wanted to.In this survey conducted by the Indexed Annuity Leadership council in March and April of this year, 37% percent have no money set aside, and those who do save have little, with 18% having less than $5k in the accounts.I know I don't have nearly enough saved and am barely beating my counterparts with $9k in savings. I have plans to ramp up before I hit 30, but I am behind because I bought a house, paid off debt, and in general, didn't make retirement a priority.Do what you can, when you can. Start small (see my beginner's investing guide here) or at least use up any retirement benefits your employer gives.You'll live without an emergency fund.Take the reasons I listed above for 20-somethings not contributing to retirement, and you have a large reason why many live life without an emergency fund. Truthfully, I spent the first few years of my 20s living life without an emergency fund (in New York City, no less) choosing instead to use all my money for paying down the initial $10k in credit card debt that I graduated college with.But this was wrong. Emergency funds make your life better and they keep you out of the credit-debt payoff-rack up credit again- spin cycle. They also make you feel more secure and financially empowered.Get an emergency fund. Even if it is just $1000 to start, it will go a long way.You'll turn to your credit cards (when you shouldn't).Even if you have a small emergency fund, it can be hard to resist the siren call of lucrative credit card reward points, travel points, and cash back. Many begin to travel hack or leverage these cards without really knowing how to use them effectively.I only know a handful of people who have never battled with credit card debt, which can be scary given that many also contend with student loan debt. They either got into a habit of overspending, went on a luxurious vacation, or used a card to fund an emergency.I'm guilty of this as well, as I maxed out my cards in 2013 to fund my runaway renovation, which is why I want to advocate using your credit cards with discretion and paying off the balance in full. Using the card for "a little here and a little there" can add up over time and land you in a big hole by the time your 30s roll around.You'll give in to lifestyle inflation.Personally, I think this is the hardest battle to fight in your 20s. And I'm not saying you should eat cereal and steal toilet paper from work for forever, but it gets very exciting, very quickly when your standard of living goes up.Just don't give in too much. Lest you could wind up living paycheck to paycheck, or house/car poor like many millennials. My bud Erin Lowry wrote a great article on how to combat lifestyle inflation and what to do with the extra cashhere.You'll make one big, emotional money decision.Of all the "mistakes" on the list, I'd argue this one is the hardest to avoid, because money is inherently emotional. And even if you're normally great with money, nobody is perfect.Whether you move in with someone you won't wind up with for the long haul (which is expensive!), follow a significant other to a new city, go back to school, take a job that pays less because you think it will land you someplace better: these are all emotional money decisions, risks ... really. Sometimes these pay off, and sometimes they don't.But these emotional money decisions are often the ones that teach us most about who we are, where we want to go, and what kind of life we want to lead. This in and of itself can be really beautiful, so live prudently when you can, but also go with your heart sometimes, money be damned.After all, didn't I start the article by saying your 20s were for exploration'SEE ALSO:12 illustrations perfectly explain the difference between money in your 20s and money in your 30sJoin the conversation about this story
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