Traditionally, way back when for our grandparents, the purpose of being in your twenties was to find a nice partner, buy a house, have a few kids and settle down in the outskirts of a city.

Fast forward 30 odd years, for our parents, being in your twenties was about getting on the career ladder, maybe travelling far away from your parents, and getting married and start thinking about having a few spawn soon.

Now for us this is a supposed decade of experimenting with what you want to do with your talents, who you want to be and building a future for success.

But is it? With a retirement age of probably 100 by the time we get there and medicine meaning we can have babies later and later, whilst the divorce rate sits at 50% of all marriages, do we need to find out who we are?

We asked Messy readers about their twenties and what they want out of the ‘defining decade’

Unsurprisingly as half of us take a few feeble steps career ladder before heading straight back down and living with our parents again nearly 60% of readers said they didn’t feel confident at all in their career.

Again for what we’ve been named ‘Generation rent’ and having lived through two recessions a measly 6% of respondents said they felt confident when saving or spending money (with the average pint costing £4.60 I’ll have to agree).

When it came to what they felt most confident about in their twenties a whopping three-quarters of respondents said friendships. Whilst over 60% of respondents said they felt confident where they are romatnically.

When it came to what twenty-year-olds think your twenties is about, most of our readers put having fun and finding freedom as their top choice whilst finding love and finding out who you are came bottom of the pyramid. 

We asked some reader’s what’s one thing they would say to their younger self about being in their twenties and here’s what they said;

“Don’t wish your days away when you are younger because all of a sudden you’re an adult.”

“It’s not that scary but it’s also not as easy as it looks”

“You are still discovering what you are good at. So don’t stress about things out of your control. What will be will be.”

Meanwhile some readers shared their most embarrassing moment of their twenties so far;

“Having to get cleaned up and put to bed by my mums friend when I was parlytic after drinking with my best friend”

“Most of my one night stands, in fact my whole love life”

“Arguing with people in the club and not remembering”

And lastly some pearls of wisdom to others in their twenties about the most important thing they’ve learnt from their twenties so far;

“You don’t have to everything figured out by your 20th, 21st or 22nd birthday, things will work out.”

“There’s so much more to learn and by making yourself uncomfortable with the unknown and putting yourself out there is how you’ll learn the most.”

“Appreciate friendships and fund and don’t constantly be on the hunt for romantic love.”