When you’re living on your own for the first time, you have a lot to learn. Luckily, some games aim to teach these life lessons that you would otherwise find out about the hard way. The Animal Crossing series has been putting you in this situation since 2002, and if you think a game with a bunch of talking animals has nothing to teach, you couldn’t be more wrong. Just look at all these life lessons I’ve learned from the Animal Crossing series.



Don’t ever leave the house without your tools.

Yes, it might be a little inconvenient to stick a shovel, watering can, slingshot, axe, net, and fishing pole in your pockets, but trust me, you will need them. You never know when you’ll find a fossil begging to be dug up, or spot a rare insect, and those flowers are not going to water themselves. “But what if I don’t feel like doing that stuff?” you may ask. Hey, you’re an adult now. It’s time to learn a little bit of civic responsibility.



Never accept house upgrades without asking how much they cost.

There’s a chance that the local shopkeeper, after giving you a temp job and helping you get settled in, will offer to make your sorry excuse for a home better by enlarging it. I know you live in a room the size of a closet, and believe me, I’ve been there, but think it through for just a minute! Nothing in life is free, and the minute you say “yes” to that upgrade, you might be half a million bells in the hole. And don’t think this is limited to small-town shopkeepers; pretty much any contractor will tell you one thing and do another, and suddenly you’re thousands of dollars in debt. I mean, sure, you technically don’t have to pay it, but do you really want to be the town deadbeat? I didn’t think so.



Talking animals are prone to mood swings.

I know that you may not always have time to play hide-and-seek when your neighbors ask you to, but just be wary of their reactions. You may not know it, but in some areas, animals can be a lot like humans. They wear clothes, own homes, gossip about their friends, and get really pissed off for almost no reason. Then again, you can also make your penguin neighbor ridiculously pleased by sending him a useless piece of furniture, or giving a squirrel a trendy new outfit. What I’m trying to say is, be careful, because one wrong move and your best friend might leave town, never to return.



Play the stock market, and you will get screwed.

Yeah, it might seem like a good idea to buy a few hundred turnips at one hundred bells apiece. Surely they’ll sell for more than that at some point during the week, right? WRONG. It will take a few weeks of selling your turnips at 43 bells, taking a huge loss, before you finally give up on the stalk, er, stock market altogether. Oh, and then that week you don’t buy turnips? Tom Nook’s buying for an insane 450 bells each. You can’t win, so don’t even try.



You will be judged by your furniture.

It’s sad, but it’s true: you are what you buy. The things you put in your house, and your house itself, will let other people know whether or not you’re worth talking to. Sure, it’s not hard to impress your neighbors when they’re all living in one-room shacks, but it’s still nice to be the richest guy in town, and have your friends jealous over the fact that you’ve got a second floor and a basement. Learn this lesson early, kids—it’s not who you are, it’s how well your furniture matches the carpet and wallpaper.