What My Parents Did Not Teach Me About Money

Posted on March 30, 2008
Filed Under budget, savings |

I have been thinking about this lately, both reflecting on what my parents taught me and what I should have taught my children. Ana at Debt Free Revolution has put her teenage son on a grocery budget. I have been following along and reading about how she is coping with him running low on funds and milk. Some of the comments on that article and others regarding credit have really made me think.

I have great parents and an awesome childhood. I was raised with good values and priorities except for when it comes to money. My parents never discussed money in front of me. I can’t ever remember the words “we can’t afford it” coming up in a conversation. If I wanted or needed something, I either got it or I didn’t and I usually got it.

Now that being said, I have never been a very materialistic person. I didn’t have to have the latest fashions or gadgets but I also don’t ever remember getting an allowance. I probably did at some point in time but if so, it wasn’t really very important to me.

My parents took me shopping for clothes or bought me clothes until I was in my late teens and had a job. They gave me lunch money every day for lunch. They gave me my first car and must have put gas in it until I was working.

In short, I learned nothing about managing money until I was married and on my own. I heard people talk about saving money but never really saw any point to it as I had more than enough to get along. I didn’t learn to save and so life was either feast or famine. When the annual bills came due, it was famine because I had to take money that I was using to live to pay those bills.

When my own children came along, I am afraid that I still didn’t know enough about managing money or personal finance to teach them anything. I advised them to avoid credit except for a house and a car but I really didn’t do a very good job of teaching them why.

I taught them a good work ethic. They both had jobs and bought their own car. They were required to pay for insurance and put gas in it but this really didn’t teach them anything about saving or budgeting.

I posted an article a week or so ago about a Virginia school district that was trying to make personal finance a required course for graduation. I was a bit shocked that this was such a highly controversial subject.

With the state of our current finances as a nation, I would think that Personal Finance should be a subject that starts in elementary school and continues on through college. Obviously there are many people like me who are clueless and it transends all income levels. The book “The Millionaire Next Door” talks about children of millionaires being some of the worst at managing money.

While it would be wonderful if parents taught their children the ins and outs of personal finance, it isn’t happening. Parents can’t teach what they don’t understand and we all pay the price when the nation is overwhelmed with debt. I think what Ana is doing is great and I wish my parents had done something similar.

Some good articles I have found around the web are

How Do You Teach Kids About Money at Get Rich Slowly
No Credit Needed has Games that teach her kids about money
Leo at Zen Habits has a list of 10 Lessons to Teach Your Kids about Money
Blogging Away Debt reviews a Moneywise Kids game.
Free Money Finance talks about 10 principles to teach your kids about money.

How did you learn about personal finance? Was it your parents that taught you? Did you learn it young or was it lessons learned the hard way?

Help keep me awake to write by buying me a cup of coffee! .

VA County Says Seniors Must Pass Personal Finance Class

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Comments

5 Responses to “What My Parents Did Not Teach Me About Money”

bouncing betty on March 30th, 2008 1:41 pm

Like you, my parents never taught me about money and nothing about savings, budgets, etc. My grandparents opened up a savings account for me, I learned to balance my own checkbook by reading the back of my checking account statement and I learned how to really budget my money when I was in my mid 20’s and living on my own. AND after I made some silly mistakes. Some silly mistakes I repeated in my late 30’s as well. I do wonder sometimes if my fiscal life would have been different if I had a money management class in high school.

Why anyone would think a personal money management class was a bad idea is beyond me. I wish I had one in school, my parents never taught me, I wish they or someone had.

I think it’s like sex education, most folks are uncomfortable talking about it and they sure as shite don’t want it discussed in the schools, but they are not doing a good job teaching it at home. Money is still a taboo subject.
Link Love for a Grey Sunday on March 30th, 2008 2:36 pm

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CindyS on March 30th, 2008 4:20 pm

I think the biggest concern was budget but then there are those parents who don’t think that kids need personal finance. Sigh or as one commenter on my post said, why waste it on people who are only going to earn minimum wage. I personally think they are the ones who need it most.
risingrainbow (1 comments.) on March 30th, 2008 8:34 pm

My parents didn’t teach me about money either. We didn’t ever have any and I guess it was just accepted as a fact of life we never would. There was no thought to there might be another way.
Debt Free Revolution (12 comments.) on March 30th, 2008 10:43 pm

Condy, ABSOLUTELY people working for minimum wage or low-income jobs NEED to learn how to budget! Where is that commenter? I’ll tell them a thing or two! (Yes, that truly has my hackles up, as a “low income/minimum wage” worker.)