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Most of us learned some sort of money lessons from our parents, whether through a sit-down talk or through watching their money habits.
Personally, I have heard more instances of observation versus being intentionally taught. This makes sense. Money is a taboo subject, and most people hesitate to talk about it.
A study by the University College of London found that its participants were 7x more likely to talk about details of their sex life before mentioning their income.
Thankfully, my parents were all too happy to teach me about finances. They provided some great nuggets along the way. I thought I’d share some of my earliest money memories and sayings that my parents taught me over the years.
“Why don’t you go outside and water the money tree.”
I must have heard my Dad say this about a million times as a kid and teenager. Whenever I asked my parents to buy something that I wanted, without hesitation my Dad would tell me to go outside and water the money tree.
There was a period of time when I seriously prayed that God would actually create a money tree so that all I really had to do was water it. Unfortunately, God never did that for me. So, I had to be resourceful in order to pay for my wants.
At 12 years old, without many skills, I spent many hours doing manual labor to make some cash. I cut grass and washed cars in the spring and summer, raked leaves in the fall, and shoveled snow in the winter.
While most other kids got excited about being off on snow day to go sledding, my friends and I viewed each snowflake as a dollar bill raining down from the sky. Each winter, we would devise a plan to shovel as many driveways in our neighborhood as possible. We began our mornings with a hearty breakfast and did not return home until dinner time. Most winters, we were able to make a couple hundred dollars each. At 12 years old, this felt like a fortune.
Be generous when you can.
I use to be neighbors with an NFL football player. He was well-known and beloved in our community. One winter day after a heavy snowfall, he told us if we shoveled his driveway that he’d make it worth our while. Normally we avoided his type of driveway. It was very long, and we could clear two driveways in the time that it would take to clear this guy’s.
My friends and I must have spent a good hour clearing his driveway. At the end when we were done, he handed us $5 total. Not even $5 for each of us. We typically received $15 per regular-sized driveway, so to receive $5 for a larger one was slap in the face.
We were so disappointed. This guy was making almost a million dollars a season back then, and he paid us $5. There were old grandmas in our neighborhood that would offer to us pay $20, $30 or even $40 for smaller driveways.
Anger aside, I learned two valuable lessons. 1. Never agree to do work without agreeing on a price ahead of time, and 2. Just because someone is wealthy, does not mean that they will be generous.
Try to stretch your dollars.
My Dad hated buying shoes for me.
Why? Because by the time we got home from the store, it felt like I had already outgrown them. So, he tried to implement all sorts of crazy rules along the way. At first it was that he wouldn’t spend more than $30 for new shoes. Then he decided not to buy Nike or Reebok brands because he thought they were poor quality. He really hated buying new shoes for me.
Basketball shoes were a whole other level of disdain for my Dad. They were extra expensive, and they always had to be a specific style/color to match my team. That meant that he couldn’t implement his previous rules. So, he instituted a new rule. I had to wear a full size bigger and then layer on socks until the shoes fit properly. Needless to say, at times, it looked like I was wearing clown shoes. However, while my friends oftentimes had to buy multiple shoes during a season, I played all year with the same pair. That was a huge win in his book.
Learn to shop sales.
My Mom was the queen of couponing growing up. She never bought anything unless she could use a coupon or it was on sale. She had a huge coupon organizer that she would carry in her fanny pack. It was quite a sight to see.
Random side note: I think fanny packs will make a comeback real soon. Yes, they are incredibly dorky-looking. But, I feel like it will be the next hipster trend.
Growing up, I thought couponing was dumb. Back then, many coupons were only $.25 off an item. I never really understood why my Mom was so adamant about shopping sales and using coupons.
As an impatient kid, I wanted to buy things when I wanted them. I didn’t want to wait for sales.
That definitely changed when I had to start buying things with my own money. That’s when I remembered the wisdom she had tried to impart upon me over the years. I started paying attention to prices more closely and shopping sales. Admittedly, saving money became a great feeling.
Get rid of debt as quickly as possible.
My mom hated debt with a passion. Every time she would look at our mortgage bill, she would groan a little bit as she wrote the check. I never understood why she felt this way until I started paying my own mortgage bill each month.
It wasn’t until I was getting ready to buy my own house that she shared with me that she and my Dad had paid off their house. She said it with a voice of pride, but I didn’t completely understand why she did it.
Everything that I read in personal finance said not to pay off your mortgage. Instead, invest in the stock market. Interest rates were/are at a historic low, so you’d be borrowing cheap money, right?
Before my mortgage, I never had debt. I paid off my credit cards each month and didn’t have a car payment. So when I got a mortgage, it was the first time in my life that I owed anything to anybody, and it was an awful feeling.
While some people can leverage debt and make it work for them, I became obsessed with eradicating my debt. I thought about it all the time. It was the last thing that I thought about at night and the first thing I thought about in the morning. I finally decided to put together a plan and started to throw all my money towards my balance each month until I finally paid it all off.
After 8.5 years, I no longer had a mortgage.
It was seriously one of the best feelings in the world. Since then, that time my net worth has tripled. Now, I finally understand why it was such a big deal for my parents to get rid of debt as quickly as possible. I am grateful for the example they set for me and the lessons they taught me over the years.
You’ve nailed it again, Rob. Like you, I’m obsessed with paying off the mortgage. Many people might disagree with us, but I can’t wait to be totally debt free.
It’s an amazing feeling getting rid of your mortgage!!!
Great lessons Rob – I am working on the debt part and my parents also had to buy new shoes for basketball each year. They were usually above $80!
My Dad hated buying new shoes for me 🙂 They were so stinking expensive.
Rob, My parents were both born in 1928. They were children of poor depression era parents. They had a roof over their head and food to eat growing up, but not much more. Neither went to college. I didn’t really understand it as a kid, but what I learned is common sense, hard work, frugal living, saving and investing can generate wealth beyond most peoples wildest dreams. Kinda what you write about here every week. Tom
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Thanks for sharing Tom!!! Sounds like you got instilled some amazing values along the way and I can definitely tell that you are running with those principles!!!
My parents never sat me down to talk about the importance of money and how to earn/save/invest it. I just saw it from their everyday action.
Those are great lessons that you had growing up! 🙂
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It’s amazing how much we learn from observing 🙂 It’s more powerful at times than words…
Awesome lessons. 🙂
My dad always made us work for our money. We never got money just because, which instilled a good work ethic in both me and my brother.
My dad was also one to yell at us if we procrastinated something. “If you’ve got time for an excuse, you’ve got time to get it done” – that was his mantra haha.
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Hahhaah….that was a favorite line of my Mom. You could have already been done by now 🙂
Great lessons here – did you ever get the NFL player’s autograph afterward. I can relate to the shoe thing. I was very fortunate to get a pair of the Reebok pumps growing up and those were my favorite shoes 🙂
My parents by the way lived a frugal and basic life and I have inherited some of those traits and glad I did.
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You know I never did get his autograph and I am definitely jealous you got the Reebok Pumps. I wanted those growing up 🙂
Oh my goodness I love your dads shoe rule!
Hahahahaha…I definitely didn’t when I was growing up 🙂
Thanks for sharing those memories. My mother was a great shopper too and she passed that on to me. As for the mortgage, I’m trying my best to pay it down, but I’m afraid it’s going to outlive me.
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I hope that mortgage doesn’t outlive you!!!
That sucks about that NFL player(from the Redskins or Ravens I’m assuming)not giving you guys a lot to clean his driveway, at least he should have gave you us $10 each especially from a multi-millionaire.
Your dad’s shoe rule is pretty funny. Hopefully those basketball shoes weren’t worn out by the time the season ended.
Thanks for sharing your money lessons Rob!
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Hahaha…the basketball shoes always made it through the season, although at times just barely 🙂
I learned more of what not to do, than what to do, from my family. My parents were so bad at managing money, that they made it feel like we were living always on our last nickel. Things that broke remained broken. Any battery-operated device only worked as long as the first set of batteries lasted.
It made me ambitious to be self-sufficient, plus some. In my home, broken things get fixed and I keep a stash of batteries, just in case.
What your dad did with your oversized sneakers is the same as what my mother did when she bought me clothes. I looked ridiculous in pants and blouses that were a size too big. Then, she told family to buy my clothes a size too big for birthday and Christmas presents.
I didn’t have clothes in my right size until I started working a part-time job.
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Hahaha…it took me awhile before I figured out that I would stop growing and didn’t need extra large sizes anymore 🙂 It was definitely smart on my Dad’s part and I’m sure saved some serious dollars. Plus the baggy style was in 🙂
WHAT?!? Mom’s DIY haircuts didn’t make it to the top five? Surely you remember when I forgot to turn the shaver setting up from zero and didn’t realize it until I noticed I had shaved off a small chunk of your hair. Then assuring you it would be okay I took a magic marker the color of your hair and colored in the bald spot.
Hahahaha…I must have conveniently forgotten that memory 😉
You’ve definitely picked up some useful advice along the way, thanks for sharing it. I think its so crucial to teach kids about finances from a young age, treat them to respect money and what it can bring to peoples lives. Learning from a young age seems to be a good way to stop all of the problems that people seem to currently face.
Thanks for stopping by Martin!!! I definitely agree train them up right at a young age and hopefully they’ll hold onto those lessons 🙂
Money memories, hey?
I’d say my biggest memory is my uncle talking about the stock market to me when I was a tiny kid. Didn’t understand a word he said at the time. He’d talk about dividends, options, and index funds. I’d just stare at him like he was speaking a foreign language.
Something must have stuck though. I opened a RothIRA as soon as I got my first job, just because I thought it was a good idea. And now I talk with my uncle about market performance pretty regularly.
Just goes to show talking to kids like they are adults has some great consequences.
That’s awesome that your Uncle taught you about the stock market at such a young age. I wish I set my Roth IRA when I first started working 🙂
My parents were textbook comfortable, but frugal. I was so used to the phrase “money doesn’t grow on trees”.
We got pocket money which we were free to spend/save as we wanted….and I think that was the best lesson – if we spent it all, there was no more money. And they stuck to it strictly.
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Thats awesome to hear that they taught you the value of a dollar. I knew a ton of kids that would run to their parents whenever they wanted something and they gladly handed it over. Surprise surprise some of those kids are having trouble with money now…
Wow, you’re a lot nicer than me. If I’d have gotten that $5 payment, I’d have named names for sure!
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Hahahaha…if I wasn’t afraid of blowback I probably would 🙂
We NEVER bought anything full price. And my mother is the queen of bargain shopping – thrfting, garage sales and haggling!
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Sounds like you learned from the best!!! I am jealous 🙂