Childhood memories about money

[Lsbcal]

...
Third grade... started allowance... $.15... Fourth grade $.25.
...

I don't remember the starting value but I do remember getting a 10 cent raise on every birthday. Mercury head dimes too with some serious silver in it.

 

[Lsbcal]

Like most people here, I have always had the personality trait of deferred gratification. And because my brother always likes to have his dessert ASAP, yet was raised in the same environment, I will have to say that it must have been nature, not nurture, that makes me a saver.

As a kid, I always felt as good having money in my pocket as I did spending it. In fact, I often felt buyer's remorse. And I dreamed of having as much money as Scrooge McDuck. Other than that, my childhood was fairly benign, without any traumatic experience about money.

We seem to be soul mates. I deeply admired Scrooge McDuck too. Loved the idea of diving into a swimming pool full of coins ... although I never thought about the landing.

 

[haha]

We were not poor. We lived in a good neighborhood, went to a school where most kids were solidly middle class, and a fair number of them were well to do. My Dad had a very stable job, and my mother stayed home. One set of my GPs were rich, the other lived what was really a prosperous peasant lifestyle. They had great food, plenty of it, but very little cash income. The rural great depression of the Midwest and prairies did not hit hard where they lived, and since they were essentially self sufficient the grain price crashes of the 20s and 30s did not affect them much if at all. They had hard physical work, but never seemed to mind it. My girl cousins wore home sewn dresses made from the attractive prints from 50# chicken feed sacks. So I saw a wide range of money availability up close. I didn't notice much difference in overall happiness, but it was a lot easier for the wealthier side to avoid 3rd generation problems. They just stayed out of trouble better. My paternal side cousins as well as my sibs and I had a nicer ride- perhaps less fun, but also less accident prone, less illness, fewer social disasters like age 14 pregnancies and trips to Korea or Vietnam as alternatives to trips to prison. I decided that money had its plusses and minuses, but more plusses than minuses.

I had the same save gene that others here have spoken of. I remember walking to the grocery store with my Dad when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade and noticing the interest rates posted on the savings and loans in the town center. I always had a savings account, and I had little jobs to earn money which I deposited in it.

Then I discovered girls. They had something that I wanted more than bank balances, and I started a period of earning and spending that lasted maybe 20 years. I wasn't until I was married and my first child was born that I got back to the old time religion. This also coincided with the high interest rates of the late 70s and early 80s. I paid attention to maximizing my interest earnings on float.

We never had money conflicts in my own family- not with my wife, or with my kids. We were careful, but not exceedingly so.

So I am frugal today, and I watch my children spend freely and I hope they will be ok. Happily they are very able, so it may work out. I never gave much thought to security, other than with respect to my responsibilities as a father, but I do now. My son is going to give me a big fancy TV installation on an arm on the wall, that will allow me to view it from my couch in front of the fireplace, and also from my desk. I am looking forward to it, but also it pains me a little to see him spend the money. If he wouldn’t be offended, I might decline the offer- though I will love it for sure.

Ha

 

[H2ODude]

Father was engineer, made likely a good middle class salary. Money was not big topic, no arguments I recall. What I do recall is that you don't borrow money for anything except a house. Brother and I lamented that we were sure we could afford other than well used cars, but Dad was never one to borrow or buy a new car. Recall being lectured that the reason he didn't borrow was because if he lost his job, he could weather it well. Others would be in deep stuff. Saw him get laid off, and while tight for him and Mom, they were able to get by.

When Mom died, he mentioned that maybe they should have traveled more as she wished (they could have afforded it). I refrained from saying "A bit late for that." But it was a lesson for me, who to this day am trying to figure out how to let go of money. Problem is that while living on a a SWR of ~2% a dollar still has meaning. If something doesn't offer value I won't spend the money on it, regardless of how much $ we have. Would spend a good bit on travel if could, but will have to wait for MIL to exit, who we care for in our home. Well, DW does.

Anyway, learned a lot about $ philosophy from Dad. Son has inherited same but seems able to part with it more easily than I did at his age, primarily for travel but not possessions. He lives overseas and is able to partake of a lot of exotic places and I'm glad he does. There's a fine line between saving enough, preparing for retirement, and being so tight you miss out on enjoyable experiences you could have had. Just as no one laments working more on deathbed, I'm sure there are many who wish they had not left so much $ on the table and had done more to enjoy it.

 

[LoneAspen]

I just registered the other day, and haven't had a chance to post a thread in the "Hi, I am..." forum, so I guess this will be my first post here

This is an interesting topic to me, and was just thinking about it the other day. As a kid, even as young as in elementary school, I was always keenly aware of money. My family was very middle class. We didn't want for the basics (house, food, clothing, etc) but Mom and Dad didn't buy any luxuries. They weren't very social, didn't do any entertaining or traveling, and never bought anything fancy or went on extravagant vacations. They never invested in anything other than money market accounts and CDs.

They both grew up during the Depression, which I'm sure contributed to their conservative nature.

As a kid, I remember other parents driving their kids to school in "nice" cars such as Lincolns and Cadillacs, and some kids lived in very nice neighborhoods. While other kids read superhero comics like Superman and Batman, I read Richie Rich

It's never that I wanted money for money's sake (I still don't) but even at a very young age I knew that money gave you options. While to most kids, a "million dollars" was just a large number, even when I was young, I knew that kind of money meant you had more options, could probably run your own business instead of working for somebody else (as my Dad did, and worked himself practically to death), live somewhere more fun (I grew up in a small town in Alabama and hated it), etc.

My oldest sister and I didn't inherit my parents' frugal nature. I saw Mom and Dad save for years without any enjoyment of it (at least, to me) and then ended up leaving it to us kids as an inheritance. My sisters and I were always thankful they didn't want for anything basic, and were safe financially, but always sad they didn't enjoy it a little more, even if having a few little nice things here and there for themselves, which they never did.

I'm just the opposite. I can't take it with me, so I tend to spend it today and worry about tomorrow later. Which I know is 180 degrees opposite of good financial planning, but I don't regret it. I've seen some cool things in life, and had some good times, and would rather live for the moment.

I wonder how many kids grow up the opposite of their parents when it comes to money? How many kids with frugal parents grow up to be spenders, and how many kids of parents who spend money liberally grow up to be savers? That would be an interesting study.

Anyway, cool thread - thanks for posting it.

 

[NW-Bound]

I am glad to see that Scrooge McDuck was also a model for other people. I do not remember much about the cartoons that I read (it was in French), so looked at Wikipedia for info. Scrooge was very popular in Europe, and there were many locally produced comics. In some versions, Scrooge was portrayed as the anti-hero, and he often denied his nephew Donald the latter's fair share of treasure finds. Hmm... I guess I was too fascinated with Scrooge's riches to observe his flaws. However, some other versions of Scrooge told of him as an industrious man and with a certain integrity.

Here's something interesting. In 2011, Forbes magazine estimated Scrooge's fortune at $44.1B. I thought it should be more, due to the recent high price of gold.

Anyway, back to childhood character development, another reason besides the deferred gratification trait that caused me to be a saver was that I have always been a somewhat pessimistic or at least cautious person. When I saw a beggar, I told myself that I would never, ever, want to find myself in that position. Some people would say "Me? No way! I am just too good and smart and lucky to end up like that".

 

[Sue J]

I remember a few times when I was under 7 or 8 when I knew things were tight with the family finances. My Dad was a roofing salesman so income was seasonal and business was always slow between late Nov. and Feb. He would really hustle the rest of the year to cover the slow months.

When I was about 10 he started doing much better in his job and I noticed the change, we added a family room onto the house, got our first COLOR TV and took some family trips. The trips were not luxurious, just family driving trips and staying in state park lodges. They didn't need to keep up with the Joneses (or the Goldsteins, in their neighborhood). I had friends who moved up and out to the "better" zip code, my parents stayed put and invested for retirement.

The Scrooge McDuck pictures make me laugh because I used to save all my babysitting money and excess allowance in cash in my room. I also had a savings account at my parents bank and I made deposits or bought savings bonds. Mom and I would sit at the kitchen table and rolls coins and just talk. I loved going to the bank with my Mom and making a deposit into my own account. And then they even paid me interest!

My sister is 3 years older than me and somehow the understanding of money just didn't (and still doesn't) apply to her. We are very opposite when it comes to saving, spending, value for your money and value of things. When she was broke she'd borrow from me or try to sell me things so she could have cash. I'd see what she wasted her money on and just be proud of my cash savings.

She still doesn't understand money. She lives in a bubble where costs don't apply to her and income vs outgo is something other people worry about too much. If she has to think about those things she might get a wrinkle! Or break a nail. Luckily, her DH #2 earns plenty and handles everything for her. He's retiring in 2013 so it will be interesting if anything changes for her.

She's waiting for Daddy to give her an early inheritance. He moved to an assisted living facility last month and even though she saw how much it costs per month, she thinks he should give us hunks of money before he uses it all up. Sometimes I'd like to shake her into reality, but there's that bubble around her.

 

[rodi]

Interesting topic. My dad was an engineer, who prioritized saving for his retirement. We lived in a nice, upper middle class neighborhood. Ironically, the house was a foreclosure that my dad picked up for far less than market value. Most of my peers had the latest fashions, I had hand me downs. We had mandatory chores and fixed (small) allowances. When I hit the pre-teen years I realized the allowances did not cover my "wants" - so I started babysitting. This allowed me to buy some new clothes as the trends changed, or record albums. It taught me the correlation between earnings and spending.

I remember asking my dad how other parents were able to give their kids much higher spending money, clothe allowances, cars when they turned 16. He explained that the other parents were probably living beyond their means. At the time I didn't fully get it - but as I grew older, I realized he was probably right.

In college I would get these pre-approved credit card offers. I rationalized that if they were stupid enough to give a kid with just a part time job a credit card, I'd be stupid enough to use it. Took me several years, post college to dig out of the $15k debt I racked up. That was a HUGE lesson.

 

[sunnysideup]

For me, I think growing up feeling like I did not have "enough" money as a child has shaped me financially. We lived in a solid middle class town, but all of my friends had alot more spending money than I did. I never had much money at all, in fact I thought we were poor, but I later realized we weren't!! My parents just chose to be uber frugal. That's probably due to their living through the depression and the desire to always be frugal - just in case.

Since I had very little in the way of cash, I always spent my weekly chore "pay" and babysitting pay pretty quickly. I didn't start doing any real saving until I was in college and had summer jobs, and I would bank most of my summer job monies so I had some spending money during the school year. I typically didn't have much more than some pizza money once a week and clothing money.

I think I ended up with a balanced approach, save some, spend some. Don't go into debt except for mortgage, pay off mortage ASAP. LBYM as soon as I could afford to!!!

"Nurture" would definitely describe how I got to where I am.....

 

[Bimmerbill]

I too grew up in a solid middle class home. Both my parents were hard workers and savers.
I remember my mother making big grocery runs and buying in bulk, spending time breaking everything down, wrapping it, and putting it in the freezer in the basement. I also remember her going to all 3 local shopping markets to buy stuff on sale (in bulk).
I remember our chore chart, $2 allowance and the paper route I had, then gave to my brother when I got bigger.
I remember my motherletting us spend all of our first paycheck (my brothers and I all worked at the local grocery store) but making us save 75% of all others.
Lots of LBYM, saving, and family vacations that usually involved camping.

 

[brewer12345]

When I grew up, Dad was a successful entrepreneur despite having just about managed to get a GED in the army as an enlisted man. We lived in an upper middle class area, Mom did not work outside the house, and had a second home. However, Dad and Mom both grew up poor and it never really left their consciousness. To this day, Dad's only real hobby is fishing and it stems from when he was young and if you didn't catch a fish or [-]poach[/-] hunt for dinner, you often did not eat. I remember Dad doing stuff like buying at an auction all the canned food that a restaurant had in its kitchen when it went out of business. They bought cars new, but kept them a decade or more. Dad bought a new-to-him boat when I was 12 or 13 it was as old as I was (and he still has the same boat).

All that came apart shortly after I went off to college as Dad's business failed (they expanded with debt into the teeth of the early 1990s recession). He learned a new business and recovered, but there were some unpleasant times during the bankruptcy of the business. Mom found a call center job for a while and I always worked in college.

What rubbed off on me was Dad's frugality. He started with nothing and worked his way up to being a successful entrepreneur twice, mostly by not giving up and being thrifty. It was always clear to me that you needed capital to invest and the only way to get it was to save your money. But I also took from his example that I want a different life. Dad never really had goals aside from making money and has few interests in life aside from fishing (and gambling).

 

[Birchwood]

I grew up lower middle class. My folks had a few courses in college but never finish a prof. degree. Their income fluctuate to bad to good, but it was never stable. They were very frugal to the point of being cheap.
However, the only thing they splurge on is "FOOD" and constantly annoyed us boys, that the only way for us to get out of this mess is to get the best education money can buy.
I rode the bus to a better high school and got to college, then post grad.
I always had an inferiority complex, that I don't belong there, and my escape was to go to the library, study, and read magazine ads, hoping that oneday, I can afford the finer things in life.
When I graduated with, a prof. degree, I remembered my mother bought a new dress for the occassion.
My dad worked irregular hours, and came home in a bad mood, and at a whim will scream at us and will beat us up with a belt for what I thought of as minor infractions. He finally left my mom.
My mom was a stern lady who did not believe in excuses for failure. Her favorite qoute was: The world does not owe you anything, so if you want to get ahead in this world, you got to work yourself to the bone!(from a foreign translation).

 

[MBAustin]

My dad was self-employed and we talked about money all the time - which customer wasn't paying their bills, what business might be on the horizon, which customer went to a competitor, etc. We grew up being frugal with the common things of life - I remember coupon clipping, Green Stamps, Dad haggling over the price of buying a car, and getting school clothes from the Sears sale catalog. But my parents also would "splurge" on things like a family trip to the 1967 World's Fair in Montreal and going out to a really good restaurant a couple of times a year. My dad also showed me his mutual fund statements every year once I was in my teens, and made sure I understood how compound growth worked. About that time I started helping him out in the office - typing invoices and letters and eventually doing the books every month (he was a one-man operation). Sure learned a lot that way!

 

[ziggy29]

My recollection of money as a kid? Allowance was 10 cents per week per year of age for most of my childhood. Until we were 10, we got a nickel for a half year, too.

 

[iam21177]

Despite my dad making $60-70k a year as a pipe fitter, money was always an issue as he was a gambling addict with a wife and 3 girls. An alcoholic as well. Very addictive personality.

He kept his money very secret and separate from my mother. Her part-time job went to pay for the food. There were always fights about money and other things. The mortgage would get behind; we’d get eviction letters too.

We were on food stamps at one point. I got free school lunches in grade school. I had my own job at age 16 to pay for my own car insurance and private flute lessons (I was going to be a musician).

Yet somehow, dad taught us a work ethic. Now sure how with such a personality, but hard work was valued and I always knew that. Despite promising to pay all of his girls’ college tuition, he did not (gambled it away) and we each put ourselves through school. I take pride in paying off my entire student loans before I even graduated with my Master’s. I like to say my parents had nothing to do with it, but I guess they did in a way because I was very independent and bound to do things better for myself.

He got cancer 6 years ago and immediately retired at age 52 and started disability. He managed to blow his $250k retirement fund in those 6 years (we suspect gambling and crack cocaine). Luckily my mother (age of 60) still gets his monthly pension and his social security as he has passed on recently (age of 58).

I found a husband that is extremely compatible with me regarding money values (and a whole bunch of other things!) and we are aiming for early retirement. I’m a little obsessed about it though. I think I learned exactly what NOT to do from my parents.

 

[Alan]

I have lots of childhood memories of living with little money including the embarrassment of being seen handing over a ticket each day for a free school lunch and wearing hand knitted school uniform sweaters when everyone else was wearing the official versions bought from the store.

However, the best personal money management lesson I learned was between the age of 11 and 12. I had passed for grammar school which was why I stood out like a sore thumb with my home knitted sweaters and school-provided free gym kit (everyone else at the school had parents with money it seemed). I discovered that I loved tennis and was actually quite good at it but all my parents could afford was a cheap racket from Woolworths while all the other kids had real ones made by Spalding, Wilson etc.

I started working for my uncle in the evenings and weekends selling bags of kindling and logs. It involved bagging and loading the truck and riding in the back as he drove round the streets selling his bags. (Everyone had coal fires back then in my town).

Looking through my mother's catalog I spotted a Spalding tennis racket that I really wanted so she ordered it for me and I paid her back weekly over the next 52 weeks. While I loved that racket and never bought another one until after college I absolutely hated handing over my weekly dues for a whole year as they comprised a large % of my meager wages.

Apart from a mortgage I have never bought anything "on tick" ever again.

 

[travelover]

Another paper boy and Scrooge McDuck fan. I used to love to pile my earnings (mostly in quarters) into stacks and admire them. Given what I'm earning on my cash now, maybe I should.....awe never mind.

 

[NW-Bound]

Sure, we can get our money in coins now and stack them to imagine ourselves as Scrooge McDuck to satisfy our childhood dream.

But, but, but he did it with Krugerrands!

 

[Bestwifeever]

Even though we had no money (although I do remember now that I got an allowance starting at age 12 of 25 cents every two weeks, when apparently my dad began moving up in civil service job, and thereafter things loosened up somewhat), I don't remember feeling unhappy because of early childhood financial deprivation. Maybe that is the key--did we feel deprived and want to compensate for that in our own adult lives by either accumulating money or by overspending whatever we have on ourselves, or did we feel adequately provided for (even at a bare level) and therefore are able to now live as happily within whatever means we have?

 

[Pharmmgr]

Parents constantly argued about money and bills, threat of loosing our house, government black and white label food and father passing away with a very large credit card debt that my mother had no idea about.

My wife and I had very similar experiences and decided that we didn't want the anxiety and pressure for ourselves or two kids. So we have always lived well below our means and saved a lot. Bottom line, believe we are shaped by child experiences and out of fear and the desire to have a secure feeling we went the other way. Don't think we have ever argued about money and always take the time to teach our kids about budgets and money mgmt. Our kids have always done chores for money and outside of vacation time, bday and Xmas they buy (toys, Xbox games, etc) and pay for (movies with friends, dances, etc) all other items they want. Although not popular with the kids or with the other parents in our neighborhood, we hope this will help make them less materialistic and financial secure.

 

[NW-Bound]

Maybe that is the key--did we feel deprived and want to compensate for that in our own adult lives by either accumulating money or by overspending whatever we have on ourselves, or did we feel adequately provided for (even at a bare level) and therefore are able to now live as happily within whatever means we have?

Our family was doing all right as I grew up. We were never hungry though there was a tough time, and my parents rarely quarreled about money. There were always people who had more than us, but a lot more with less. So, all in all, a reasonable childhood.

As I started my worklife and had my own family, my happiness level never really changed that much even as my income and my stash slowly increased with time. Our expenses did go up with our income, but stayed in the LBYM zone all the time mind you, and I never felt wanting for anything.

Still, those stacks of Krugerrands, no, a sea of them, looks sooo nice, even now.

 

[sheehs1]

My Dad grew up relatively poor during the depression. His mom's husband left the family for a job in the city and never returned. They had to move in with his Grandmother. My mom's family was better off. They had farms and my grandfather owned a store. It was where I spent most of my time during childhood. Amongst the lambs, the chickens, the smoke house, the pecan trees...etc. Both of my parents were college educated. My Dad went on the GI bill. After college my mom was a teacher and my Dad was a purchasing agent for a large company. Then they had 4 children. Plus my Dad was still supporting his mother or at least sending them money every month. My mom made a decision to stop teaching after my twin and I were born to start a business. She started it in her kitchen. She said she knew my Dad would not be able to afford to send us to college or provide the things she wanted for us with his purchasing agent job. Both my Mom and Dad worked day and night. When my Dad wasn't working his day job as a purchasing agent, he was doing the finance side of the business my mom started. I can still hear his rata tat tat on the typewriter in the kitchen as he typed out invoices. My Dad ultimately became President of the purchasing department and my mom's business took off. We all worked in this business growing up. It is where all of us learned hard work. While I would say we were definitely middle class, we ended up higher than that. When we reached the high school years my parents joined the local country club. What is interesting is that a lot of people assumed we had it good. What they didn't know is that while we were fine...during the years of struggle....I had only 3 or 4 outfits of clothes and only 1 baby doll that I can remember. Didn't bother me as I really wanted a horse. For years I salivated over saddles and bridles in the most recent Southern States magazine dreaming of a horse. A friend of my Dad's thru his job arranged a "free horse" which I kept in my grandparents lamb stable.
Bit I digress. My parents fought a lot. I think it was the stress of trying to grow a family business and having 4 children under the age of 6. I don't recall that it was about money because I don't think it was about money. We had everything we needed. One of the nicest houses in the town. Great grandparents and hard working parents. The world was different then. There were not as many thing to "want" as there seem to be now for these generations.
I still remember my Dad going around the house cutting the lights out. He would not waste electricity. He never got over growing up in the depression.
I do think one of the fall outs of this is that most of us work hard and may not know how to have as much fun as we probably should have. Because our childhood was "about work". As in most family businesses, there are sacrifices to the family but there are also lessons to be learned.

 

[Nords]

Well, all of these stories are making me think that I should give our college daughter a raise when she helps with yardwork and car maintenance...

 

[Gumby]

The lack of money was a constant and oppressive theme of my childhood. My parents were teenagers when I was born. Dad had left high school at 17 to join the Navy and Mom left school at 15. They were young, uneducated and had too many kids to feed. My dad was career enlisted in the Navy (which was an even crappier financial deal in the 60s and 70s than it is now) and my mom never worked until I was in high school, when she got a job at Montgomery Wards. They were constantly in debt to Household Finance Corp and they were constantly fighting about money.

We lived in a variety of run down trailer parks and cheap apartments, occasionally base housing (although we did get kicked out once when my dad got busted from E-4 to E-1 for some offense), and, once, a tent for several months. Sometimes my siblings and I got sent to live with relatives (usually my grandmother).

Not having money affected every aspect of our daily lives. We couldn't buy decent food at the grocery and, to our embarrasment on occasion, we never had the proper clothes. We never had proper school supplies, like paper and pencils. We could not take music at school because you had to rent the instruments. We couldn't go on school field trips. We could never invite friends over to our place. I learned early not to ask my parents for anything, because the answer would always be 'no, we can't afford it'. Perhaps the saddest thing was when my infant brother died and my parents could not afford to bury him. My grandmother's boss covered it and my parents spent years and years paying him back a few dollars a week.

You can see where this is going. At a very early age, I vowed that I would never, ever be so poor when I grew up. Most of all, I promised myself that I would always be able buy anything I wanted in the grocery (and I do). The prospect of returning to this kind of life was what kept me going when I really wanted to quit the Naval Academy. And ever since, I have always saved my money and watched my spending.

 

[dessert]

My first job was at age 16 and I made $9.00 per week working a total of 20 hours/week. I thought I could do better and got my Dad to talk to the manager of a large grocery store who hired me. First day on the job I went home with $12.00 in tips for bagging groceries plus I got paid a salary too. My parents always said "if you want something then save your money to pay for it". I got my first car after graduation and I paid cash for it myself. I have followed this practice all my life including saving for retirement and now here I am......retired. It was all worth it.