What's your earliest influence?

[athena53]

Earliest financial influence was first job at a car wash, just before entering high school. It was really hard work jumping into the back seat in order to clean the inside of the back window.

Everyone should have at least one job like that. I worked in a small restaurant when I was 15; it was across from a major manufacturer and the lunch hour was crazy. Old guys used to sit at the counter drinking endless cups of coffee (free refills) and watch the hems of our uniform dresses ride up as we leaned into the compartments inside the counters to scoop out ice cream. A few of the women treated us like domestic servants. One week when I worked a lot of overtime and did some cooking (which consisted mostly of thawing stuff or nuking it in the deep fryer) I netted almost $50.

It made me realize that was NOT how I wanted to support myself, and also gave me a healthy respect for people who work their rear ends off at low-paying jobs.

 

[sengsational]

I was one of many siblings. Our dad issued passport sized empty ledger books (because cash "burned a hole in your pocket"), where our allowance would be posted. Any withdrawals were allowed, even if they raised an eyebrow. Not many of us continually hovered just above the zero mark, but some did (the want it now gene?).

$0.35 times your age, per week, IF you did your chores, was added to your ledger (this was in the early 70's). Oh, and NO advances! A different scale applied after you were 16 so you could actually buy fuel for the car (bringing the car home on fumes was a serious offense). Worthy purchases (like a bike or something) could often get a "save half" deal, where the other half would be picked-up by dad.

I think this structure had a lot of influence on me. I wanted to do something similar with our kids, but DW bought them anything they asked for

 

[target2019]

Everyone should have at least one job like that. I worked in a small restaurant when I was 15; it was across from a major manufacturer and the lunch hour was crazy. Old guys used to sit at the counter drinking endless cups of coffee (free refills) and watch the hems of our uniform dresses ride up as we leaned into the compartments inside the counters to scoop out ice cream. A few of the women treated us like domestic servants. One week when I worked a lot of overtime and did some cooking (which consisted mostly of thawing stuff or nuking it in the deep fryer) I netted almost $50.

It made me realize that was NOT how I wanted to support myself, and also gave me a healthy respect for people who work their rear ends off at low-paying jobs.

In HS I worked as busboy/dishwasher for a year or so. Let's see, there was Salisbury Steak night, spaghetti night, fish fry Fridays. Hot kitchen with scalding hot water in the vertical lift dishwasher. Cleaning the oil in the fry-o-lator! Kids would die of fright now.

Once slipped on a grease spot and dropped a stack of 50 heavy dinner plates.

All of those old complainers had to wait for their dinners. Now I am the old complainers. Lol.

 

[Walt34]

My mother told me that as a child she walked the train tracks along the waterfront looking for coal that had fallen from trains. This was taken home to be used in the coal furnace.

Both of my parents did that, and I walked the tracks looking for Coke bottles to return for the 2¢ (later 5¢) deposit on them. Back then you could actually buy a candy bar for 5¢.

 

[braumeister]

Walking the tracks has a romantic sound to it, but the NYC subway system wouldn't have been a good place to do it. Not much coal, for one thing.

 

[razztazz]

Everybody I knew growing up worked long hours for nothing. Penny ante lives. Not a thing to aspire to. Work was shown to be an obvious waste of time. When I worked it was going to be FOR something. The few big money people I did know worked way too much for it. And it took years and years to get there. Anything you have to work that hard at couldn't be worth having. I'd gladly sacrifice some money in exchange for quitting early as long as the price was right

And Thurston Howell III's exclamation of: "People just don't seem to realize how hard other people have to work to make me rich"

There was something in that idea I found very motivating

 

[DrRoy]

I don't recall a particular early financial influence. I have basically been a saver as long as I can remember. I saved halloween candy before I had money. My dad was not particularly good with money. It just seems to be something I was born with.

 

[Souschef]

My mom handled the budget, and had these envelopes that she put money into. My dad was into investing, and taught me a lot. The funny thing is he owned US Pipe and Foundry and National Gypsum. We kidded that the dividends were a "piece of pipe" or wallboard.
I bought my first stock at 16 with money I earned.
Strangely enough, I ended up working for that company as a summer job while in college.

 

[Fedup]

Not from my family. My mom, my sister, and brothers are savers. Typical LBYM.
I'm a spender. Allowance for a month was spent in 10 days. So my motto has always been to earn more so I can keep up with my spending. Nobody told me to save.
However, when I married to my husband is when I learn to save money. He told me, he's not into credit card debts. So technically he was my influence.


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[Markola]

Everyone should have at least one job like that.

+1. In 9th grade or so, I showed up to the watermelon patch to earn some easy money. I was a skinny first base player while all the other kids there were football players, and it was coastal Georgia heat. The owner felt sorry for me and, when we finished, let me ride home with him in the cab of the loaded truck. I became a very quick learner because I did not return for day 2, and eventually found a fun, long term, year round, inside high school job in a jewelry and watch repair store. I had a good work ethic, but learned not to be ridiculous about it.

 

[Sasset]

My parents were my biggest influence as well as the rest of my LBYM relatives. They had all lived through the Depression and never forgot it.

We wanted for nothing, but they didn't spend much money on luxuries. We always had a garden and raise steers for meat. Mom patched holes in clothes instead replacing them and then in end they became rags. They didn't throw anything away if its still had a use. That included plastic bags and oleo containers. The only luxury was very frugal car vacations each year.

We didn't get an allowance, but my sibling and I would split the last truckload of wheat from the harvest each year. Of course you had to do your chores and help on the farm to get that. We could never count on how many bushels that would be or how much per bushel it would be. This was sold and put into a savings account. This taught us that we had be careful what we spent during the year as you never knew what your income would be next year. Farmers really can't count on steady income.

Anything that was a want and not a need had to come from that savings account or had to be earned. I remember babysitting at 10 yo because I wanted a newer bike. (Now 10 yo can't even stay at home by themselves!)