Childhood Money Memories
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I went to a financial seminar this past weekend and one of the exercises was to think as far back as you could and tell a 2 minute story about a money memory and then give a one liner of what the message of the story was. We paired up and told each other our stories. My mind was totally blank, I couldn’t think of one money memory that was worth a 2 minute story. Luckily my partner went first. I won’t tell her story for privacy reasons (I doubt she would like to have her story posted online, even if I do leave off her name) but it sparked a memory from my childhood that I hadn’t thought of in 20 years.
When I was 10 or 11 I shared a paper route with a friend of mine (still my best friend to this day). The way it worked was that we would deliver the papers all week and then collect the money from our customers on Friday. On Monday of the following week we would get the bill for the papers, pay it, and we got to keep what was left over. Well, my friend would keep the money we had collected at her house. The problem with this is that her brother would often steal our money. When the bill came we wouldn’t have the money to pay it and, for some reason, it was always up to me to come up with how we were going to pay the bill.
I’ve always been a saver so I would usually have the money set aside from birthdays or whatever to cover the bill when needed. I have several memories of taking money out of my savings to pay the paper route bill.
My morale was that having savings will save you in an emergency.
But I think there are plenty of other messages as well. Maybe the message that if you have something someone will want to take it away from you. Or maybe that if you have savings and others don’t they will expect you to take care of things. Or just simply that if you have things others don’t they will feel entitled to it. There are probably even more morals in there too. Ones I’m not thinking of at this moment.
I’d love to hear a 2 minute story from your childhood and what you think the moral of it is. It was a really interesting exercise. I liked hearing everyone’s stories and how those memories have played out throughout their lives.
Ashley
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Comments
My dad would do the budget every other Saturday complete with yelling and frustration. “Budget” is a nasty word to me to this day. I call it Money Planning.
I remember going out to eat with my parents and getting a good feeling about “togetherness” and “happy” that I’ve realized now are misguided. Both my waistline and my pocketbook are happy that I’ve figured that out, even though I still get a warm fuzzy feeling when we go out to dinner…one that’s largely undeserved. I actually enjoy a dinner at home with my family more than a dinner out in most cases.
One time we were at the store and sandwich bags were on our list. I found some with my favorite cartoon character on them; my mom said I could get them. Instead of putting them into the cart I held onto them in all my excitement. They ended up in my hoodie pocket and I forgot about them. Until we got home. My mom made me go back and tell them what happened and pay for them. It was a total accident but the morale was: stealing’s not cool.
I remember taking the very first earnings I made at 7 years old and spent it on a wallet. The funny thing was I had nothing left to put in the wallet. That did not last long, I earned some more money soon after.