You learn about money when you are young, but as you get older your parents can still teach you a thing or two about what to do (or not to do) with your money. Once you jump into the “real world†and get your first job, with the additional money comes extra bills, payments, and other expenses you were not necessarily expecting.
How to Get through Tough Times – Your parents have lived a lot longer than you so they have seen more ups and downs in the economy than you have. Ask your parents how they made it through and ask them for advice on what you should do. They may have a few words of wisdom or suggestions that you hadn’t thought of yourself. With the current economy in a really tough situation, it is best to get free advice wherever it is given on what to do with your money and how to save for the future.
Balancing a Checkbook – This may seem out of date to you, but your parents probably grew up in a time when checking your bank account information online was not something they had access to. Learning how to balance your check book may help you with your budgeting. Writing down your spending and keeping track of it can help you realize how much you are actually spending. When you swipe a credit or debit card, it doesn’t feel as though you have spent any money. However, if you record your spending somewhere and keep track of how much you have spent, it will make you realize how much you have left to spend or what you need to save.
How to Teach Your Own Kids – If you have kids of your own now, your parents may be able to offer some worldly advice on how to teach your kids about money. You don’t want to give your children the wrong impression about money and spending so your parents might have some ideas from how they taught you or what they would have done differently.
Bad Habits – Although your parents can teach you a lot of insightful things about money, you can also learn your bad habits from them as well. As you grow up you witness how your parents spend or save money. Sometimes parents do a great job at balancing the two, other times they overspend and get themselves into debt or become extremely stingy and save all they can. Saving and spending do not need to be two extremes. Even if you are saving money (like you should) it does not mean that you can’t treat yourself every once and a while. Try to think why you might struggle with money and what you saw growing up. Possibly if your parent’s situation has improved, they might be able to offer you some insight on how they got rid of their bad money habits.
These may all seem like simple concepts, but getting advice from someone you trust can be a great help when it comes to sorting out your financial situation. Everyone’s situation is different, but asking someone older than yourself who is in a good financial situation may be beneficial to you and your future.
Photo: Meg Donahue
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Further Reading
Tags: Bank account, Budget, Debit card, Debits and credits, Debt, Economics, Financial plan, Kids and Teens, money, Personal finance, Saving, School Time, Social Studies
January 24th, 2009 at 6:58 am
The sooner a parent starts teaching children about money the better.
Role modeling good habits is an excellent beginning. Start with saving.
As Sammy Rabbit likes to say “saving is a great habit!”
August 26th, 2009 at 3:14 am
very informative post… you might also find this article to be of some use as well – reading it certainly changed the way i handle things now. best of luck and i look forward to reading future posts from you!