There are so many money clichés’ we heard as children that we could fill a blog with them, here are just a few…

A fool and his money are soon parted.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

That money is burning a hole in your pocket.

A cliché’ is defined as a stereotypical platitude, and that is how I viewed most of the money lessons I discovered as a young person.  They may have been true, but I didn’t really care about them at the time.

As I think about some of the financial advice I was given over my childhood years, there are three disciplines that standout (and I can remember).

1. Save a little bit from every dollar you earn.  The lady who lived across the hall when we lived in the apartment on Jackson street told me about this discipline and went on to explain how she and her husband put aside $10 every week in a savings account.  They would use that money at the end of the year to buy Christmas gifts for the family.  That $10 was about three hours pay at minimum wage (about $25 in 2011 dollars).  So if I had started practicing this discipline 33 years ago when I discovered it…  I would have substantially more savings than I have today.
2. Write down a list of things you “want”, it can only contain 5 items, wait 30 days before buying.  A neighbor told me about this technique when I came by asking him if he had anything I could do to earn money.  He said that he and his wife had a list on their refrigerator of the five things they wanted (not needed), but before buying that “thing”, they had to wait 30 days and see if they still wanted it.  Also they could only have five items on the list, so they couldn’t add an item without removing another.  This discipline helped prevent impulse buying and…  I would add one more stipulation, it must be bought with cash no credit.
3. Budget your money.  I remember going to my sister’s house and asking how they could afford to eat out at nice restaurants.  She told me that they budgeted their money, setting aside money each month for what they would spend.  This was an alien concept to me, I worked at the time and when I got my check on Friday, I was usually broke by the following Monday.  If I had started practicing living on a budget, set by me, reflecting my priorities 30 years ago (as a young adult), it would have radically changed my life financially.

The moral of the story – it is never too late to start a new beginning.

Dave

How about you?  What is one piece of financial advice you heard as a child that you wish you had taken to heart?