I have never been surer in my life about anything than getting rid of my baggage. My debt baggage that is. I don’t understand how I let this happen in these past 15 years. Why was I never taught this about money growing up?
For the past year, it has been my goal to get these debt collectors, Santander, and Navient off my ass. The more I think about it the more I am annoyed and wonder why was I never taught this about money?
I just wish someone would have stopped me and told me NO. If I ever had one regret in my life it was getting my car and going to college. I was so easily manipulated into thinking these were things I HAD to do. That is not the case. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT let anyone force you into debt. why was I never taught this about money?
Talk about money
I wish growing up my mother talked about money with me. Not when I was a child, but as a teenager. She was always very secretive about money. It’s either we have it or we don’t, ain’t no biggie.
I don’t know how my mother did it. We moved around a lot as a child from house to house in the same city. The longest place I remember being at was for about 7 years. The only reason I know that is because of a picture I colored for my mom had the year on it and when we were moving I noticed the year and said: “DANG, we have been here for 7 years?”
I know why she didn’t talk about money… It’s because she wasn’t good with it either. I never had money to go out with my friends, get a drink from school. Hell, my best friend’s mom bought my prom dress for me. Not dissing my mother, but I wish I had someone who talked about money with me.
why was I never taught this about money?
How to budget
I know I get my money habits from my mother. This should have been taught in school. They should have a financial course. It would have helped me out so much. I can’t tell you where my money is going, but I can tell you who Bolshevik is from the communist party. I can also tell you Mussolini was the leader of the National Fascist Party. But what I can’t tell you how to balance a checkbook for the life of me.
Now that I am older to do research and figure things out on my own. A budget is a beautiful thing. The only time I eff it up is when I don’t sit down to figure it out every week based on our paychecks or if it’s a tight month like this month. When work is slow, money is low. We are still trying to catch up from the last time it was slow. There is only one bill I am behind on and it frustrates me every month. Every time I pay extra towards and the interest gets me every EFFIN time. I need a large lump sum to pay it all at once.
I know what I need to do with our budget and it will get better in January when work picks up again. Until then we just do what we can. The next step would have helped us out tremendously.
why was I never taught this about money?
Why was I never taught this about saving
You can’t save something you don’t have… I was never taught to save for a rainy day. Never growing up was I told to save my money for something special. Hell, I didn’t even have an allowance. I was always told no, so I had nothing to learn how to save.
Again since finances are tight right now there is only 18.00 in my savings. Mike and I have weekly financial meetings and have a plan come January. As long as you have a plan and it is visual for you to see every day you should be able to complete your goals.
Why was I never taught this about an ER Fund
The same goes for the emergency fund. Why was I never taught this about money? Not only do you save to save, but you also save in case you lose your job or something and you can cover your bills to you find something else. It is money to help you not go insane!
This is crazy. I have never heard of this before in my life till this past year when I found out about Dave Ramsey, The Budget Mom, and Jordan Page. Our first goal of 2020 after moving, okay more like our second goal. Is to pay off the amount we are behind on the car, save our emergency fund, and then tackle debt payments. In that order. We need to secure our four walls first. Meaning our house situation and the car.
why was I never taught this about money?
Why was I never taught this about retirement
I will be working for a long-ass time. Most likely I will die before I ever reach retirement. I don’t understand how none of this was important when we were growing up. I am struggling here because I was never taught. You know what I was taught about… STOCKS motherf*&%$# STOCK and I still didn’t fully get it.
Retirement is important. I hear a lot of people talking about IRAs. I don’t know what it is so I am going to look into it and start one in 2020.
**If you know what an IRA is and can explain it in layman’s terms please do. **
Never get into student loan debt
When I did financial aid through my college they used my mother’s tax information. Why at the age of 23 did my mother EVER think I was going to handle PAYING for college with no job? When I graduated what made her think I would be able to pay 70,000 dollars in student loans? Not to bash my mother I am sure she was just doing it because it’s what I wanted.
Student loans are the WORSE!! A pain in my ass. Do you know what Rasmussen did to me? I started there in 2008 for a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice with an emphasis on Forensic science. In my 3rd year there I started noticing I was taking a lot of policing classes and on my paperwork, it started saying with an emphasis in policing…
I brought it to their attention and it turns out they stopped offering forensic science and just took it upon themselves to enroll me in policing classes. Still to this day is pisses me off. I just continued because I was already 3 years in why leave and waste this money if I don’t have that paper saying I graduated. DO NOT GO TO RASMUSSEN COLLEGE.
I could say a lot more about them but I won’t. Unless you want a post about it. Let me know in the comments.
Credit cards are not free money
Michele, girl… why you so stupid? You got a college degree in Criminal Justice and you stupid baby girl… why?
I don’t know why I thought this. I have only had 2 credit cards in my life and I messed them both up. Never again will I use a credit card. If I ain’t got the money to pay for it… then I AINT BUYING IT… Lesson learned and I am staying away from them from now on.
Keep your products… stores!
Financial stability
I have struggled my whole life. I know from where I was until now there has been a big improvement. Because I didn’t learn about money I didn’t have to care about it. Til I was jobless, car-less, living with an abusive “boyfriend” who would leave me at home with no food. When he decided one night to try and rape me. I decided to leave and realized I had nowhere to go. I was going to be homeless. (you can read the full story here)
When I finally caught a break was living somewhere else, had my own money. I made a promise to myself that I would never be in that situation again. I would never go hungry and let another person put their hands on me. From then my only goal was to be financially stable. It has been an uphill battle since 2010. I am not 100 percent stable, but I am working towards it.
Never settle for less money
That’s the one thing I love about me and Mike is that we push each other to be better, to do better. We have both worked, one of us has worked and we have both worked two jobs. We have had a lot of jobs in the past 7 years. He is the reason I never settle for less. We have dreams and are on the same page on how to make them a reality.
We will never settle for less, we will work and work till we are debt-free living our dream life. Always strive for more. I have worked for 5.25 and I have worked for 10.50. Mike has almost tripled his hourly pay. He makes enough for both of us. I quit my job in August to focus on this blog, but it won’t stop me from working. I will be going back to work in 2020 more focused and driven to make our dreams a reality. Always work to make more money.
Have a long term financial plan
We have a yearly plan, a 5-year plan, and a 10-year plan. We discuss this when we do our Life Audit. All of which work together to reach the big picture. Owning a home, with 2 cars, still working but doing something we love like owning our own business.
Money is no joke. It doesn’t matter if you are a child earning an allowance or a middle-aged adult, it is never too late to start on your financial journey. Do not think those of us tell you not to do something as we don’t want the best for you. We are telling you because of our experience. The time and money, as well as the sweat and tears, put into working on this.
No one should be this stressed about money and who they owe money to. I can’t wait for 2020 to start because I am making this coming year by b*&%$.
As always thank you for taking the time to read the post. Please leave a comment below on what you wish your parents taught you about money.
Until next time, Have a great day!
This is so true. There were a lot of things that my parents never taught me about money too, so I had to learn the hard way. Thank goodness I’ve never had anything major happen to me so far, but still. Thanks for this great article, I’m sure many of us would be able to relate!
I am still learning the hard way. Money is the only thing that really gives me anxiety. Its a love-hate relationship.
Great read! I agree with all of this. Except the student loan part. Sometimes that’s hard to avoid. I went to a 6-year program for pharmacy school and came out with a lot of student loans.
I would probably feel different if I was using my degree, but all the jobs that require my degree want you to have experience. Cant get experience if they wont hire me. Its a vicious cycle!
I wish they would have taught us more about Money and how to handle it in school than they did!! Then you’re just thrown into all of it and lost!
Exactly. I am still learning and still have the deer in headlights look. I have anxiety because of money. It is the one thing I stress about the most.
I love all of this! We should be taught about money as kids. I asked my mom once why she never told me about it and her reply was that she didn’t think kids needed to know about it. Because of this lesson I’m very open with my kids (not to worry them but so they learn). I’m also still paying for my stupid stupid loans
Exactly. I let my stepdaughter know just enough to learn, but I will never burden her if we are struggling that month. I was really bummed when she was in the car and found out we have to move. She was so sad, she just went through the same thing with her mother. The owner decided to sell so we both have to move.
I am trying to do better at teaching my kids about money and credit. I wish I had learned so much more about finances when I was younger.
Me too. My problem is my kid doesn’t want to work for her money. This year is going to be completely different. She is gonna learn. LOL
My kids are little right now. But I do plan to discuss all this with them when they are off age.
I thought the same way too, why was I never taught about finances in school and at home. Maybe it would have been easier for me now to tackle my finances (the lack of them or how to handle them right.).
There were so many things that I did not know about money growing up. I think that everyone needs to know about money and savings and how to budget. I still slowly learning.
Oh gosh. totally agree. I have heaps of student loans that I am wishing it will just evaporate in the air. lol. I don’t like credit cards as well. I have lived without it most of my life. But I opened one recently for the sake of building my credit score.
Yeah, I stay away from credit cards. I am not good with them at all.
I believe that finances should be something that you are taught in school!! It’s so overwhelming when you move out and have to figure it out on your own. Whenever have kids, I will definitely be teaching them before turning them loose in the real world.
I totally agree. Money SHOULD be taught in school 100%. My step-daughter is 11 and we are starting to teach her now.
Too important to learn about how to save and grow money from money itself! But unfortunately I’m too bad in all these things 😊But I guess proper education and learning about saving money is getting more necessary now a days.
I just wish I would have started my journey sooner. I was bad in all areas, but I made it a priority this year to start getting all my ducks in a row. Better late than never I guess. lol
Most of us learn from experience. I wish that my parents had teach me how to deal with financial situations
This is really very helpful information. I have learned a lot as well from my mistakes when it comes to money. My recommendation is to keep yourself up-to-date and do thorough research before you spend.
Learning how to handle personal finances is so important and I wish I was more prepared for it! Thanks for the tips!
Thank you for sharing with others, all of the things that you were not taught about money. Everything, especially budgeting and saving are extremely valuable lessons.
They are important. Better late than never.
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I agree wholeheartedly with your write-up here. We should learn about money early. We should teach our kids about money early. . . if only to understand budgeting, saving, planning, etc. Thank you for the post.