Money Lessons

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer nor am I a consumer credit counseler. I am simply sharing some information about credit and money which I feel may be of value. It is your responsibility to perform your own research and make your own decisions.

Until I moved out at nineteen years old, I had virtually no training or education about money and how to manage it. My parents kept money a big, dark secret. I had no idea as I was growing up how it all worked. My parents mentioned the shortage of money quite a bit. but I have no memory of such important concepts as budgeting, saving, credit and debt, earning money or anything else related to this very important field. In fact, I would say I had even less understanding, when I reached the age of 19, about the other forbidden subject, sex and women, than I did of money management.

There were no classes given in any school that I ever attended on how to balance a checkbook. No teacher ever went over the importance of maintaining a savings account. I never, not even once, had any help from anyone in the entire educational system on this vital subject.

As I grew up a couple of facts were apparent. First was that money was scarce and the earning of money was not entirely under my own control. It seemed to be under the control of someone referred to, usually with a sneer, the boss. This boss fellow seemed to have a lot of control over my father and was the subject of much contempt and consternation. On the other hand, he had power and control over the most important person in my childhood life: my father.

The second fact that was obvious was that money was needed to get things. If you had money, you could get things you needed and wanted. If you didn't have money, well, you didn't get those things.

The final fact that was obvious to my young self was the lack of money led to endless arguments and unsolvable problems. When we had money, tensions were low. When we didn't for some reason, or when money was tight (whatever that meant) the level of stress went up beyond the breaking point.

I wanted money so I could get things that I wanted, so my parents set up two distinct systems to help me get some of my own. The first was simple extortion. If I did what I was told, I could get candy, toys and other fun things (at Christmas for example). If I didn't or if I embarrassed my parents in any way (which was interesting because I had no idea what embarrass meant) then I would not get money. It worked after a fashion ...

The second was to do chores for my parents in return for an allowance. My parents started by telling me to do the dishes regularly, and before long I was helping around the house quite a bit. I learned the value of money and I learned a little bit about working in exchange for money.

When I reached the age of 17, my father decided it was time for me to get a job. He, in his fatherly way, simply told me I was getting a job, then he set up an interview. The first one, with a cleaning company, lasted a single day. The second, night manager at the local liquor store, lasted two years. That was a very tough job; my boss was a Nazi U-boat commander during World war II. One thing is certain: after working for that man I could work for anyone.

Work became the foundation of my life. I bought a car, joined book clubs and got a few other things that I wanted. After all, I had a good job and was making a whole dollar and a quarter an hour! That was more money than I ever had before in my entire life...

One thing I never learned, until much later in life, was the value of savings. I simply didn't have a clue about what purpose a savings account was to accomplish. I do not recall my parents ever mentioning the need for savings, although I do remember a half-hearted attempt to get me to open an account, and it certainly didn't appear to have much value. After all, the purpose of money was to get things. How does a savings account help with that purpose? I had no idea.

I had a huge shock when I moved out. It was not a mild shock either: it was more like the big earthquake or a meteor hitting the earth. I had to come to grips with, all of a sudden, this thing called money.

You have to understand, first, how I moved out. One week I was in college, working as the dairy manager at a local market, making about five thousand dollars a year and living at home with my parents. I literally received an opportunity, a job offer at a start-up computer company, that I simply couldn't refuse, so the next week I had dropped out of college, moved 120 miles from my parents, got my own apartment (with a short-lived roommate) and more than doubled my salary. Talked about a tectonic shift in my life!

Now I had no choice but to come to terms with money.

It was soon obvious that I wasn't making enough. Not by any means.

I wasn't about to move back home, so I had to solve the problem.

I discovered credit cards...

And thus began a new chapter of my money experiences. And the subject of the next article in this series.

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