GranolaBox

Every bad thing about spending money came naturally to me. I can only blame myself. From the time I can remember having money I can’t remember wanting to do anything with it other than spend it immediately.

I can’t blame my parents for my lack of thrift. My mother was my financial role model, and an excellent one at that. I just didn’t listen. My Mom’s maxims were simple and often repeated to my deaf ears. Don’t spend money you don’t have and don’t buy what you want until you have what you need.

Throughout most of my formative years my father was in the Army and mom stayed at home with me and my two other brothers. Dad was an enlisted man, and never made a lot of money. This didn’t really matter because nobody made a lot of money in the army, and most of the stuff we needed was available really cheap at the base comissaries.

Still, on Dad’s salary there wasn’t a ton of money to go around, but we never went without anything we needed. We also got a lot of stuff we wanted. If I did my chores I got enough allowance to buy the toys I wanted, and I always got my top two or three picks from the Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalog.

We got by well because Mom spent only within our means and didn’t try to live a lifestyle that wasn’t ours. That was important. Everyone is pretty much equal financially in Army life. An E-5 doesn’t make a hell of a lot more than an E-3. It was an ideal, almost socialistic world. We didn’t have to keep up with the Joneses because all of us were Joneses.

As a kid, I had all I needed and pretty much all I wanted. I had good food, good clothes, a bike, one or two Tonka trucks, a couple GI Joe’s and enough GI Joe accessories for him to help my dad keep the world safe for democracy.

I also had a mom who taught me important lessons about money very early on. Unfortunately, I didn’t start using them until it was far too late.

Technorati Tags: Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalog, Tonka, GI Joe

Filed under: General Observations on August 12th, 2007