Growing up, I never thought my parents were very good with money. Sometimes they had to “borrow” money from me when I was in high school to help pay some of the bills (I think that’s usually called rent), but I realize now that a lot of that was probably because they were spending more than they should have on my sister and me for things that we wanted but didn’t really need. Really, they just wanted (and still do) the best for us that they could provide, whether that meant taking on debt or running their bank account on a thin margin. My dad is a blue-collar worker and my mom is a severely underpaid teacher – my job offer out of college was for more than either of them made. Whether how they operated their finances was right or wrong, how could they have been good at money? Neither of them ever had a personal finance class in their lives, even though my mom has a master’s degree, and I’m sure neither of their parents ever taught them much about money. However, I now realize the financial lessons that they taught me that I’ve taken for granted.
