Becoming Better Financial Role Models

I look back at the last three years and I realize how much my me and my husband changed. We are less materialistic and happier with the simple things in life. For a journey that was about reducing debt, it turns out that some of the sweetest benefits are not directly related to the numbers.

Our son is a big example of that. Sometimes we forget that he is like a big sponge – soaking in our actions and words. I’ve been grabbing quotes from him here and there and I have few to share with all of you.

Here’s something he said to me while I was drinking some water.

“We don’t drink pop anymore. We are saving money and getting healthier.”

Here’s something he says when he finds something he wants in the Lego catalog.

“Ooooh, I can save up my money to buy that big set!”

Here’s something he says in the grocery store.

”Mom, how about getting this one instead? It’s on sale.”

Here’s something he says when an infomercial is on TV.

”You don’t get the free one for free. It’s a trick to get you to buy it.”

I’m proud of how far we have come with reducing our credit card debt. But I hear my son say these things and I am proud and so happy that we are becoming better financial role models for him. That should have been included in the list of motivators I wrote a long time ago. It is going to serve as motivation for us for years to come.

On a side note, I can’t help but wonder what financial wisdom our son is now sharing with his friends

Posted by Tricia on April 22, 2009 at 7:28 AM in Kids & Money | 11 Comments »
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is not allowed.

Newer Posts Older Posts

Christina responded:
Posted: April 22nd, 2009 at 9:38 am
Thats wonderful that your son has learned some financial wisdom on your journey. I feel that most of our money knowledge does come from our parents and how they delt with money while we were growing up. I know my parents always spent money, and now i have that same problem. But together now we are all trying to lower our debts.
Rags responded:
Posted: April 22nd, 2009 at 10:06 am
That’s great to hear. Kids these days aren’t getting enough of a financial education, but it seems like yours definitely is. He’s learned things that take some of us 10, 20, or 30 years to learn. For some people it takes them their entire life to learn what your son knows, and others not at all. This seems to be a nice little bonus you got here as a result of reducing your debt; be sure to never stop teaching him these things.

- Rags
Dianne responded:
Posted: April 22nd, 2009 at 11:12 am
I don’t understand why you aren’t debt free. Take $1500 from savings and be done with it. You’ll have $2000 for an emergency. That will grow back up quickly to $3500 because you’ll be DEBT FREE.
Tricia responded:
Posted: April 22nd, 2009 at 11:35 am
Dianne – we could take the money from our savings (it’s crossed my mind a lot). Part of why we haven’t done that was to see what we could do during this final stretch without having to pull from savings. It ended up being a personal challenge for us just to see how we could do.

However, transfers have been initiated to withdraw money from our savings
DH responded:
Posted: April 22nd, 2009 at 11:43 am
Wow, you’ve got a pretty cool kid. Really smart he is.

And I agree, sometimes the biggest benefits are the one’s that can’t be counted and weighed.
Brian responded:
Posted: April 22nd, 2009 at 11:53 am
At work we received a gift basket from a vendor. I turned around and said they could have just knocked that value off the cost of the contract instead. Everyone looked at me like I was talking a foreign language.

It’s the same thing as the second one not being free! They obviously got the money for the gift basket from somewhere and what do you know, we gave them money last month.

Sorry, I’m just venting.
Hun responded:
Posted: April 22nd, 2009 at 12:56 pm
That’s awesome Tricia!
jesscyn responded:
Posted: April 22nd, 2009 at 4:05 pm
That’s just full of awesome

From the mouths of babes.
Kristy @ Master Your Card responded:
Posted: April 22nd, 2009 at 11:15 pm
That’s awesome that he’s learning good financial habits at a young age! He’ll do great as he gets older and he’ll be a lot better off.

That last one had be laughing! I made the mistake of buying something off an infomercial once and it was horrible. The $19.95 item plus $4.95 for shipping and handling turned into an almost $100 expense. It was ridiculous! They charge you for everything…nothing it free. Good for your son to know that!

Congrats to you and your husband for teaching him those things, as well.
emmi responded:
Posted: April 23rd, 2009 at 9:18 am
Diane, Tricia’s Credit Card is at 0% interest. So keeping the money in savings means earning interest on it, however small. If it were at 26% that would be a whole different ball game. I think Tricia is doing the right thing, and tilting one last round at the debt windmill without forcing ole Poncho Sanchez (the savings account) out in front of her to take the hit is quite noble.

(Okay, given that weird analogy, I clearly needed more sleep last night.)
Mr Plasectomy responded:
Posted: April 24th, 2009 at 4:59 am
Great way to start off the learning of financial skills. Kids are like sponges and they can soak up everything they see whether you know it or not.