I found the following list of questions on Eemusing’s blog and I thought it would be interesting to answer and see how my answers change later on down the track.
Answer the following questions as a way of revealing your real relationship to money:
• What was your family’s money situation, when you were young? Lower Socio Economic, had everything we needed, but no real extra frills.
• Did you learn about money? How did you learn about money? What did you learn? Dad always encourage us to read the Rich Dad books and taught us to save.
• What did your mother tell you verbally or non-verbally about money? She never really told us a lot about it.
• What did your father tell you verbally or non-verbally about money? Dad taught me a lot about the value of a dollar.
• Was money talked about in your family when you were growing up? Were you included in money conversations?
No we wern’t included in the money conversations, we did know we wouldn’t get things by constantly asking for them though.
• Did you get pocket money as a child? In this respect were you the same or different to your friends? How did you feel about this?
We received pocket money for a little while there as mum made dad give it to us, I think she felt bad that they wouldn’t buy us the things we wanted and this was her way of trying to combat it.
• Were you trusted with money as you were growing up?
As far as going to the shop to buy some milk, sure. Otherwise we never really had a great deal of it to be passed on to us, we did get a decent chunk of change at christmas time though generally which we could spend however we wanted, with little judgement from the parentals.
• Can you remember your first purchase with money of your own? What was it? How old were you? How did it feel?
Nope, I have a shocking memory!
• Can you remember the first time you got paid in an employment situation? How much did you get? What did you do with it? How did you feel?
I vaguely remember getting paid from doing the phamplet run but no clue how I spent it, It was proberly around $40?
• Have you ever achieved something big with money? If so, what was it and how did it make you feel?
Yes, I purchased my car outright when I was 17 – sure it was only $1400 but thats not the point! I have saved and managed a couple of big trips overseas which is awesome.
• What have you done with money that makes you feel bad?
Frittering it away on junk food
• What have you done with money that makes you feel good?
All the travel I have done!
• What is your attitude towards people who have a lot of money? Slight twinge of jealously, but mostly a feeling of ‘good on them’.
• What is your attitude towards people with very little money?
Depends how they got there, if they are smoking cigarettes, ordering fast food and just downed a 6 pack. It’s their own damn fault and I won’t take pity on them. If it’s due to loosing a job or another situation out of their control I feel some pity and hope that they will be able to pick themselves back up.
• If money were a person, how would you describe your relationship with them?
Love/Hate definately, I love the security of having funds in the bank for a rainy day/if it is really needed. Conversely I hate the fact that money makes the world go round and makes people greedy and power hungry.
• Have you ever given money away? How did you feel about it?
I’ve donated to charities and give a bit here and there on the streets before, its a good feeling.
• Has anyone ever given you money? How did you feel about that?
Not that I can think of, If I need a loan like that time I misplaced my eftpos card in my jacket back at the motel I pay it back straight away.
• Do you have any money secrets? What are they?
I should be better with my money than I am given my profession.
• What position do you want to be in with money in ten years time?
In a position to be comfortably paying off a mortgage, having a trip or two a year, still putting funds into shares and kiwisaver and a nice little emergency fund hiding away.
• What do you tell yourself about money? Do you feel guilt or regrets when you spend?
It’s not the be all and end all and to let loose on occasion, and sometimes that I need to tighten the purse strings so I can have the things I want later on. Generally I don’t feel guilt or regret.
• How do you imagine others describe your relationship to money?
The b/f and family would say i’m a bit of a scrouge, but i’m really not, I spend money on the things that matter most to me.
• How do you feel when you are paying bills?
Ugh <— that would be my exact feeling
• What is the most amazing thing you have done with money?
Travelled to Argentina
• Do you share the same attitudes to money as others close to you?
I think I proberly share mostly the same attitude as my dad and a bit of my mum. The b/f and I agree on money in theory but his actions are generally not the same as his words so generally we don’t share the same attitude. This needs to change and we need a middle ground!
Let me know if you decide to share your money story on your blog…