“I’d rather sit on a block of wood than make a payment on a piece of furniture.” ~ Mom
Have you ever given any real thought to the best advice you learned from your mother? A small group of us were talking about this very thing during the Mother’s Day breakfast at church a few weeks ago. Funny how we all had different tidbits that stood out in our minds. Keep in mind that most of this came from women in the 50+ age group.
“Never leave the house without wearing clean underwear.” Classic and priceless advice, for sure!
“Always keep a dime in your purse in case you ever need to make an emergency phone call.” Nowadays, you’d be hard pressed to find a pay phone, and if you did, I’m sure the price has increased significantly!
“Eat before going out on a date. You wouldn’t want a potential future husband thinking you weren’t one to watch your figure.” I seriously about choked on my eggs hearing this advice. My 89-year-old father is currently “dating” a 91-year-old lady. When I was visiting a couple of months ago, I took them out for lunch. Before placing our orders, this 91-year-old woman said, “I don’t eat much.” Now I can’t but to wonder about her motives. Lol.
My own mother’s advice echoed her practicality: “I’d rather sit on a block of wood than make a payment on a piece of furniture.”
While my mom wasn’t book-smart compared to my dad with his Ph.D., in many ways, she was indeed far smarter. Her common sense with handling money kept them mostly debt-free their entire 60 years of marriage. For a very short time, they had a mortgage. I still remember the day it was paid off. Other than that, they paid cash for everything!
None of like to ever admit that our mothers were right, but in this case, my mom’s advice was spot-on. Had I followed it, I wouldn’t be writing a blog about digging out of debt in my 50s. The best thing I can do now (and I am!) is to follow her advice going forward.
What is the best piece of advice you heard growing up…and more importantly, did you follow it?
That is great advice from your Mother! My Mother always told me to, “Make your money work for you”. I wish I had listened to that advice earlier in life. Now at 35, I feel like I am desperately trying to keep up and get on track with my retirement savings and nest egg.
Very good advice from your mom. At least you started now. My gut feeling is you’ll do great!
I’ve given your question a lot of thought. After a few hours I couldn’t come up with one single piece of advice I gleaned off my parents. That thought result caused me to think even more! Why was that?
That’s because my parents came from a different time and place than I have.
The way my parents thought about finance is totally different from the way I think about my own finances today.
Without debt, bridges couldn’t be built, wars couldn’t be won, schools and hospitals wouldn’t be so plentiful, businesses could never rise………..grocers would still be selling their wares from the back of a horse drawn carriage.
Dave Ramsey, when he was young, stupid and foolish did not use debt wisely, so he was doomed to fail. And he never lets any of us forget what an idiot he was for leasing a jaguar at $900 per month at the age of 26.
If you use your debt wisely and with an eye on the future (and a Plan B in the back of your pocket) you will live a very rich and fulfilling life. The trick is to stay concise and on target. Nobody needs to drive a Jaguar. least of all Dave Ramsey.
Make your own life and follow your own good advice.
Be kind to yourself. It is what it is. You’ll make the best of it BUT please stop every once in a while and enjoy your life.
You only get this go-around once.
Interesting perspective, Cindi. Ultimately we do need to live our own lives and make the best of our choices. Enjoying the ride (all of it-the good the bad the ugly) is equally important. Thanks for your insightful comment.
My parents started out with nothing. My father was raised by a single mom until she remarried when he was a teen and my mother’s parents scraped by, to eventually afford a modestly comfortable life. None of my grandparents had credit cars or debt..
My parents struggled financially until my father earned his BS degree in 1970, the year before my oldest brother earned his high school diploma, and then became a CPA.. Once they “made it” into the middle class my parents lived a highly leveraged debt-ridden life. Everything was fine since their income could cover the payments.
But in the end, after an acrimonious divorce that dragged out for 10 years! and some bad business investments my father undertook they both died nearly destitute.
Neither of my parents ever gave me any advise about finances really. Money was not something they discussed with us or even with each other. Father handled all the finances and my mother hadn’t a clue.
Heck my father, due to the divorce, wouldn’t even let anyone know anything about his money. lolz
They lived the 1970’s-1980’s easy credit life trying to keep up with the Jones’s life. Didn’t work out very well for them so I used their example as a warning of what NOT to do in my own adult financial life. I guess they did teach me something after all. 😉
Sluggy recently posted…This Week on the Dining Table
Sad story, but you certainly learned from it!
My parents did not teach me a lot about money. The main thing I remember is my mom said to be sure I paid my credit card bill off every month to avoid being charged interest.
I’m glad that at least she taught you about avoiding interest! I feel we are failing our kids not teaching them more about money.
My great aunt always said to live below your means. I actually did not get into debt until i married my husband. He was a spender. And then I was in a long term relationship with a man who was also a spender. My daughter learned to be a spender because of this as well. Now that I am over 50 and in debt, I try to get back to this, however, due to others in my life that don’t live below their means, it is really hard to get back to that concept.
Rhitter recently posted…On Bi-Weekly Progress Report – 05/28/2017
Getting out of debt, especially when surrounded by spenders, can be oh so challenging. I constantly need to remind myself that this is my journey and I don’t want others negatively influencing my goals.