Are You Treating Personal Finances As A Taboo At Home?
If your parents educated and encouraged you about the importance of the administration of your personal finances, then you are privileged. On my case, my parents taught me the principles for saving and spending money and that information have been priceless during the course of my life. Having to raise four children with a modest salary gave them the experience they needed on personal finances and they were convinced they must pass those fundamental skills to their kids.
Contrary to what happened in my family there are a lot of households where parents treat money as a taboo and don’t share with them all the details of their budgets and how they struggle with its limitations and realities. Most parents think that money is an adult thing and the kids only have to worry about being kids. In some cases, kids have negative associations with personal finances because parents disagree and get to financial crisis and there’s the only moment when they hear their parents talking about that.
There are other cases where parents don’t have the best money habits and even have bad ones and they pass their experience to their children with best intentions, but this can be a problem. Your parents are your parents and you should always listen to them but in the area of personal finances, a bad given advice can cause many troubles. You have to ask where your folks learned about money management and consider if their decisions were made with enough research for the different choices they had. Unfortunately, in some families financial illiteracy is passed on from generation to generation.
Let’s not forget about the occasions where the parents have good information and the correct methodology to money management, but the kids just don’t listen and choose to go on rebellion. For example, your parents are always teaching you how to spend and save your money wisely but the first time you get some extra money you end up buying yourself gifts or any other stuff.
While we are not able to change the personal finance education we received from our parents or at school, you have now the power to figure out what you need to know to handle your personal finances. And if you have kids, please don’t let them go outside to the world unprepared on this subject. Understand their potential and teach them the right skills they need to be productive and financially well educated.
