Every once in a while I try to take a step back from my busy schedule of building passive income streams and reflect on what got me here. Several of life’s lessons I learned growing up as a child are used as a basis to manage my family’s personal finances and work towards becoming financially independent. I learned many things growing up as a child that have shaped who I am and where I want to be.
No – there were no formal lessons given to me by my parents. Instead, they taught these lessons each and every day by their actions. It was those constant reminders that helped shape my approach to personal finances and building wealth.
My parents were not financially rich by any means, nor was the rest of my immediate family. I grew up in a factory town that prided itself on working hard for a living. I had several family members who worked in these factories. I also had several family members who were and are farmers. Both occupations require hard work and dedication to being successful.
Here are a few of those life’s lessons that I picked up along the way. I use these lessons each and every day to help make personal finance decisions as well as shape my methodology for creating passive income.
- Hard Work – Hard work is one of the most important lessons I learned growing up. My father worked in a factory his whole life and dedicated himself to working hard for his living. While I don’t have the same obstacles in my way as he did, I still try to work hard at everything I do. Whether it be my job, raising my children, or building passive income – hard work is important. I don’t subscribe to any get rich quick schemes and believe hard work is the path to financial independence.
- Creativity – Growing up, my father was the sole income earner for our household, just as I am for my family today. While times may have been tough financially for my parents, I never really knew it. Living off of one income required my parents to be creative with their finances. That lesson has stuck with me for many years and is practiced in our household today. There is always a way to make ends meet and grow your income – you just need to be creative at times in order to succeed.
- Innovation – Becoming innovative to change is an important part of building a business or growing your personal finances. You must be ready for new trends and technologies in order to take advantage of new opportunities and succeed. The world we live in is ever changing and requires innovation to be successful. I learned this important lesson from my grandparents who were farmers their whole life. As traditional crops they were use to growing became less and less profitable, they had the innovative skills to recognize this change and adapt. All of the best companies in the world are good at innovation.
- Organization – Having an organized life is critical to being efficient with your time. One of the quickest ways for people to lose money is to be disorganized. Forgetting to pay bills on time, losing track of personal spending, and overpaying for items are all examples of what can happen when you are disorganized. Growing up, my mother kept the family’s personal finances in check. She is one of the most organized people I know. Keeping track of the small details can save you money and help guide the way to becoming financially independent.
- Living Within Your Means – One of the best tools I ever picked up. Too many people do not live within their means. That fact has helped push us into a deep recession among other factors. I learned early on in life to only buy what you could afford with that hard earned money.
My parents and other family members did not give me any formal training or lessons on personal finances. Instead, they instilled these values upon me by constantly practicing them. Are these values going to make you rich? Not by themselves they won’t. However, using these lessons as well as others in combination can help to shape your personal finances. They can be used as a foundation to building your wealth and being successful.
What personal finance lessons did you learn growing up?
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The two that had the greatest impact on me were:
1. Hard work – there just isn’t any way to fake this one, and
2. Frugality – my family didn’t have a lot of money, so we watched where every dollar went.
Those are some great lessons to have learned. I especially think that learning hard work from your parents is esepcially valuable. I’m always still working on being organised!
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The point about money and disorganization is an interesting one; easy to see how that might be true; if you’re unorganized you probably don’t have your priorities in line and that can include money issues. I learned bits of all these too, but in general my parents encouraged doing all the learning about finance and investing that you can.
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