The best financial advice I’ve received didn’t come from personal finance books. It came from my 7th grade history teacher and the Bible.
It’s Friday, and I’ve come down with a terrible cold. Since I’m not feeling well, and I can’t come up with a brilliant post idea, I thought I’d let you all teach me something today.
I would love it if you would comment with the best financial advice you’ve ever received. It could be about anything: debt, saving, frugality…anything you think would fit. I could learn from you, we all could learn from each other, and I would get some great ideas for things I should be teaching my children.
I’ll go first. The best financial advice I received actually came from my 7th grade history teacher. It was 1982 and I was attending a Christian school. My history teacher had gone off on some tangent, totally irrelevant to the lesson.
Out of the blue, it seemed, he quoted Proverbs 22:1.
A good name is more desirable than great riches;
to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.
I remember the teacher looking at us very seriously, and telling us to never compromise our integrity for money. Riches are temporary. You can gain riches, lose them, and gain them back again.
Your name, however, sticks with your forever. If you do something to compromise your good name, the ramifications can stick with you for a lifetime. It’s tough to shake a reputation of being someone who will lie, cheat, and steal for monetary gain.
Making an honest dollar may mean choosing the hard road sometimes, but in the end it will pay off. People will trust and respect you. It’s better to do that than to gain quick riches in less than honest means. Eventually your well will dry up, and people won’t trust you enough to give you a second chance.
Integrity is important.
What’s the best financial advice you’ve ever received?
Photo by Lin Pernille Photography.
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I agree with integrity, though I cannot remember how we were taught this. I think my late parents somehow drummed this into all 6 of us when we were kids. It has stuck and stuck good.
On financial advice per se, it was my immediate elder brother, the one who is the least formally educated amongst us siblings. He told me that I should start collecting assets. (He gave examples like furniture, but the principle stuck.)
Shows how useless formal education can sometimes be!
There are two things that come to mind when I think of the best financial advice I’ve ever had. One is when I was told to, “Save [at least] ten percent of everything you make.” It’s something I already do with my own money, just trying to get hubby on board now… :)
The second is one of my favorite quotes, “The habit of saving is in itself one of the most practical of all educations. It develops discipline, foresight, planning, industry, patience, thinking and even intelligence.” I did a post on it not too long ago, and it seemed pretty popular. It was all about the personal gains you get from saving money, along with and independent of the financial ones.
My grandfather wrote me a letter when I turned 20 (many moons ago) and told me to “enjoy life – stop and smell the roses.” It was part of a larger paragraph on finances, but it really touched me because I think he sensed at an early age that I was going to go off the deep end of frugality, head first! In his wise way, he was reminding me that life is to be enjoyed. That we save, and we earn so that we enjoy things from time to time. It is something I remember today to balance practicing extreme frugality with creating memories with my family.
I think the best financial advice I ever received was not financial advice at all. The advice was “It took you years to gain this weight, you won’t lose it immediately.” I’ve applied it to my finances. It took years to accumulate this debt and it’s not going to be an easy fix. It’s my mantra when I get frustrated that the numbers don’t go down fast enough.
HI! For me learning that it all belongs to God was very freeing. All he asks is for 10% back, how can we say no. And to be good stewards of the other 90%.
The next best financial advice is to have a freedom account. This is from Mary Hunt, it is an account to cover bills that come up but not every month (ie-oil changes, car repairs, car registration, Christmas, gifts for other occasions, AAA memberships, club memberships, etc.) What you do is go through all last years stuff and add up total and divide by 12 and that is how much to put away each month. This has saved me. Basically you are planning for stuff you have to pay including gifts and car repairs, ever time you step on your breakes you are using them up!
I have two:
“Pay yourself first.”
“Anything you can measure can be improved.”
I have a few:
1. You can’t take it with you. ;)
2. Money is a housekeeping item, you need it to keep your house.
3. Save a dollop of EVERY dollar.
4. No one cares as much about your money as you do…so learn to invest it yourself.
5. You can’t take it with you. ;)
Hi Lynnae,
I hope you’re feeling better. I just hate colds – especially when you think winter is finally over and you’ve dodged the bullet so to speak.
I guess the best advice I ever had was from my parents (& the Bible) – and it was to always tithe back to God and to do it cheerfully (after all it’s all His anyway!) God can stretch the 90% much farther than we can stretch 100%. We have found this to be true throughout 27 years of marriage.
Blessings!
I can’t think of any specific financial advice but my mum did always say “If you have to ask the price, you probably can’t afford it” referring to the nicer stores where merchandise isn’t marked. And both my parents always told me “If you can’t afford it, you can’t have it” Which is probably what saved me, back in my spendy days, from ever carrying a balance on my cards.
The best financial advice I ever recieved was the law of reciprocity – to give, and it shall be given back to me in tremendous, overwhelming, knock my socks off if I wore socks ;>, abundance! It works – it really does! And it doesn’t have to be a huge, Donald Trump-ish amount, either – even loose change counts!
Hope you are soon over your cold!
Live below your means.
I was never taught the seriousness of finances when I was younger. There were life lessons that I was taught that I could have and should have applied to my finances, but once I realized that, it was all a little too little too late.
What I did learn is that personal finance is 10% money and 90% attitude. And one of the biggest keys to attitude is honesty. Before I began taking control of my finances, I would basically lie to myself until I believed I could afford something that I really couldn’t. I was like most people that would go to the mall and window shop. You see something you really want and you convince yourself to get it. The attitude just hurt your finances, and its the quality of your attitude that will determine how you will handle your situation. Will you handle it good? Or will you handle it poorly? Above all, I feel being honest with yourself is one of the first steps. Cause you can lie to yourself all you want, but in the end you’re cheating no one but yourself.
Sorry for the long post, but that’s my input. :)
My parents instilled it early on – I can remember from 5 years old anyway. Half of everything we received went into our savings accounts. Half the birthday money, half the Christmas gift money, and when we finally got a job, half of our paycheck. While I don’t stick to the ‘half’ anymore, I do try for at least a quarter stuck away every pay check for a rainy day. And yes, I “pay me first.”
2nd – It takes money to make money. To me that means if I tuck it away, it will draw interest/dividends and I like having that interest ‘paycheck’ without having to work for it :)
3rd – My greatest riches are in the eyes of my children and grandchildren! Meaning time with my family/grandchildren is more precious than money. I gladly work less hours to be able to spend quality time with them. Luckily my employer allows me time off for field trips and school activities. They don’t mind that Grammi is ‘poor’ as long as she is fun! – and they help find ‘free’ things to do, and love to go garage saling with me!
4th – Learn to say “NO” (firmly/politely) and stick to it. I don’t know where I learned this – but this means no to excess buying no matter what the pressure is or who/what it comes from.
My first bit of financial advice came from my Oma in Holland and it sounds pithy in Dutch, “Goed kopen is duur kopen” but I haven’t figured out how to make it sound as good in English. Probably “Buying cheap is expensive” Amy reiterates this in the Tightwad Gazette when she talks about permanent and temporary things. A good mattress or pair of pants will give you more use over time than cheap ones. Healthy foods pay more dividends than unhealthy (and unfortunately cheaper) foods.
Well, this one is an obvious one, but for me it was really revolutionary and life-changing.
Live below your means!
Really, I didn’t understand that until recently. For me, that’s where all of this personal finance stuff begins.
For me it was from our pastors who told us to always learn to live on one income. My husband and I have learned through our mistakes and it was this advice that has kept me home for over 10 years since we had our first child. We still make mistakes and are currently digging ourselves out of a hole, but God is good and we still live on the one salary principle.
The other one was to not let our financial goals get too carries away that we don’t have any fun. I always took this advice losely, until I got to know my sister-in-laws mother. Her husband passed away about 4 years ago, and since then have learned how his unwillingness to spend any money on fun really effected her life and my sister in laws in a really negative way. They have no memories of vacations because of his unwillingness to spend money. I’m not saying we should go into debt to take vacations, not at all. But know its good to take vacations and have some fun within our means because precious memories are built off of those experiences.
Great post.
Some of the best financial advice that I have received…
“Be thrifty.”
“No matter how much or how little you make, always save a little bit.”
“Don’t buy frivolous things. You don’t really need them”
The best financial advice indeed and definitely comes straight from the Bible. Freely give and it will be freely given back to you. That doesn’t pertain just to money, but it has played out in my life. I grew up never being taught to be giving. I married a man, however, who gave/gives his money, the shirt off his back and his time freely and joyfully. That seemed wrong to me 25 years ago and it scared me, but I can testify to the goodness of God. We have never had to dig out of debt and God has blessed us amazingly. We’ve had some lean times, but we never stopped giving – both tithing and offerings- and we have always had what we needed to live and “then some.”
Another good bit of financial advice my children and I learned from Focus on the Family’s Aventures in Odyssey stories. One such story was a character in the story gets a credit card for the first time and not only maxes it out, but goes over the limit. A wiser character taught her to think of her money as being in a jar. You need some of it to pay for the things you need and when it comes to things you want, when the jar is empty, it’s empty. There is nothing there to go pay for the thing you want.
An early childhook lesson came from AESOP’s Fables – remember them? The Ant and the Grasshopper. Stressed the importance of working hard and being prepared, and saving up for the hard times (the long winter).
I am reading these now to my grandchildren.
Best advice I ever got.
1. Save money every week even if it’s as little as $5.00 save, it will add up in time.
2. Pay yourself first
3. Don’t buy things you don’t need.
For my money (no pun intended), it’s tough to beat Matthew 6:26… “Look at the birds of the air… surely…surely you’re more valuable than they!”
My father told me to stop tithing, and I did. He told me the preacher was a millionaire and I knew it
I think the best one is about snowflaking that I had received from http://paidtwice.com/ . I used to try different ways of saving small amounts of money, but I always had the doubts that whether I’m doing the right thing. Is it really worth it? But after learning about snowflakes from Paid Twice I am doing it without second thoughts.
I agree with Learning the Ropes. The snowflaking concept works amazingly well!
I can tell you the worst advice I picked up along the way. All through my 20s, I would say to myself, “it’s only money and you always get more.” It was supposed to console me, but really just drove me into some serious debt!
Either of these two, which are very similar:
1) Live below your means
2) Spend less than you earn
1. Finance your mortgage just based on one spouses income, that way you are sure to be able to afford it if someone loses a job, gets hurt, or you want to be a stay at home mom.
2. If you can’t pay for it, it’s not a bargain! – that’s from dear old mom!
3. Just be happy for what you have. – another one from Mom.
I was on a conference call with a wealthy entrepreneur and he told me to read The Richest Man in Babylon. He said it had changed his life when he was young and broke. I did and it began my financial awakening. The hardest lesson has been to pay myself first. There are so many other things that need paying but I am learning…
My mom told me when my husband and I were job hunting after college that God pays us our paycheck. The money does not come from your boss, it is from God. He provides and He alone. Trust not in your job hunt, trust in the Lord.
And Wow. Was she ever right.
For me it has to be spend less than you earn.
Sorry you’re not feeling well.
I enjoyed your post. I think responsible personal finance is important. You can’t hang the world out to dry while your cashing in.
Let’s see, best financial advice I’ve ever received…
From my Mother: Work hard, and always sock some away for a rainy day.
From my Father: Be sure to own your home.
Best,
Lisa
The best advice I can give (cause I haven’t been given very good advice myself lol) financially was a few months after I got married. I tell all my newlywed friends now, “Just because you now have two incomes, does not mean your money has doubled.”
When my husband and I were bringing in at least $600 each, we were thrilled to hold over a thousand dollars in our hands. Afterall, single we only ever spent around $400 to 500 on bills, so that meant we had about $700 left to spend freely, right?
WRONG! More people in a family means more food, more groceries, higher bills and depending on your situation, more debt.
Jia
http://www.modernmollymormon.blogspot.com
The person you are working for is in the mirror.
And, Personal finance is exactly that PERSONAL finance.
I’ve racked my brain trying to remember anything anyone ever told me back in the day regarding finances. I have to say that I cannot think of a single thing. Saving was never encouraged in my household growing up. My parents lived hand to mouth and every car we ever had (which was usually one step from the junk yard) was financed. People just didn’t seem to share their secrets. I guess I knew the value of being money-smart but I fell into the consumer trap of buying more, more, more. At one point, I had a huge house filled with furniture. We all began to refer to it as “the museum” because there were rooms we never went into. Does that type of financial stupidity depress me? You bet. The internet has definitely changed the cultural landscape – I wish it had been around during the first 25 years of my life which it wasn’t.
I’ve racked my brain trying to remember anything anyone ever told me back in the day regarding finances. I have to say that I cannot think of a single thing. Saving was never encouraged in my household growing up. My parents lived hand to mouth and every car we ever had (which was usually one step from the junk yard) was financed. People just didn’t seem to share their secrets. I guess I knew the value of being money-smart but I fell into the consumer trap of buying more, more, more. At one point, I had a huge house filled with furniture. We all began to refer to it as “the museum” because there were rooms we never went into. Does that type of financial stupidity depress me now? You bet. The internet has definitely changed the cultural landscape – I wish it had been around during the first 25 years of my life which it wasn’t.
The best advice I ever received was on my Wedding Day from my Great Grandmother. (I’m English so the saying is in ‘Old Money’). She Said
“If you earn 1 pound and 10 shillings and you spend 1 pound 10shillings and 5 pence you will have misery. If you earn 1 pound and 10 shillings and spend 1 pound 9 shillings then you will have happiness” VERY WISE WORDS
I dont think I have ever actually recieved any good financial advice. Most people around me, including my parents, are completely naive when it comes to money.
From TV(its good for something) and reading I would say, “A dollar saved is a dollar earned.”
Yes its a common saying but it really boils down to becoming financially independent.
The best financial advise I have ever received was the power of Salary Sacrafice into my Super fund. I was almost 40 then (about 10 years ago) and not really focusing on wealth growth. (hard to when you are raising a family and paying off a morgage. However I relised that there was never any surplus funds only because what went in went out. As it is hard to budget when you have a growing middle class family, I found that by SS I could, 1. avoid the tax slug because it comes of the top of your salary, 2 money was automatically removed from your account thereby removing any temptations, and 3 learning to adjust to the reduced earning was not that hard at all. The net result was a huge growth in Super for an earlier retirement