re: What was your financial upbringing/background like?

We moved to the Chicago area when I was 5 from South Africa because my dad got a job as a telecommunications engineer at Motorola. My mom couldn’t work for a few years and then had payroll jobs. Their combined income was probably 175kish. We lived in a good neighborhood with some of the best public schools in the country never did without but apparently my mom had to pull a few strings to keep us afloat like a home equity loan. My mom was very responsible financially and has a near perfect credit score.

My dad didn’t track the finances and would spend money we didn’t have on stuff we didn’t need. He grew up in communist Romania so he didn’t have much growing up and he got joy buying stuff. He loved buying clothes and had way more than he ever needed. Eventually when he was too old and sickly to go out much, he started buying me clothes the whole time. I’ve got like 30 dress shirts and I wear them maybe 5 times a year. I told him to stop buying me stuff but it hurt his feelings so I begrudgingly thanked him for it. If something was on sale, he couldn’t resist it and he always fell hook line and sinker for the bullshite suggested retail prices.

Since my parents got a late start, they never really saved enough for retirement.

I live very comfortably, built a nice reserve of funds. I was woefully underpaid in my last job but my expenses were low. Now I earn much better and splurged on a used luxury vehicle. My sister couldn’t believe I did that, so out of character.

Ok there’s my journal entry.

I grew up in a family where money was always a struggle, so I got interested in finance as a way to improve my situation. I started reading up on investing and saving, trying to figure out how to manage my money better. Now I’m here to learn more and swap stories with others who are into finance.

My parents both grew up in the country (dad's family was poor) so they learned early to be frugal with their money. We didn't have much coming up but we never knew it, we had a lot of love and family structure which has no price.

They rose up and did well as our family grew but they always acted the same way with money, lived in a moderate sized home and drove used cars.

They have both passed now and when we settled everything their net worth was around 800K but you would have never known it.

Hopefully some of it rubbed off on the rest of us

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Fat Bastard

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Were you drunk when you made this post? Legit WTF. The OP made a totally reasonable thread.

My parents didn't make much money but tried to keep above water with credit cards. I learned about Dave Ramsey around age 8-9 or so. They eventually got around to knocking out 6 figures worth of CC debt.

They both have pensions now they are retired but still do side jobs etc. I have no desire for my retirement to be like that. They get by okay but never get to travel or do much of anything fun. Their marriage isn't a loving one, more so a just stay together since they have for like 40 years.

That said, we always had what we needed.

I grew up well off for a small town. Had two new cars in high school so I couldn’t complain. Dad owned a business and we got to travel to Europe twice when I was growing up.

Dad made money but also spent a lot of money on whores, cars, vacations, and multiple divorces. Never invested a nickel in stocks but would buy land or a beach condo. Usually ended up selling them for no profit because he could be impulsive.

I started reading websites on investing in college. Not sure why other than I was always intellectually curious. Started a Roth IRA in grad school and funded it with Stafford loan money that was subsidized until I finished fellowship. Best decision I ever made. Started making real money about 10 years ago and I’ve been saving at least 25% of income ever since. Can’t really attribute this to anything other than I’m good at math.

My dad was always a saver. We lived below our means growing up, although he made an upper middle-class income. He also retired pretty young. He's still like that.

He did teach me about investing and the stock market when I was maybe 14 years old though.

Grew up in a hick town in south Louisiana . We by no means had a lot of Money but my brothers and i usually got what we wanted for Christmas or birthday. We were pretty much raised by our Mom working a minimum wage job once dad left in our early teens. So all that to say basically no one taught me anything about Finance until i joined the military at 18. Wish i would have started earlier on really learning about stocks, etc.. that didn't start until around 30.

Raised lower middle class. Never went without as a kid. My parents sacrificed their needs to provide me and my siblings with everything we ever wanted. Looking back it’s astonishing what they were able to provide us. I was always a pretty bright kid and my parents pushed me to make a good living. I was the first person in my family to go college.

After I graduated I was making too much money to know what to do with so I literally started watching CNBC all day on my off days and just accrued over time financial acumen. Can’t thank my parents enough.

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What was the fundamental reason you ended up being interested in finance? What brings you to Money Talk?

I grew up in an upper middle class household. My parents made good money. But they were really cheap. We never had cable TV (just the 6 channels bunny ears got us), we always had stripped down cloth Hondas, if we got food out it was like Little Caesar's because their pizzas were $5 and under. When we went camping with friends we were on the ground in a tent while they were in campers, etc etc.

They were also really into investing. Mainly in index funds. So I saw them save a lot of money by being cheap and invest it in index funds. Worked out very well for them.

It definitely rubbed off on me. I'm cheap and don't really need much to live/entertain myself. I put most of my income into index funds hoping to retire early someday.

Just curious what shaped everyone's interest in finance.

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Father is/was a Finance guy. From day 1 personal responsibility, humility, and saving first were taught. Pay off your house, credit cards are for emergencies only, keep out of debt. Find a good honest women who is not into material.

I wouldnt call them cheap but my father/mother certainly are frugal. Father has multiple pensions now exceeding $143K before any passive income, SS @ 61 years old, with zero debt and he still cuts grass in this heat to use the cash to pay for him and mom to go out to eat etc. He also always uses the points systems if hotels, airlines, etc have them.

The biggest piece of advice was to marry the right women who has the same set of values. All of this can be lost with choosing the wrong women. This was beaten into my head.