My dad is very good at finances. He saves well, he researches before making big purchases, and he understands credit. He did his best to teach what he knows to me by giving me experiences as a child and increasing my financial responsibility as I got older.
My parents didn't give me an allowance or pay me to do chores, so until I could work for other people, the spending/saving money I had was birthday money from relatives and the tooth fairy. They taught me about tithing with my birthday money by helping me give 10% of my birthday money to our Church. There were a couple of times where Michael and I begged them to pay us for doing chores. My dad gave in and created a chore chart. If we wanted to get paid, we had to keep track of it ourselves, Dad wasn't going to do it for us. Nothing cost very much, like unloading the dishwasher was $0.05. At the end of each month we would add up what we recorded and my dad would pay us. That slowly fizzled out because both of us were bad at recording when we did a chore.
My parents did eventually pay me to babysit Michael when I was about 9 or 10, and by 11 I was babysitting other neighborhood families. In between 11 and 16 years old I babysat for five families regularly. I also briefly had a pet sitting "business." I advertised my services in the neighborhood to feed people's pets and water their plants while they were on vacation. All of which my parents supported, as my dad also has his own business on the side of being a school teacher. My dad is a DJ for school dances, weddings, and private parties.
When I was a teenager the credit union my parents bank at created a "Be Money Smart" program for minors. We got a bank account - that our parents had access to - a check book, and a debit card. My parents helped Michael and I sign up for it so that we could get experience in personal banking. It was really helpful and is the basis for my financial learning.
The minute I turned 16 I started applying for jobs. The first job I got was at the Peaks Ice Arena in the concessions stand. I worked there for about 4 months. Then I worked at Mervyn's for about 2 years. Mervyn's went out of business while I was working there, and I spent four months looking for other jobs. I eventually got hired at JC Penny, and I graduated from high school while I was working there.
When I got my driver's license, my mom let me borrow her car for work, dance practice, and other activities. My dad decided that I could drive "for free" to work and dance practice, but anything else I had to pay for gas. My dad created a chart where we recorded when and where I drove the car other than work or dance practice. We added up my total once a month. My parents added me to their phone plan around the same time (this was the flip phone era); they covered the monthly payment, but anything extra like ring tones and games, I paid for.
Mervyn's employees automatically got accepted to have a Mervyn's credit card even if they were under 18 years old. My parents had been Mervyn's card holders for years, so they knew how it worked, and they encouraged me to get one of my own while I worked there so that I could learn how credit cards and credit worked. That was a good learning experience that prepared me to better handle and understand the major credit cards that Gerson and I currently use.
I took early morning seminary my junior year of high school, and after a week of driving me my dad decided I needed my own car. I don't know what my dad had planned up until that point, but I had always assumed that I would have to pay for my own car. After looking over what I made at Mervyn's, and the need to drive myself to school, practice, and work, my dad decided that he would make my car payment and pay for insurance, and I would pay for gas and maintenance. During my senior year my car had a huge maintenance problem, and I couldn't pay for it in one go. My dad loaned me the money like with the study abroad experienced, and set up a payment plan. Gerson and I had been married almost a year by the time I paid that loan off.
My freshman year at BYU my parents paid my tuition, and I believe I paid for my books and supplies. When I married Gerson, I became in charge of everything. I'm glad that they gave me the experiences that I had when I was younger to be prepared to live on my own and be in charge of my own finances. I'm grateful that my dad structured it so that I learned a little bit at a time, instead of throwing me to the sharks to learn on my own without help. The way he taught me about money throughout my life will be the inspiration for how I teach my own children.
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