If you grew up poor, what are some financial things you wished you had learned earlier?

[Anonymous]

If you grew up poor, what are some financial things you wished you had learned earlier? Any bit of knowledge or financial wisdom that became clear to you as you climbed the ladder that you wished you had known? Beliefs that were wrong and you realized them only later?

[Anonymous]

When I was 22, my boyfriend taught me how to create a budget. No one had ever taught me how to do that before. When I asked my mom about it later in adulthood, she said that our budget was really stressful for her because there was never enough money for everything that we needed in a given month, and she was sad and embarrassed about that and didn't want to have to explain to me how poor we actually were. As an adult, I have a great budget that allows for a lot of flexibility where needed, and I have been proactively teaching my kids how to create a budget and work toward a financial goal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you grew up poor, what are some financial things you wished you had learned earlier? Any bit of knowledge or financial wisdom that became clear to you as you climbed the ladder that you wished you had known? Beliefs that were wrong and you realized them only later?

When you grow up without a lot of money, you don't understand that it takes money to make money. You have to delay gratification to make your life stable in the long term. That might mean investing in a college education through loans rather than working. Or if you have a sudden windfall of $500, you save it for an emergency, put it in a 401(k), or create a college savings account rather than thinking you have $500 to spend on something fun. Poor people think that rich people have a high salary. Most "rich" people have investment income in addition to a salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you grew up poor, what are some financial things you wished you had learned earlier? Any bit of knowledge or financial wisdom that became clear to you as you climbed the ladder that you wished you had known? Beliefs that were wrong and you realized them only later?

When you grow up without a lot of money, you don't understand that it takes money to make money. You have to delay gratification to make your life stable in the long term. That might mean investing in a college education through loans rather than working. Or if you have a sudden windfall of $500, you save it for an emergency, put it in a 401(k), or create a college savings account rather than thinking you have $500 to spend on something fun. Poor people think that rich people have a high salary. Most "rich" people have investment income in addition to a salary.

The flip side of this is that delayed gratification is harder when you're poor. You get a little money in emergency savings, and your cheap-ass car breaks down or your cheap phone breaks and it's your only way to access the internet (which you need for lots of reasons), or someone gets sick or a family member has an emergency, and there goes your savings. And it's hard not to have any "fun." We expect a level of self-denial from poor people that we don't expect of other people.

And "it takes money to make money" is why it's hard to get out of poverty. You have to deprive yourself of something (which means things like food or heat) to build up any kind of savings or cushion.

[Anonymous]

Starting an IRA and investing the earnings as soon as possible into index funds. I could have started at 15 with my first job, while I was living with my parents. But the subject never even came up in our house.

[Anonymous]

What to do with savings besides putting them in a CD. I also wish I'd learned about risk tolerance, and different approaches to that. I did know to save enough for retirement get my employer match, and then to max retirement savings after that, but other savings sat in my bank account and later a CD for years because 1) I didn't now there were other options, and 2) even when I learned about other options I was so afraid that I'd loose everything even in index funds. Enough catastrophic life circumstances will teach fear like that.

[Anonymous]

I never knew about all of the tax different accounts existed let alone what each one did and how to use them- IRA, 401k, HSA, FSA, 529....

[Anonymous]

tax efficient

[Anonymous]

I wish I had understood more that it’s easier to earn money via investments when you already have lots of money to begin with. I would have gone easier on myself.

[Anonymous]

how gullible people are and willing to give you money for doing nothing. If I started at pan handling at age 10 vs 15 I would have made so much more.

But good investing and learning to gamble early paid great dividends. When you get $100 in an hour and go to the backdoor casinos and double or triple your money in minutes life is good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What to do with savings besides putting them in a CD. I also wish I'd learned about risk tolerance, and different approaches to that. I did know to save enough for retirement get my employer match, and then to max retirement savings after that, but other savings sat in my bank account and later a CD for years because 1) I didn't now there were other options, and 2) even when I learned about other options I was so afraid that I'd loose everything even in index funds. Enough catastrophic life circumstances will teach fear like that.

This is literally me right now. What do I do with the money if I move it from savings?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What to do with savings besides putting them in a CD. I also wish I'd learned about risk tolerance, and different approaches to that. I did know to save enough for retirement get my employer match, and then to max retirement savings after that, but other savings sat in my bank account and later a CD for years because 1) I didn't now there were other options, and 2) even when I learned about other options I was so afraid that I'd loose everything even in index funds. Enough catastrophic life circumstances will teach fear like that.

This is literally me right now. What do I do with the money if I move it from savings?

Exactly. Me too! Me and a lot of first generation kids from foreign parents didn't learn Squat about investing or saving or budgets. Our parents who barely spoke English didn't know about it too. This post should be titled..

If you grew up poor OR a kid of an immigrant

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What to do with savings besides putting them in a CD. I also wish I'd learned about risk tolerance, and different approaches to that. I did know to save enough for retirement get my employer match, and then to max retirement savings after that, but other savings sat in my bank account and later a CD for years because 1) I didn't now there were other options, and 2) even when I learned about other options I was so afraid that I'd loose everything even in index funds. Enough catastrophic life circumstances will teach fear like that.

This is literally me right now. What do I do with the money if I move it from savings?

Exactly. Me too! Me and a lot of first generation kids from foreign parents didn't learn Squat about investing or saving or budgets. Our parents who barely spoke English didn't know about it too. This post should be titled..

If you grew up poor OR a kid of an immigrant

Kid of an immigrant here. My parents used to have the radio on all the time, and on the weekends there was a financial guy on named Bob Brinker. I honestly learned a lot about investing from hearing his show in the background. Media is so personalized these days, and shows like his are gone. Kids don’t really have an opportunity to hear that sort of thing on the radio or read a newspaper. The incidental learning that used to happen isn’t common anymore.

[Anonymous]

For those in search of advice, try the bogleheads forum. Their advice is tried and true. They are very generous there, and I have received an answer to every question I have asked.

[Anonymous]

Time in the market outperforms timing the market.

The sooner you can get funds in the market and make it a regular habit, the more you will have.

It's so simple but even still I find myself saying "Oh this market is overheated, I should wait until the next pull back to toss in some more money." Well, that was when the DOW was at 27K and now look at it.