What money lessons did your mom teach you?
I can say that there were a ton of money lessons I learned from my mom. Although my mother wasn’t interested in opulence, she knew the value of knowledge to manage your money wisely. Knowingly or unknowingly, she taught me a lot about money that stuck with me throughout my life. Thanks to her, I know the value of money and how to multiply it.
Research has shown that we tend to adapt money-handling skills from our parents, from our mothers even more than from our fathers. This demonstrates the importance of having good money management skills as a parent. As a parent, you should ask yourself: What kind of financial example am I setting for my children? How financially prepared am I for bad times? Do I deal with my money problems wisely? How do my decisions affect my family? How can I set a better example for my kids, to teach them to be financially independent?
The money impact: mothers play a huge role in the family finances
In a family, the financial role of mothers is extremely important but is often overlooked. Mothers tend to think about money in the long term. Since the beginning, women have always played and are still playing a vital role in the family economy. This is because in most cases they are in charge of organizing the expenses of everyone in the house. Despite having such a large role in family economics, women are often hesitant in the professional financial world.
On the one hand, they are great at creating businesses. On the other, when it comes to investing, they acknowledge the shortcomings of the existing financial markets. However, they have a certain aversion to learning or questioning it, for the simple reason that they believe investment terminology is too difficult. 😊
Recognizing Our Money Patterns And How To Change Them
If we women keep on following this pattern of financial anxiety, our kids are going to get affected by it and in fact, adopt it as well.
- As mothers, women should reflect on how our financial decisions today are influenced by the role our fathers played. We should question this and correct what we believe should be adjusted. We should think long and hard about the legacy we are going to leave for our kids.
- Our aim should be to improve our financial literacy because children often follow their mothers’ example. We need to set an example that encourages our young people to learn about finances and find their way through the financial world.
- However, moms are not born knowing everything. Oftentimes, they find it difficult to cope with all their family responsibilities while managing and generating money. Moreover, the world is changing rapidly. What we learned from our mothers or grandmothers could be difficult to apply in today’s world.
For this reason, I have written this article specifically aimed at modern moms who can apply these money lessons in their lives.
In This Post
Take Control of Your Money And Expenses
One of the most important money lessons I learned from my mom was to take control of where my money goes.
- Taking control of your money and expenses can be a little hard, especially if you have kids. However, with practice, it becomes easy.
- A good budgeting tip is to make a list of all your monthly expenses. Allocate a set amount to each of your expenses every week or month. Do not exceed that amount unless absolutely necessary. To help you track your income and expenses. I’ve created a series of templates that will guide you in acquiring a new money habit.
- Most importantly, do not spend all your income. Always set aside some money, no matter how big or small, for emergencies, investments, and your children’s education fund.
Understand How the Financial System Works
Our schools and colleges do not teach and prepare us enough to tackle the financial world. So many of us have no fundamental knowledge of the financial system, and that is a serious problem in my eyes.
By not understanding how the financial system works, you are limiting yourself and your financial potential. You will be able to achieve a lot more in life if you know how money works. Which is why my mother always advised me to learn the ropes of the financial world.
Learn to Invest and Trade
I give a lot of importance to investing and trading your money. But why is that? I do that so that you won’t have to work for the rest of your life! If you are holding on to savings that your grandma once gave you, stop letting that money gather dust under your mattress and invest it. This is important so that your savings do not lose their value over time due to inflation. Investing your money in assets will allow you to generate returns without lifting a finger.
A good way to go about this is by researching and finding what method of investing and trading works best for you. Try to learn where your best bet would lie if the economy were to come crashing down tomorrow. In a world full of uncertainties, having financial knowledge and knowing how to apply it is a crucial skill.
Further reading: Online Trading As A Women – The Beginners Guide
Pay Yourself First
One of the key money lessons I learned from my mom was this: Pay yourself first! At least 10% of your income.
What this essentially means is that when you get your paycheck at the end of the month, the first thing you should do is put a set amount into your savings account before you do anything else with the money. After you have put that set amount in your savings, you can then go ahead and pay your bills and other mandatory expenses. In this way, rather than focusing on your immediate mandatory expenses, you prioritize the well-being of your future self by setting money aside for yourself first. To educate yourself further on this topic, read the article.
Further reading: 8 Money Blocks Women Can Overcome Today
Be a Part of the Money Decisions in the Household
When it comes to household financial decisions, you should participate as equally as your partner. You and your partner must be on the same page when it comes to money. This means that you both should have an equal voice in where the money goes and where it should be saved. In this case, communication is key.
You don’t need a partner to whom you give full control of your money and in the end, they take you down with them, or even worse, they leave you with nothing. Having an equal say in the financial matters of the house shows that your partner respects you. It also indicates that you both are going to make joint efforts to do what is best for the future.
Further reading: Money Management For Women: Grow Your Money
Prioritize Your Savings
A great money management tip that my mom taught me by example was to spend less than I earn. Overspending is one of the leading causes of debt, which causes a lot of instability in your life. If you don’t want to be one of those people who are still stuck in their 9-to-5 jobs at 60 years old, you need to save your hard-earned money and even better making it grow through investing. Your savings today will ensure a secure future tomorrow.
When I recommend that people prioritize their savings and cut back on expenses, they think I am asking them to stop enjoying their lives. That is not true. There are many areas in your life where you can cut back without making drastic lifestyle changes. You should still enjoy your life, but to an extent that serves your future self.
Further reading: 5 Easy Money-Saving Challenges That Really Work
Manage Your Own Money
My mother taught me a lot of financial lessons through practice. As a woman who took control of her own finances, she always advised me to manage my money by myself. She showed me that women, too, can handle their finances on their own.
There should never be a question of whether or not you can handle doing your own finances. No matter what comes your way, you learn from it and keep on managing your own money. You may make mistakes along the way, but that should not stop you from taking care of the ins and outs of your finances.
Money-Saving Challenge Templates
The Bottom Line
The most important women in our lives – our mothers – teach us many things. One of those things is money and finances. They influence us and our money habits from the get-go. A lot of what we do with our money as adults is learned behavior from our mothers and fathers. As children, we absorb lessons from our parents that we practice throughout life.
It is thanks to my mom and her commitment in teaching me to the best of her abilities that I have gained so much financial success and independence. Now, it is my turn to pass the money lessons I learned from my mom on to you after putting a modern twist on them.
If you enjoyed this article on The Best Influential Money Lessons From My Mom or have any questions for me, please feel free to leave them in the comment section below!
Recommended Resources: If you’re interested in learning more about online trading, check out my book “Trading for Success; 8 secrets why women are better forex traders” and take a deep dive into my blog.
And if you’re concerned about improving your finances, I have developed the best money tools based on my expertise and extensive experiences such as educational books on personal finance and trading basics, and a range of digital and audio products. All of these are to help you achieve towards getting you your desired outcome most efficiently and enjoyably, enhancing the learning process.
