Learning to spend young and how it affects who I am today

I started living with my grandparents in the fifth grade. My family wasn’t very stable so I thought that would be the best thing for me. When I still lived with my mom, she would receive my child support checks from my dad. She didn’t necessarily use the money to support me with it to the full extent that she needed too. So after living with my grandparents for a while they began to receive my child support checks. They would let me have the money for things I wanted and needed. Some toiletries and extra food I may have wanted in the house. They would not make me buy everything I needed but for example I would buy my own things that I preferred a certain kind of such as deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste but not toilet paper, cotton balls, and Q-tips. They wanted me to start learning to buy my own things and care for myself. It is good to teach someone that young because it has a great affect in the future.

It was nice being able to have my own spending money. My child support was my only source of income at that age. Most people at the age of 12 and 13 didn’t have a source of money. Just money their parents would give them such as allowance. My friends were a little bit jealous of me because their child support wouldn’t get given to them directly.

Having this money at this age started to teach me a lot about handling and saving money. My grandparents were always very strict with me when it came to anything. That helped me become the responsible, successful person that I am today. They obviously wanted to have me learn young about the responsibilities with getting older. That really does reflect who I am today. I believe it is a great life lesson experience learned in my past.

Years and years went by and I would start paying for more and more things. I started to pay my own cell phone bill, buy people Christmas presents even my own laundry soap. My grandparents didn’t always like me using up their stuff. I went through high school buying all my own clothes, presents extra food, etc. I also had to try and pay for school things I may have needed/wanted, such as dance, sports, ASB.

When I was 16, almost 17 I got my first job, it was at a restaurant. That started to become my main source of income. My mom moved in with us for a couple years and messed up my child support. So I was no longer receiving that before I turned 18. That first job of mine only lasted a couple months then I had the summer off before I started a new job in September. I had some money saved from that job to go visit my dad over the summer in Eastern Washington. I then began my second job at Windermere Real Estate in September 2009. I became the weekend administrative assistant, and still work there to this day. My life really started to change, my weekends were then gone. This felt like more of a real job, also more of the right job for me. I enjoyed office work a lot. I started making good money for me at the time and had to really learn how to start budgeting myself on expenses for the month. I wouldn’t want to become broke. Family was real good at helping me achieve that goal. I would always try to put at least something into my savings account. It took some getting use too, getting paychecks, getting my first checking account, and doing direct deposit.

Living with my grandparents was tough but they were strict with me and really got me use to buying and paying for my own things. After graduation I got my license and my first car. I had saved up $1,000 for my car and my dad paid the other $2,000. This helped me make a big step in life. I needed to get around much easier and not have to rely on others for rides. It took a big burden off my shoulders. I was then on my grandparents car insurance policy and began paying for that myself. Since then I have been paying my cell phone, car insurance to them. I also have lots of medical and dental bills and try to help with paying those. I am still under their medical and dental and I am very grateful for that. Right now I am making payments to my dentist to help pay of a big dental bill. I wasn’t going to let my grandparents pay for that. I decided to take this on myself and set up a payment plan with them. This shows an effect on how my grandparent taught me to handle money and pay for things myself.

Since I started buying my own things I have always had an interest in it. I enjoy shopping for things I need and want. I always thought it was strange that after my boyfriend graduated his mom still bought him so many things, a lot of things in which I had been buying myself for many years. We come from very different lifestyles.

In high school and college I have also taking personal finance classes that have helped me become successful for money. I also plan to own my own business someday and learn in school and from my godfather as my role model. I enjoy learning how to budget, and learning new things in general about spending wisely. Spending young on things I need really effects how I am in the future and that is the point I am trying to get across.

I now recently moved out with my boyfriend. We split the cost of everything, and our slowly easing our way to fully growing up. It’s better to move slow then jump right into a bunch of bills and such. My grandparents have taught me so much with handling money. This all has been a huge life lesson educational experience for me.