got the saving message early, somehow

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I was listening to an audio recording of myself and my then 2 year (and 3 months) old son. He was playing with a cat stuffie toy. I asked him what he was doing.

He said, "Putting that penny in Cat, in Cat's pocket."

I asked, "What is Cat going to do with the penny?"

"Save it."

"Oh. Is that what you would do with a penny, too? Save it?"

"Yes."

"That's a good thing to do with a penny...."

So he's 35 now, and has always been sensible with money and a great saver.

[bjl584]

I suppose it starts at home for most people.
Insert, apple doesn't fall far from the tree, or whatever other analogy is appropriate.

I myself am an anomaly.
Neither of my parents were good with money when I was growing up.
It's hard to point to an exact moment when the saving and investing mindset hit me, but if I had to guess, it was probably when I entered the workforce as a teenager. I was just working part time, as I was still in school, but I was surrounded by a lot of full timers who were broke and always complaining about money. I realized then that I didn't want to end up like them.

[JoeP]

Inspiring! My kids are very good savers, to the point of being hesitant paying for big items via CC without having the payoff in cash. They have small car loans (to help with cash flow, build credit rating, learn responsibility) and when I ask how they're doing with them, I almost always get "Dad, I'm making the payments plus principal when I can. I'm not going to fall behind and have it repo'd!" Makes us proud. Having positive net worth at a young age is a rare thing.

[myrdale]

Something as simple as the grasshopper & the ant, or chicken little making bread goes a long way.

[crazyliblady]

I was listening to an audio recording of myself and my then 2 year (and 3 months) old son. He was playing with a cat stuffie toy. I asked him what he was doing.

He said, "Putting that penny in Cat, in Cat's pocket."

I asked, "What is Cat going to do with the penny?"

"Save it."

"Oh. Is that what you would do with a penny, too? Save it?"

"Yes."

"That's a good thing to do with a penny...."

So he's 35 now, and has always been sensible with money and a great saver.

I also started saving early, but I am not sure who the influence was. I did not always keep up with the habit, though. But when I started doing it regularly, I realized how it could actually change my life and so I just keep saving regularly and even saving leftover funds when I am able to do so. When I bought a used car in 2019 after saving for it for six years, I was very proud that I had zero car payment. I remember telling my mom about my purchase on the phone and she asked how much the payment is and I said zero. She could not comprehend how or why anyone would do that. smh

[Drake3287]

Agree that for many of us, being a saver all started by our parents years ago whether we know it or not. I'll take it a step further and say that my parents never had extra money and we lived a very frugal life style and never had "nicer" things or fancy vacations. Decades later and I'm financially much better off than my parents ever where but still find it hard to spend money on needless purchases even though I easy could. I'm guessing others also have this problem.