What’s your money story? How did you learn about money?
Did you parents have the same ideas and values around this topic or did they each have their own ideas? If they had different ideas, did they find compromise between their visions?
How about you? Do you know how you feel and deal with financial decisions? Do you consider yourself financially literate?
Think about what you value, what decisions and mistakes you’ve made around money, and what lessons you learned through words or action growing up. All of these are part of your money story—and understanding that story is important both for you, and in order for your children to have positive strategies around financial literacy.
Here are some more thought questions you can use to write your Money Story. Think about the questions and then free write for 20 minutes. See what comes up:
- Who taught you about money? Did you learn about money at home (either directly or through observation), at school, later in life?
- What values about money did you learn in your family of origin? Did you have an allowance? Were you required to work for your spending money? Were there values surrounding money, such as what it was for, or around philanthropy? Did money have any relationship to affection and love in your family?
- If you have a family of choice, how closely (or not) does your idea of money match that of your family of origin? How about the ideas of your partner/spouse? Do you share the same values about money? How do you teach your children about money? How do you model your ideas about money?
If you want ideas of how to help your children (or grandchildren, nieces or kids you mentor) grow their financial literacy, check out these two blog posts: How to Start Financial Literacy with Little Kids and Financial Literacy 101.
You can even rework your own family motto around money. Don’t have a family motto? Create yours now using my step-by-step guide.
Happy Writing.
Melanie