Money troubles? Blame your childhood
Did your parents use cash for all of their purchases? Did they only ever carry credit cards? Did they entrust you with lunch money? If you got allowance, did your parents encourage you to save it? Spend it?
Now flash forward to present day.
Do you find yourself only using credit for certain purchases? Do you put money towards your savings account every month?
Smart Cookie Anglea gets the full scoop in her latest Globe and Mail column.
Whatever financial behaviors you have now are likely rooted in behaviors you developed as a child says financial psychologist Dr. Brad Klontz.
Dr. Klontz co-authored the book Mind over Money and says that our early childhood ideas about money subconsciously show up in our everyday money choices. According to Dr. Klontz we have to figure out the reasons for these self-destructive financial behaviors in order to take control of our money situation now.
But if these childhood choices subconsciously show up in our lives then how do we grasp what they are?
1. Try to think back to your first memories with money and think about what that taught you.
Maybe your parents would buy you something when you got sad so you developed a therapeutic shopping behavior. Or, perhaps, when your parents gave you allowance they also took you to the store to spend it and you felt like you must spend your money.
As silly as this may seem you will be surprised by how much you learn about yourself by investigating your childhood.
2. If you are having trouble pinning down behaviors from your childhood or you just want a better understanding of your money mentality you can take a quiz on Dr. Klontz’ website.
The quiz will help you understand your dominant money scripts and what behaviors have dominated your financial life
Obviously we learn our behaviors from some place but this is not to say that we can blame all of our money habits on our parents or our grandparents. It’s important to see that we have these behaviors rooted in our minds that we need to work toward understanding and, in some cases, changing these habits.
Your Comments
I definitely became a spender as a result of my childhood! Both my Mom and Step-Mom would buy whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. When I got my first credit card I would do the same, I had no idea how long it would take to pay it back… I will definitely teach my children how to manage their money better!