I started reading books about financial life planning some years ago. Reading leaves me with fond memories. Memories impact the way I navigate life. Money memories are a vital part of our life memories. And memories of money from our childhood influence the way we take financial decisions as adults. This is natural.
Our experiences with money during our childhood will influence the decisions we make as adults. How this happens and how we can prevent it from hurting us is what I would like to talk about in this and the next blog. I hope you find them interesting.
To begin with, I would like to share a short except from ‘Seven Stages of Money Maturity’ – By George Kinder that I read recently. It succinctly explains how childhood affects the way you deal with money for the rest of your life. This is not something we usually consider. We don’t think our childhood may play such a big role on our road to attaining money maturity. In this excerpt, we see how it does. And how.
“The process of entrapment in beliefs begins early in childhood, when parents pass on their own often unstated attitudes about money. We seize upon these beliefs, sometimes burying them so deeply within our beings that we don’t even know they are there – yet they still influence every money decision we make”.
Think about it. The things you observed your parents were hesitant to buy when you were a child. You still may think twice about them. This is a throwback to a childhood memory. And things like this come up in a number of financial decisions you make as an adult.
“Innocence works upon our lives even when we are long past early childhood”. “Bringing beliefs like these into consciousness, long before tragedy strikes is the first step toward the freedom of money maturity”.
“Vigour centers on discovering purpose in life and putting one’s energy into accomplishing that purpose”.
“As soon as we become aware of money, we develop beliefs about it – beliefs we cling to, sometimes for the rest of our lives, often at the cost of our souls.
Innocence represents the beliefs, thoughts, stories, attitudes, and assumptions about money. We will hold on to no matter how clearly the world demonstrates their untruth and no matter how much harm they cause us and those around us”.
Your ability to recognise them and react prudently to these memories from childhood subconsciously and consciously push you to take certain financial decisions. You should be aware of this. You should consider its role in the decisions you make. And keep this in mind the next time you talk to your financial life advisor. Especially, what the last two paragraphs of this excerpt say may help you plan your financial life better. Muchbetter.
Reflect on this thought. In my next blog, I will go into greater detail on this phenomenon. I will also explore ways in which we can improve our ability to take prudent financial decisions after factoring in the ways in which childhood memories effect our plans as adults.