How to learn to manage our money at an early age?
· Career Daily News
A personal story from the author of the platform!
My name is Biser Kunev and I am the author of the platform for
personal, corporate, and employer branding https://careerdailynews.com/
I decided to tell you a personal story from which everyone could
learn lessons, educating their children about money management and saving.
Of course, with the caveat that this is about the distant year 1991, when
many things in the world were different, and the times in my native Bulgaria were turbulent, with a breath
of change in everything one could think of.
In the summer of that year, I went with my parents
to the sea, to a military hotel base, my late father was a colonel, a senior
instructor at the Military Academy, an artilleryman. My mother (currently a pensioner and a happy
grandmother of 3 grandchildren) was a chief accountant for most of her professional
career. My brother, Stefan Kunev, who is 6 years older than me, was naturally
with a youth group at another seaside resort (he currently works as a host of “12+3”
on BNR).
After this introduction, I continue with the story itself. When
we were already there, my father surprised me and decided to give me a certain amount of money with
the words “Biser, this is your first lesson in money management. We will be here for 14
days. I want to see with your mother how you will allocate the money so that it lasts for
the period, considering that you will choose what three-course menu to
order daily (there were prices with several options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and it
was planned day by day). But, with this amount, you need to have money for purchases on the beach,
for the evening walk, and if something unforeseen comes up as an expense.”
I was genuinely happy to receive such trust, for
which I thanked and got to work on my plans. The first thing I did was to divide
the money into 3 equal parts and put them in different places to avoid
any possibility of “secret tracking”.
After that, I divided the amount in my head by 14 (the number
of days the vacation was planned for), to know how much I had available per day. This was followed
by daily planning, where I started to think about which days to save something, as
well as which days to spend a little more, without violating the overall strategy and available final
amount. The whole process was observed by my parents with measured curiosity,
without unnecessary questions, hints, and temporary checks of the current balance. For me, everything
that happened was a real pleasure and everything went naturally and in my
head, without any tension, with a smile and undisguised satisfaction.
The result at the end of the vacation was…saved money, which
I returned to my father, looking back, I had obviously managed to allocate them in such a way
that we lacked nothing.
What conclusions can I draw to this day:
- The personal example of the family is fundamental to everything
that happens in the minds of children.
- We need to give our children more trust, even from earlier ages. Today's children are much more awake, smart, and adaptable to the surrounding reality.
- Habits are formed from an early age and they are decisive for what happens later in time.
- Money should not be on a pedestal and should not be
an end in itself. They should be earned and spent wisely, and beyond our obligations, they should bring pleasure and pleasant
experiences with loved ones and friends.
- Money should be our reward for a job well done and should motivate us for the next time to achieve even better and
higher quality results.
- Whatever happens, we should be responsible, honest, and consistent…both to ourselves and to others.