Four Important Family Financial Lessons

Learning from family examples might be one of the most educational tools we have in our lives. From the good and the bad to the ugly, family members can provide us with an interesting, informative, and at times, comical assortment of life lessons that often hit home harder than if they had happened to someone outside our personal circle. This isn't any less true when these life lessons apply to our personal finances.

Some of the most useful and pertinent financial lessons that I've learned have come from family. Whether these lessons are more effective (or hard hitting) because they are true, or because they happened to people I know, I'm not really sure; but either way, they've made a significant impact upon the way I look at and handle my personal finances.

Work First, Play Later

This piece of advice came from my grandfather, a hard working Methodist who lived through The Great Depression, played baseball for the University of Michigan and forged his own path in life, eventually becoming senior editor for The Saturday Evening Post Magazine.

I spent a lot of time with my grandparents growing up. My single parent mother was going to school to obtain her graduate, then doctorate degree, plus working, so after school and on many weekends, I would spend time at grandma and grandpa's.

Grandpa would work in his office writing until around noon, then usually go out and do some yard work or cut wood. Afternoons would then be spent with the family. He always got his work done first, then played later, certainly leading by example.

Location Can be More Important Than Money

My mother has been telling me for years that the place you live can be more important the amount of money you make or have. As I've grown older, and especially after I had a child and bought my first house, I've discovered that she was right.

Not only does the location in which you live often affect how happy you are due to the people that things that surround you, but it can save you a ton of money too. Lower taxes, lower overall cost of living, and the ability to offer cost-effective things to do close to where you reside can all be benefits of the place you choose to live. The proximity of people with whom you enjoy spending time can also make your life happier without costing you more money.

An Education is Important but Doesn't Necessarily Mean You'll Be Rich

When I was nearing graduation from high school, I visited a local Navy recruiting office. They were interested in my joining their "Nuclear Power Program" for submarines. I chose instead to pursue a college education.

I came from a well educated family and it was always just an expectation that I should go to college. Looking back on it now, I wonder if it indeed was the correct choice. Don't get me wrong, I like what I do, but a military role would certainly have served me well as far as pay, benefits, and an early retirement go. And while hindsight is 20/20, as I look at some of my family members who aren't as well educated as compared to those who are, if you're going by income, it seems that the undereducated exceed many of the overeducated. Of course I know that this may just depends upon luck of the draw, but it leaves me wondering, especially in this day and age of Internet degrees and prevalent online work, if a higher education means what it did just 10 or 20 years ago.

Generational Gap

Not all family lessons are good lessons. The generational gap between certain family members can at times skew perceptions and advice. What worked for parents 30 or 40 years ago, or grandparents 50 or 60 years ago, might hold little water in this modern age. Times change, technology changes, and the economy changes, and just because your parents were able to buy a house for one year's salary and spend the next 35 years there, doesn't mean that's what you should be doing.

For me, the generational gap means that I have to tread carefully when taking lessons from family members. There is often valuable information to be gleaned from their advice and stories, and the underlying moral of such stories might still ring true today; however, sometimes such information must be taken with a grain of salt, and what I pull from it must be molded and fit to my particular lifestyle and financial situation.

More From This Contributor:

Valuable Financial Lessons From Mom and Dad

What Financial Freedom Means to Me

How One Page Simplified My Financial Life

Disclaimer:

The author is not a licensed financial professional. The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. For financial advice, readers should consult a licensed financial advisor. Any action taken by the reader due to the information provided in this article is at the reader's discretion.