3 Incredibly Useful Money Tips I Learned From My Mom

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Leave it to parents to impart great financial wisdom. Read on for some tips my mom was kind enough to share when I was growing up. [[{“value”:”

It’s been many years since I’ve lived in the same house as my mom. But we talk multiple times a week, and during those conversations, she’s often eager to impart advice.

Often, that advice is of the parenting variety. Some of those tips are more well-received than others. But one type of advice that has definitely been well-received on my part is the financial advice my mom was kind enough to share with me when I was younger. Here are three incredibly helpful tips that have guided me as an adult.

1. Always have emergency savings

Last year, SecureSave found that 63% of Americans could not cover an unplanned $500 expense simply by tapping their savings. And that’s kind of frightening.

One thing I’m grateful my mom taught me was to always have money in the bank. And I actually built an emergency fund in my 20s that wound up coming in handy on multiple occasions for the following decade and beyond.

When I got into a minor accident that totaled my way-too-cheap car, I was able to dip into my savings account to help buy a new one. And I’ve used my emergency fund numerous times since buying my house, to fix the myriad things that have gone wrong.

So I’m glad my mom hounded me to put my babysitting money into the bank when I was a teen. That was technically the starting point for my emergency fund, even though I didn’t really make a ton of progress toward building it until I began collecting a regular paycheck.

2. Never let credit card companies make money off of you

I grew up watching my mom use a credit card at stores, and she explained to me at a fairly young age how they work. My mom also helped me apply for my first credit card when I went off to college.

But I’m really glad my mom explained back then to never charge more on my credit card than I could afford to pay off at the end of my billing cycle. Back then, my wages were truly minimal, as I only had income from a part-time job I did along with my studies. But I’m thankful I took that advice, because had I allowed a balance to accrue on my credit card, it no doubt would’ve taken me ages to pay it off.

Of course, I’ve upheld that rule since. And I’m happy to report that although I’ve held credit cards in my name for more than 20 years, not once have I allowed a credit card company to take away some of my money in interest form.

3. Spend more for a higher quality of certain items

There wasn’t a lot of money in my household growing up, so my parents taught my siblings and me how to be frugal. But my mom always emphasized the fact that certain things in life are worth spending on.

While we wore a lot of hand-me-down clothes and little-known brands, one thing my mom usually invested in was warm coats. To this day, I’m still willing to spend a little extra on my kids’ coats, even though I’m someone who’s very frugal about buying children’s clothing. I’ll also pay extra for quality footwear, because good running shoes can spell the difference between tired, injured feet and healthy ones.

Food is another area where I’m willing to stretch my budget a bit. It would be cheaper to buy my kids extra chips to snack on instead of fruits and vegetables. And to be clear, they certainly consume their fair share of chips. But I make a point to prioritize fresh produce because it’s important to me that my kids attempt a balanced diet (or as balanced as you can get when half of what they consume is instant mac and cheese).

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not always someone who listens to my mom — that wasn’t me as a kid, and I tend to be pretty opinionated as an adult. But these are three lessons I’ve definitely kept in mind through the years, and I’m grateful for the positive impact they’ve had on my finances.

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