Money Talk: Money lessons your parents failed to teach you

The only basic money lesson we learnt while growing up was about saving your money and the benefits of saving.

I am very sure while growing up most people did not have any idea of all the money and financial knowledge they have now. 

We never learnt these money lessons when we were young. We started learning more about finance when we started earning and trying to save money, looking for ways to make money.

The only basic money lesson we learnt while growing up was about saving your money and the benefits of saving.

These are money lessons we never knew while growing up

1. Budgeting

One money lesson most people never knew while growing up was budgeting. Money was spent on how you felt it was meant to be spent.

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A budget is meant to help you track your spending, giving you an idea where your income is coming in from and where it is going into.

It also curbs your excess spending and controls your expenses.

2. Setting financial goals

The only thing people knew back then was that they wanted to be rich and they thought this would be achieved just by getting a job and saving money.

 

But contrary to that opinion, earning an income and only saving is not enough to make you financially stable.

You need to set financial goals you plan to achieve in the future. You need to ask yourself where you see yourself financially in future.

This is why you need to set financial goals both short-term and long-term financial goals.

But make sure you set realistic financial goals that you will be able to achieve.

3. Investing

Investing is just making your money do all the work for you. You don’t have to wait till you are financially stable before you think about venturing into investment opportunities.

You can start early but you need to be clear of debt before going into an investment.  There are so many things you can invest in. The stock market, real estate, bonds, business ventures.

Though investing is a way of making more money, you need to do your research before venturing into an investment.

4. Emergency savings fund

We never had any idea what an emergency savings fund was. We only knew that it was important to have a place to put our savings.

 

But there is a difference between having savings and having an emergency savings fund.

Imagine if you had an unexpected situation you never planned for and you had to take out of your savings which is meant for a totally different project.

That unexpected situation has disrupted your savings and you have to start saving again.

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If you had an emergency savings fund, it would have sorted that unexpected occurrence and your savings would still be intact.

So it is important to have an emergency savings fund for unexpected happenings.

5. Saving for retirement

One of the money lesson people had no idea about while growing was saving for retirement. A  time will come you'll stop earning salary due to old age.

This is the period you retire and stay at home.

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It is a bad financial move to start planning for retirement when you are close to old age. You should start planning for your retirement early in life, probably in your twenties.

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