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HOW MANY OF OUR adult financial habits are shaped by childhood experiences? My parents, who grew up during the Great Depression, weren’t fans of providing allowances for my sisters and me. My oldest sister, Gail, got no pocket money but remembers being offered a quarter to fill a grocery bag with dandelions pulled from the yard. Lynn, 10 years older than me, received a quarter a week for a short period.
My first allowance was also a quarter a week, which I started receiving around age 10. That may not sound like much, but I felt fortunate. At the right store—Grants—I could buy three full-size candy bars for that quarter. Baseball cards, my other big extravagance, were a dime a pack.
It seemed that all my friends had more money than me. One friend’s dad gave him $5 a month, paid out all at once. I suspect it was doled out that way in an attempt to teach him to budget his allowance for the whole month. The lesson was lost on my friend. Shortly after receiving his monthly $5, he tended to blow the entire wad on candy, soda, baseball cards, comic books and whatever else caught his fancy. It was fun to hang out with him right after he got paid.
Some of my friends had newspaper routes. These guys were flush with cash. They could afford many more packs of baseball cards than me. Since I couldn’t buy my way to a superior baseball card collection, I had to learn to be a shrewd trader. If I came into possession of a card coveted by one of my richer friends, I’d negotiate getting a large number of their unwanted duplicate cards in return. Then I’d use one or more of those duplicates to execute a similar trade with a different friend who also held excess cards. In this way, I built up my card collection on a tight budget.
Perceiving myself as impoverished compared to my peers, I was always on the lookout for extra money. My parents chuckled as I checked every public phone booth we passed, looking for forgotten change. Every now and then, I had the last laugh when I found a dime or two.
One early financial event sticks out. I accompanied my father to his business after hours. While he was doing work in his office, I looked in all the trash cans to see what I could find. I could hardly believe it when I found a crumpled $1 bill in one of the cans. My dad laughed and let me keep it. A month’s pay for so little effort.
Inflation in the 1970s hit hard, and eventually I negotiated a raise to $1 a week. I still had to be careful with my money. There were now more things than baseball cards and candy bars to buy. I loved going to the nearby mall in Moorestown, New Jersey. For music, I frequented the discount bins at Sears. They often contained record albums for 99 cents each, 75% or more off the original list price. At Woolworths, discounted 45 RPM records could be had for a quarter, and there were some great deals to be had on bulk candy. I also had my hobbies of collecting coins and postage stamps to fund. The mall had the Koin Korner to satisfy those needs.
As I entered my teen years, I told my parents I wanted a paper route to make more money. My mother was not in favor and, as a compromise, my allowance was raised for the last time, to $3 a week. In return, I had to mow the lawn and take out the trash.
My allowance ended when I got my first paying job, right after I turned 16. I was hired by the Moorestown Public Library for the princely sum of $2.25 an hour. This was below minimum wage—the library had an exemption—but I didn’t mind. I liked the feeling of having a real job and gaining access to the “employees only” areas of the library. I was in charge of the massive magazine room, and I got positive feedback from my supervisor.
I worked there after school and every other Saturday for a year and a half. My parents had explained that I’d be responsible for buying all my textbooks and funding incidental expenses while in college. That meant I needed to earn and save money. My modest passbook savings account began to grow.
What were the effects of my early experiences with money? Not having it in abundance as a youngster most likely made me view the value of a dollar differently from my more cash-flush and spendthrift peers. Whereas a dime may have meant little to a kid who was raking in $10 or $15 a week from a paper route, it remained a significant sum for me.
The habit of spending with care got ingrained in me early on. As an adult, I’m fairly certain I get more satisfaction from finding a good deal than the average person. On the downside, I often feel uncomfortable making large but necessary purchases, though my older self is getting better about that.
This year, we had to replace both our roof and a vehicle. To my surprise, I wasn’t stressed about these large expenditures. In both cases, I didn’t agonize over whether I was getting the best possible price or picking the right option. I didn’t even feel the need to create a new spreadsheet. That’s progress.
I learned as a teenager that I needed to save money to achieve longer-term goals. That continued to be the case throughout my working life. The goals changed from buying college textbooks to things like purchasing a car, buying a house, funding retirement and paying for my children’s education.
My parents weren’t poor, and they could have easily afforded to give me an allowance commensurate with those of my peers. They also could have paid for my college textbooks and given me spending money for college. But by not doing so, they taught me thrift. That lesson has lasted a lifetime.
Ken Cutler lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and has worked as an electrical engineer in the nuclear power industry for more than 38 years. There, he has become an informal financial advisor for many of his coworkers. Ken is involved in his church, enjoys traveling and hiking with his wife Lisa, is a shortwave radio hobbyist, and has a soft spot for cats and dogs. Check out Ken’s earlier articles.
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Ken, my parents were WWII generation probably like yours. My paternal grandfather had a dry goods store in a small Michigan town that survived the depression and he ran it until his death in 1953 when he was 82 years old. He never paid my father when he worked in the store, so my father didn’t work for him much at all, and certainly not after high school. After learning the mortician trade, WWII came along and changed my Dad’s life forever. We never received an allowance, and my four children never received an allowance because they never made sense to my wife and I. My kids, thankfully, are all financially sound and at times, quite thrifty. I’m the youngest of 6, and the expectation always was, especially after age 15, that we were to pay for whatever we could ourselves. Getting a job was a badge of honor. My parents were generous in their own way, however. They never bought us a car, but there was always a car in the driveway we could use. All in all, I was fortunate. Good parenting involves, I believe, helping your kids learn to help themselves with necessity being a great motivator.
You were rich. In the early ’80s, I received a dollar a month. A dollar! A month! (I’m leaving out my first allowance, a quarter per month, since that might as well have been zero.) My buck afforded me about a pack of baseball cards a week. I felt I had won the lottery one day when I was strolling in the breezeway of the plaza and suddenly realized today I could afford TWO packs of cards. Later, I collected aluminum cans (about a penny per can if the scrap price was right) and Coke bottles (a dime per bottle). I then began babysitting and working “real” teen jobs. Like you, my money habits were shaped by these early experiences. Years later, I wondered if we were spoiling our child by giving her $5 per week (later $10). I didn’t think so. I thought whatever you got, you just needed something to live within, whether that be a dollar a week or five.
I never received an allowance either. A roof, 3hots, and a cot. Of course my father was militarialy raised.
I’m glad. You want money, earn it.
So, I had 8, some times 9 lawn maintenance obligations, using family tools. I’m glad.
Then McDonald’s came to town hiring everyone and any one. I had 2 jobs and school in HS and past paying for everything, except 3hots and a cot.
That additionally incentivized my staying in school after HS, a roof, 3hots and a cot, was till I finished school. Or went in the service.
BTW. Everyone recalling the 5 & 10, Woolworths. They went under and Walmart purchased 800 of their stores, according to a cursory read of the wiki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._W._Woolworth_Company
Interesting because even though we grew up in the same house, with the same rules, my money habits are similar to yours while my brother’s are like those of the friends you describe.
I have a similar experience. 2 of my 3 kids are very responsible (including with money), while the 3rd is a spendthrift and completely unreliable. You wouldn’t think they were raised in the same household. I’ve seen many examples in other families as well. I think environment is only part of the answer.
Studies of identical twins reared apart have found that the personality trait of conscientiousness is about 45% genetic and 55% environmental.
You’re getting a lot of press these days, Ken. In this case you might have been writing my biography.
I never received an allowance, but always managed to earn money, my favorite collecting deposit soda bottles. My first real job at 16 was working in the city library- in East Orange NJ – at $0.75 and hour finishing up at $1.25 which was only $0.24 less than my first job at our local utility.
Our four children too worked each summer in college to pay for books and incidentals.
Maybe people working for utilities get used to limited and fixed profit margins. 😎
My family was also pretty thrifty, although not as cheap as Mr Cutler’s. My paper route and part-time job gave me access to decent money, and I had $2000 saved by the time I went off to college in 1971.
My brother took a different approach. If you are going to make good money while you are a teen, you need to have your own business. His lawn-mowing gig was rather like a real business – he owned the lawnmowers and other equipment, did a very high-quality job, and told the customers the price. He was not the lowest bidder, quite the contrary, but many customers liked high-quality work and not having to supply the equipment.
Many teens look at a job as a favor – I’ll give you $5 to mow my lawn, I’ll give you $3 to babysit. My brother would say this is the price, if you don’t like it I’ve got many other customers who want to hire me. This is another important money lesson for teens – don’t sell yourself too cheaply.
Maybe I’m a bit sensitive about wording due to a previous article I wrote: https://humbledollar.com/2023/11/rules-to-spend-by/
I wouldn’t call my parents “cheap”. I hope I did not give the wrong impression. They were quite generous and on the whole, well-balanced financially.
I agree. I’ve let my grandson completely manage his car detailing business and I’m surprised at how many folks are willing to pay him what seems like a lot of money to me. We’re fortunate to live in a place with a significant population of folks with high end cars and the money to maintain them.Have I mentioned that he tries to maximize his profits by investing via his custodial account at Schwab? 😊
Ken, Indeed, a trip down memory lane! Woolworths holds a soft spot in my mind, where I would get a new pair of sneakers each year for school. I too held a paper route, especially difficult delivering the afternoon news in snowy Pennsylvania on a bicycle. Sounds like your parents brought you up well, with an understanding of the value of a dollar.
When I was age seven or eight, my entire shoe apparel consisted of a pair of sneakers that I’d wear every day and which my mother would replace whenever I ruined or outgrew them. I’ve realized that, at almost 61, I’ve reverted to childhood: I once again wear the same pair of sneakers every day, and that’s pretty much it when it comes to shoes, except for special occasions.
So much of your story reflects my own, Ken, including the first real job at the local library, though I don’t recall my hourly rate. Like me, you probably kept close track of your earnings. Somewhere I have a small spiral notebook listing all my babysitting earnings, prior to and during the library job. I recently enjoyed reviewing my spending during a wonderful summer visit to France with members of my high school French class. The trip was paid for partly by winning an essay contest and the rest by babysitting proceeds and a parental contribution. All college spending was carefully recorded. These days, like you, I’m much more free with my spending and don’t stress (much) about the occasional big ticket items. I think that a lifetime of careful tracking has allowed us to know when to cut back a little (home for lunch for a week or two after meeting friends three days in a row 😊😋), and when to splurge on something that might not be available in the future (last year’s Iceland trip). Thanks again, Ken.
Ken…your lessons of thrift are well noted but what captured my attention was your references to the Moorestown Library and Moorestown Mall. I used to visit the library when it was housed in the basement of the Moorestown Community Center building, prior to the current beautiful library, built in the late 70s – and later I took ballet classes in the community center building every Saturday afternoon.
your mention of Woolworths in the mall was also interesting. The variety of merchandise sold there was wonderful. They even sold pet birds.
Their closing was a sad day.
Thanks for a fun and uplifting article and all the fond memories they evoked.
What a small world! I recently enjoyed your article, Marjorie, about working in the same area of Manhattan where I spent two college summers working.
Thank you, Linda. I do remember your comments about working in Manhattan. Somehow, when we are young, everything takes on a more heightened sense of adventure and enjoyment.
Thanks Marjorie. I have early memories of going to the Community Center library to pick out books as a wee lad. The building I worked in, built in the 70s as you said, is no longer there. A new library was built close by. I haven’t been in that one. When I last visited “my” library about 10 years ago, I was amazed that the same handwritten ‘Positively No Entry’ sign was still taped up at the entrance to the magazine room with electric racks!
Your comment about Woolworths reminded me of Nanci Griffith’s intro to one of her songs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GK462XnRjQ
Wow, that’s an oldie but a goodie. Such a sweet voice.
Beautiful! Thanks for the link, Jonathan.
How appropriate Jonathan. Thank you.