Mother’s Day 2023: These personal finance lessons taught by your mom can take you a long way

Do not underestimate your money when she talks about money management. A mother’s work is never complete considering how she spends time taking care of the household finances while ensuring that enough money is left to be invested for the future.

Listen to her carefully and you will realize how small snippets about personal finance are best understood at home than reading volumes of books written on this subject.

Your mother is your best teacher, and undoubtedly, listening to her financial suggestions will do more good than taking paid online classes for this subject. There is no better influence than that of a mother, especially, when it comes to imparting financial lessons to her young ones.

On this Mother’s Day, let us retrace and reiterate all those life-changing financial lessons that we follow knowingly or unconsciously depending on how we look at them. Some of them include:

Focus on your finances first

Remember the age-old adage, “Never spend money before you earn”. This well-meant advice stemmed from what our grandmothers had taught our mothers and what our mothers taught us before we stepped out into the world to earn a living for ourselves. There are myriad ways in which mothers induce valuable financial lessons in the lives of their teenage sons and daughters. Remember when your mother might have rewarded you for cleaning the house or doing some household chores? Well, rewarding someone for work done well, whether in cash or kind, is deemed the best incentive. Give cash to your kids and then tell them what they can do to grow this money. Money grows money, which means that you must first earn money to save and invest it.

Mothers know best, which is why they start with these small learnings early on that have a major impact on your life later on. So, next time when you cringe away from making a large unwanted purchase, thank your mother in your heart for it is she who taught you the value of money for what it is and what it can do for you if preserved carefully.

Mothers know best, which is why they start with these small learnings early on that have a major impact on your life later on. So, next time when you cringe away from making a large unwanted purchase, thank your mother in your heart for it is she who taught you the value of money for what it is and what it can do for you if preserved carefully.

Save persistently

A little savings every day will save you a considerable sum in the long run. Mothers teach their children the value of being economical with their expenditures and saving for a rainy day. This value is passed down as an oral tradition from one generation to another. Regardless of how meager your earnings may be, mothers teach you how to save. A part of the money saved is then allocated to an emergency fund while the remaining amount is invested or spent.

The importance of having an emergency corpus in place can be best explained by a mother alone. Your mother alone will teach you the importance of saving adequate money for unforeseen financial requirements. Sooner or later, you will be grateful for this essential money lesson when an emergency arises such as paying toward medical or travel bills. Maintain an emergency fund account regardless of how little money you have left at the end of the day to help you get through unanticipated problems.

Chalk down your financial goals

Write down your financial goals so that the letters in graphite are imprinted on your mind as well. Your money has taught you the value of money since childhood but what use it of when you do not know why you are saving it every month? To know how much you must save, you must be first aware of why you are saving your money or the purpose for which you are allocating a part of your earnings to your savings account. Also, unless you know how much you must save, there is no way that you can decide where to invest or which investment options would help you meet your financial goals within the stipulated period.

Mothers realize the importance of teaching their kids the value of money at an early age. They realize how important it is for their wards to be aware of the value of money so that they can decide and set their financial goals, manage their savings, and prioritize long-term and short-term financial goals accordingly. Effective savings and investments are not possible without the right knowledge and understanding of financial goals.

Disregard debt

Maintaining a dozen credit cards may make you look cool but can be a devastating financial decision in the long run. You must never engage in credit unless you are financially disciplined. Those who discuss their finances with their mothers will know how they disregard debt as an unwanted liability.

Moms tell their wards to refrain from paying using credit cards each time and pay their bills before the due date. They absolutely prohibited us from spending more on the credit card than we had in our bank account at any given time. However, if you grew up with working and financially stable mothers, you may have noticed that they utilize credit cards to manage their costs properly and repay them on or before the due date every month. They are punctual and diligent in their credit card transactions, which is an incredible ability to master. In this manner, you can keep your credit score strong and get loans when you need them.

Don’t sign until you are sure

Remember the last time when you had hoped that your mother would sign your report card without noticing how many marks you got in each subject? And then came the thrash and the blows when she found out the red mark beneath the card. Well, this experience proves one thing for sure – that mothers do not leave anything to chance. Handling paperwork can be a strenuous affair though mothers know how to make it look easy by scanning documents or even your progress report cards before signing on the dotted line.

It is this lesson that many of us have learned but conveniently ignored while seeking loans or opting to put money in fixed deposits or any other investment option(s). Mothers instil diligence at an early age, which means telling us to take care of the nuances at every step. You may notice that as you grow older and follow your mother’s behavioural pattern, you manage your finances better, make payments on time, and avoid extra expenditures and hidden penalties.

Much before mutual fund companies screamed out, “Mutual funds are subject to market risks. Please read the offer document carefully before investing.” This implies that the finer the print, the greater the risk of signing the document without verifying the pros and cons of the investment(s) bought or loan(s) sought.

The smaller the fine print, the more significant the information.