Your relationship with money could be due to your upbringing

PERSONAL FINANCE


By Sylvia Juuko

How do you handle discussions related to money matters in your household? Do you even or is it a taboo for you to talk about money?

Looking back at your childhood, some of your current money habits could be shaped by your upbringing. Some of these habits boost our financial well-being and should be consolidated.

However, if these habits are responsible for your poor financial status, it is time to shake them off.

While we may not care to admit, family background could have inevitably shaped the way we think about money. This is augmented by your experiences and lessons later on in life.

If you have the opportunity to reshape your attitude and adopt new money habits, it is advisable to seize the opportunity.

Many of us have realised by now that if we were exposed to financial knowledge before getting our first jobs, we would be wealthy.

Tracing the experiences of our upbringing may help in helping us appreciate why we hold particular views about money. For example, you may have grown up in an environment of plenty.

If your family has generational wealth, how has this shaped your views about money?

Do you spend money indiscriminately because you are assured that you can always get bailed out by family?

On the other hand, if you grew up in a situation where financial pressure was the order of the day, this could be responsible for your scarcity mentality unless you were lucky to have money-savvy parents who taught you about saving and investment at a tender age.

This does not mean, however, that those struggling financially cannot change their financial circumstances. There is anecdotal evidence that this background has shaped some of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time.

Similarly, there are a number of people from privileged backgrounds, who have struck out on their own and built wealth.

However, there are cases where a privileged background fostered a sense of entitlement that has become a stumbling block towards efforts to manage money prudently.

Problems arise if you lack the income to match the kind of luxury you are used to. To make matters worse, if you start earning income, you will probably desire to be highly paid without any change in your work ethic. Unless you deliberately make an effort to change this attitude, your approach to compensation for your labour will be driven by a sense of entitlement.

It is possible to create new habits and change your attitude about money in order to accumulate wealth. Managing money is a skill that we need to pay attention to and learn, irrespective of our background.


The writer works with Bank of Uganda
personalfinance222@gmail.com