My mother is a little weird. Most people find her hard to deal with, unsympathetic, and possibly neurotic. My father agrees.
If there is one thing she is good at, it is making money and saving money to make even more money. It is probably the only thing she understands.
In her own neurotic way, she taught me about savings. The experience is etched in my mind, because it was rather embarrasssing.
I was 10, and she took me to her bank and asked me find as many tossed away account balance receipts as possible from ATM garbage cans. Then, she asked me to tell her how much money other people have in their accounts. So, there I was, going through other people's trash, and being watched by others and possibly videotaped by security cameras.
The account balances were very low. A few people were in the negative, most had about $30-$300 in savings, and one person out of about 100 receipts had over $3,000 in savings.
Then, my mother talked to me about how most people lived from pay cheque to pay cheque, and I should not get into that habit.
Thinking back, I don't think the experiment reflected the truth 100%, as a low savings balance does not mean that someone is broke. He may have money in investments or other banks. Nevertheless, it was a good lesson for a 10 year old child.
