What motivated you to save money?

[daleddm]

Witnessing grandmother who was influential to me in so many otherwise positive ways over the years, but who fell into terribly tough times when fully retired and living in Las Vegas. She did love the buzz of the city, having lived her adult life in a dirty steel mill town near Pittsburgh.

After interest rates plummeted in late 80's - 90's her PA teachers retirement no longer enough, she burned through the modest stocks and savings she'd accrued (gambling didn't help), and ended up with a similarly destitute gambling guy as a live-in "friend" who bled her of what little was left (probably a not atypical Las Vegas retiree story). I was there visiting not long before she died, only starting to realize just how dire it was - having to buy her a bag of decent groceries for the fridge, etc. Witnessing all that made the realities of poor planning for rainy days and retirement all too real.

I also remember eating canned fruit cocktail and hot dogs at the end of the month as kids, tho we never truly went hungry. I darn sure knew we weren't terribly well off growing up... but then neither were most of the neighbors. It just seemed normal. Loads of credit card debt to keep us kids in clothes a clear memory. Ugh.

[RJC]

I came from a 1st generation immigrant family. There was no other option than to work hard and save.

[Patzer]

I grew up poor and my parents constantly made bad financial decisions. A new credit card meant it was time to go shopping!
My parents were very hopeful that things would always just work out, but didn't really employ any effort to make things work out.

I made the same bad decisions and carried the same false hope until I was around 23 when I started to see it wasn't going to work out.
I quickly balanced my budget, but it took until I was 28 to get my net worth to a positive number.

Getting there gave me a lot of confidence that I could reach my goals by my own effort and without hoping for a magical scenario like winning the lotto or getting my dream job. The more I saved, and saw I was getting closer to my goals, the more I became motivated to save more.

I am 43 now and on track to be able to retire at 45.

[Wannaretireearly]

I grew up poor and my parents constantly made bad financial decisions. A new credit card meant it was time to go shopping!
My parents were very hopeful that things would always just work out, but didn't really employ any effort to make things work out.

I made the same bad decisions and carried the same false hope until I was around 23 when I started to see it wasn't going to work out.
I quickly balanced my budget, but it took until I was 28 to get my net worth to a positive number.

Getting there gave me a lot of confidence that I could reach my goals by my own effort and without hoping for a magical scenario like winning the lotto or getting my dream job. The more I saved, and saw I was getting closer to my goals, the more I became motivated to save more.

I am 43 now and on track to be able to retire at 45.

Great story. What a turnaround. Congrats, it’s hard when you don’t have good role models.

[steelhorse]

My Mom motivated me to save money. I was very little when she took my sister and I to Union Trust Bank and started a passbook saving account for each of us. A friend's father had an egg business. His kids all worked a few hours each week sizing the eggs and he paid them. I was about 10 helping my friend, his father paid me with a little manila envelope with a few coins and maybe a dollar or 2 sometimes. I was 12 the summer I started caddying and did that for about 4 summers. I made good money for a 12-year-old, lol.

[LikeNumbers]

Re: What motivated me to save money?
REsponse: Lack of money.
I as age 22, ok job, but was sick and tired of working hard and being broke.

I took a hard look at where I was spending money and realized I was blowing most of it on unnecessary stuff.
Biggest changes were: sold the new car, rented a less expensive apt., stopped going out to eat literally every day,
greatly cut back on ski weekends, stopped buying new snow skis and boots every season, et.al. Basically, I put an
end to all the partying and traded expensive ski trips for inexpensive backpacking.

At age 23, I met the nicest smartest woman imaginable, 40+ years later we are still saving together.

[brian91480]

It was brutal showing up in 10th grade at a school of a few thousand folks knowing no one. While I try not to dwell on it - I don’t think I would do that to my own kids. Glad you have powered thru it Brian.

Thanks for this comment. I can relate to your situation 100%.

I was bitter for a while at my parents for what they did to me. But as I got older, I realized the situation in its entirety:

My dad had a stressful job that was not secure. My mom was a stay-at-home mom. There were 5 kids to feed and provide shelter to. My dad was head-hunted for a great job with better pay and much more job security. So he took the golden opportunity.

He told me years later that he regrets having the family move in that difficult situation. But I told him that I would have done the same thing, if I had been in his situation. You do what you have to do... Just to survive.

When my mom met my dad in college, he didn't have 2 nickels to rub together. She taught him about saving and investing. Many years later, she taught me and my siblings the same thing.

My dad was able to retire at age 60 with a very comfortable lifestyle. My four other siblings are in good financial shape also.

So my mom is the MVP of our family's financial stability. She taught everyone well.

-- Brian

[yankees60]

It was brutal showing up in 10th grade at a school of a few thousand folks knowing no one. While I try not to dwell on it - I don’t think I would do that to my own kids. Glad you have powered thru it Brian.

Thanks for this comment. I can relate to your situation 100%.

I was bitter for a while at my parents for what they did to me. But as I got older, I realized the situation in its entirety:

My dad had a stressful job that was not secure. My mom was a stay-at-home mom. There were 5 kids to feed and provide shelter to. My dad was head-hunted for a great job with better pay and much more job security. So he took the golden opportunity.

He told me years later that he regrets having the family move in that difficult situation. But I told him that I would have done the same thing, if I had been in his situation. You do what you have to do... Just to survive.

When my mom met my dad in college, he didn't have 2 nickels to rub together. She taught him about saving and investing. Many years later, she taught me and my siblings the same thing.

My dad was able to retire at age 60 with a very comfortable lifestyle. My four other siblings are in good financial shape also.

So my mom is the MVP of our family's financial stability. She taught everyone well.

-- Brian

Thanks for updating us with all of this. I could just smile reading it all at how it all worked out for the better in the end.

[Parkinglotracer]

Thanks for this comment. I can relate to your situation 100%.

I was bitter for a while at my parents for what they did to me. But as I got older, I realized the situation in its entirety:

My dad had a stressful job that was not secure. My mom was a stay-at-home mom. There were 5 kids to feed and provide shelter to. My dad was head-hunted for a great job with better pay and much more job security. So he took the golden opportunity.

He told me years later that he regrets having the family move in that difficult situation. But I told him that I would have done the same thing, if I had been in his situation. You do what you have to do... Just to survive.

When my mom met my dad in college, he didn't have 2 nickels to rub together. She taught him about saving and investing. Many years later, she taught me and my siblings the same thing.

My dad was able to retire at age 60 with a very comfortable lifestyle. My four other siblings are in good financial shape also.

So my mom is the MVP of our family's financial stability. She taught everyone well.

-- Brian

Thanks for updating us with all of this. I could just smile reading it all at how it all worked out for the better in the end.

Excellent - thanks for sharing.

[Benjamin Buffett]

What motivated you to save money?

Freedom is my common theme.

When I was a kid in the 60’s, the youngest in a family of 6 kids, we had what we needed (dad had good gov job). But there was never any extra money around. As the youngest I fended for myself. When I could, I got a newspaper route and cut neighbors lawns as a 12-15 yr old and it was a sense of FREEDOM and pride to always have a few bucks in my pocket to go to concerts or to buy a nice pair of sneakers (green suede puma’s were the thing =$30). Of course mad magazine with Alfred e Neumann rebelling against society and the comic strip Richie Rich were part of my childhood heroes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktSWQ9Ki7TY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP4Cz_EA_ns


As I grew older in the 70’s, I could not imagine asking my dad for money. I got a job at age 15 in a grocery store and worked everyday to get the heck out of the house. My parents had moved to an over 55 retirement community in St Pete and money was FREEDOM to get out with other kids and girls. I went to every Florida concert from Jimmy Buffet to Steve Miller Band. It did not hurt my motivation that our grocery store manager hired many good looking girls from my high school to work around me too.

I was doing well in school and when it came to paying for college for 4 long years (what did you do with that $5 dollars I gave you last month? I could hear my dad saying in my sleep), I vowed I wasn’t going to ask him for squat. I attended a Service Academy (go Air Force) because it was free and I thought it was cool to fly one day. Of course Roger Ramjet was our hero echoed through my childhood - who doesn’t like a Roger?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlrs8nKCbEo

I was money motivated and thought having a military salaried job may be best for me so that I wasn’t trying to work 24/7 to be the rich guy. It was good to have a steady paycheck, little extra money for flying, enjoy life, a family, and the ability to save a few bucks. Focused on saving for my kids college, paying off our house, and saving for retirement.

At some point I read “Your Money or Your Life” which put some context and motivation on my idea that saving money was FREEDOM to do what I wanted with my life. That got me even more motivated to prepare for retirement. We lived beneath our means for a few decades but had all we needed.

Thanks to gov provided military retiree healthcare and a modest gov pension, we were able to take a few years off at age 50 and then finally retired at age 60.

Now at age 62 I am thankful my DW and I have two married kids in their 30’s and we have good health and an enough savings (as Jack would say) to enjoy retirement. Saving has given us the FREEDOM to do what we want (within limits).

That’s what motivated me to save and invest.

I grew up relatively poor, to a working class farming family.

My Motivations for Saving and Investing Were and Are:

Financial Stability: I wanted to buy a home so I would not have to rent. I wanted to be able to cover bills. I did not want to be desperate and or homeless.

Family: I had family members who were very ill, and were likely to need organ transplants and other intensive care later, which may not have been covered by their insurance. I had other family that were approaching the age where LTC was an issue and they might not have met their needs to cover their expenses. I needed to be financially responsible enough to pay for both my needs and their needs. If I have children I want them to have a support and advantages, I want to set them up to succeed.

Financial Freedom: If I ever made it past those hurdles I knew saving and investing my money would allow me to not work until I die. However people in my line of work have relatively short shelf lives, so I may not need to sustain a very long retirement. That being said its also very possible I will beat the average and then could outlive my retirement and small pension, and the last thing I want to do is have to return to working, taking a lower paying job stuck being a Walmart greeter in my final days.

Ability: If I have some excess money I have a greater ability to make a difference in the world. Poor people and the desperate rarely make a difference, because they lack the resources to do so.

[yankees60]

What motivated you to save money?

Freedom is my common theme.

When I was a kid in the 60’s, the youngest in a family of 6 kids, we had what we needed (dad had good gov job). But there was never any extra money around. As the youngest I fended for myself. When I could, I got a newspaper route and cut neighbors lawns as a 12-15 yr old and it was a sense of FREEDOM and pride to always have a few bucks in my pocket to go to concerts or to buy a nice pair of sneakers (green suede puma’s were the thing =$30). Of course mad magazine with Alfred e Neumann rebelling against society and the comic strip Richie Rich were part of my childhood heroes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktSWQ9Ki7TY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP4Cz_EA_ns


As I grew older in the 70’s, I could not imagine asking my dad for money. I got a job at age 15 in a grocery store and worked everyday to get the heck out of the house. My parents had moved to an over 55 retirement community in St Pete and money was FREEDOM to get out with other kids and girls. I went to every Florida concert from Jimmy Buffet to Steve Miller Band. It did not hurt my motivation that our grocery store manager hired many good looking girls from my high school to work around me too.

I was doing well in school and when it came to paying for college for 4 long years (what did you do with that $5 dollars I gave you last month? I could hear my dad saying in my sleep), I vowed I wasn’t going to ask him for squat. I attended a Service Academy (go Air Force) because it was free and I thought it was cool to fly one day. Of course Roger Ramjet was our hero echoed through my childhood - who doesn’t like a Roger?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlrs8nKCbEo

I was money motivated and thought having a military salaried job may be best for me so that I wasn’t trying to work 24/7 to be the rich guy. It was good to have a steady paycheck, little extra money for flying, enjoy life, a family, and the ability to save a few bucks. Focused on saving for my kids college, paying off our house, and saving for retirement.

At some point I read “Your Money or Your Life” which put some context and motivation on my idea that saving money was FREEDOM to do what I wanted with my life. That got me even more motivated to prepare for retirement. We lived beneath our means for a few decades but had all we needed.

Thanks to gov provided military retiree healthcare and a modest gov pension, we were able to take a few years off at age 50 and then finally retired at age 60.

Now at age 62 I am thankful my DW and I have two married kids in their 30’s and we have good health and an enough savings (as Jack would say) to enjoy retirement. Saving has given us the FREEDOM to do what we want (within limits).

That’s what motivated me to save and invest.

I grew up relatively poor, to a working class farming family.

My Motivations for Saving and Investing Were and Are:

Financial Stability: I wanted to buy a home so I would not have to rent. I wanted to be able to cover bills. I did not want to be desperate and or homeless.

Family: I had family members who were very ill, and were likely to need organ transplants and other intensive care later, which may not have been covered by their insurance. I had other family that were approaching the age where LTC was an issue and they might not have met their needs to cover their expenses. I needed to be financially responsible enough to pay for both my needs and their needs. If I have children I want them to have a support and advantages, I want to set them up to succeed.

Financial Freedom: If I ever made it past those hurdles I knew saving and investing my money would allow me to not work until I die. However people in my line of work have relatively short shelf lives, so I may not need to sustain a very long retirement. That being said its also very possible I will beat the average and then could outlive my retirement and small pension, and the last thing I want to do is have to return to working, taking a lower paying job stuck being a Walmart greeter in my final days.

Ability: If I have some excess money I have a greater ability to make a difference in the world. Poor people and the desperate rarely make a difference, because they lack the resources to do so.

You've come up with well defined / described reasons which should be read by many in hopes that they would be inspirational and motivational to them to similarly the saving money lifestyle.

Too many don't because they live in today while in almost all you wrote there was a future orientation with all that brings.

[InvestInLife]

Death.

[EnjoyIt]

I grew up poor and my parents constantly made bad financial decisions. A new credit card meant it was time to go shopping!
My parents were very hopeful that things would always just work out, but didn't really employ any effort to make things work out.

I made the same bad decisions and carried the same false hope until I was around 23 when I started to see it wasn't going to work out.
I quickly balanced my budget, but it took until I was 28 to get my net worth to a positive number.

Getting there gave me a lot of confidence that I could reach my goals by my own effort and without hoping for a magical scenario like winning the lotto or getting my dream job. The more I saved, and saw I was getting closer to my goals, the more I became motivated to save more.

I am 43 now and on track to be able to retire at 45.

Strong work!!!!

[cosmos]

Death.

How has the afterlife been?

[Jerrystretch]

The fear of homelessness and starvation

[au1985]

Fear, belief in the dignity of work, belief in the value and virtue of generational sacrifice, and the quest for freedom. Aggressively saving and investing is the best thing I ever did as it has help change the direction of our family tree.

I am the third generation of savers but the first generation just survived on saving. Second generation provided some level of insurance in case of challenging circumstances although second generation was poor (cry over the bills) to middle class until their late 40s.

Blessed to have an upbringing that believed in hard work, an awareness that things don't always come easy but there was dignity in the effort to make things better for the next generation, and a belief in investing in America. Semi-retired now and having more fun than I have had since college. I hope I can pass that value on to my daughters and their spouses.

[Sandtrap]

Fear, belief in the dignity of work, belief in the value and virtue of generational sacrifice, and the quest for freedom. Aggressively saving and investing is the best thing I ever did as it has help change the direction of our family tree.

I am the third generation of savers but the first generation just survived on saving. Second generation provided some level of insurance in case of challenging circumstances although second generation was poor (cry over the bills) to middle class until their late 40s.

Blessed to have an upbringing that believed in hard work, an awareness that things don't always come easy but there was dignity in the effort to make things better for the next generation, and a belief in investing in America. Semi-retired now and having more fun than I have had since college. I hope I can pass that value on to my daughters and their spouses.

Great points.
Well said.
Astute and poignant, from experience, hoped for by many, shared by some.

Happy Holidays to all generations. First or newly immigrated through present.
j

[Parkinglotracer]

I grew up relatively poor, to a working class farming family.

My Motivations for Saving and Investing Were and Are:

Financial Stability: I wanted to buy a home so I would not have to rent. I wanted to be able to cover bills. I did not want to be desperate and or homeless.

Family: I had family members who were very ill, and were likely to need organ transplants and other intensive care later, which may not have been covered by their insurance. I had other family that were approaching the age where LTC was an issue and they might not have met their needs to cover their expenses. I needed to be financially responsible enough to pay for both my needs and their needs. If I have children I want them to have a support and advantages, I want to set them up to succeed.

Financial Freedom: If I ever made it past those hurdles I knew saving and investing my money would allow me to not work until I die. However people in my line of work have relatively short shelf lives, so I may not need to sustain a very long retirement. That being said its also very possible I will beat the average and then could outlive my retirement and small pension, and the last thing I want to do is have to return to working, taking a lower paying job stuck being a Walmart greeter in my final days.

Ability: If I have some excess money I have a greater ability to make a difference in the world. Poor people and the desperate rarely make a difference, because they lack the resources to do so.

You've come up with well defined / described reasons which should be read by many in hopes that they would be inspirational and motivational to them to similarly the saving money lifestyle.

Too many don't because they live in today while in almost all you wrote there was a future orientation with all that brings.

Thanks!! Yes tough for many to delay that gratification.

[Wannaretireearly]

America in general puts the fear of god into me.
Never seems enough saved for all possible calamities unique to here. Kinda sad to think about, especially the older I get.

[balbrec2]

Not having any!

[jetpilot]

Blessed with the best parents ever, never wanted for a thing. As an only child I wanted to pay for my own university costs out of pride. I was always an independent cuss. I won a 4 year Air Force ROTC scholarship and never looked back. I flew for 42 years in both the USAF and at a major airline. I married the most wonderful girl in the world in 1976 and we both have the same view about money...we travel,save and give it away to St Jude's and the Shriner's. Her dad never made more than 10K a year in his life and my dad retired at 50 a multi millionaire. My grandfather was a share cropper from Oklahoma who moved to California, my dad never finished the 10th grade but he had great business sense. He taught me money only meant freedom of action and I wanted to do better than him...not because I envied him but because I loved and admired him. I retired at 65 with more than I can ever spend but St Jude's is going to do Ok some day...my wife and I want to save every child we can. Great life here, been blessed more than any human being deserves...I want to pay it forward for all those who came before...

[Parkinglotracer]

Blessed with the best parents ever, never wanted for a thing. As an only child I wanted to pay for my own university costs out of pride. I was always an independent cuss. I won a 4 year Air Force ROTC scholarship and never looked back. I flew for 42 years in both the USAF and at a major airline. I married the most wonderful girl in the world in 1976 and we both have the same view about money...we travel,save and give it away to St Jude's and the Shriner's. Her dad never made more than 10K a year in his life and my dad retired at 50 a multi millionaire. My grandfather was a share cropper from Oklahoma who moved to California, my dad never finished the 10th grade but he had great business sense. He taught me money only meant freedom of action and I wanted to do better than him...not because I envied him but because I loved and admired him. I retired at 65 with more than I can ever spend but St Jude's is going to do Ok some day...my wife and I want to save every child we can. Great life here, been blessed more than any human being deserves...I want to pay it forward for all those who came before...

Salute from a 22 year T-37/F-16 AF pilot (1983-2005). Thanks for your service and generosity. I was full time in ANG unit my last 8 years and all my buds fly for United, Delta, AA, FedEx, and UPS, etc.

What a great life you earned. Congrats jetpilot!

[wander]

I didn't think too much about motivation. It was just common sense for me. I could inherit from my parents.

[sschoe2]

Graduated with my MSc. in Chemistry and the poor job prospects and horrible offers convinced me to go on the FIRE path, save as much as possible so I have the option of either leaving the workforce early or retraining.

I spent 8 month unemployed, 3 years working lousy contract jobs with absolutely no paid time off nor benefits, finally got a good job for 9 years, unfortunately that company got acquired by another that inflicted toxicity and a bad boss. I fortunately got another job that was even higher paying with a better boss (but sadly a crap 401k) and am back on course to be able to FIRE in another few years if I stay the course and choose to (which I don't. I prefer to work if the job is not toxic).

[pepper12]

I was raised in a fairly wealthy, socially prominent family until I was 15. My dad made a big business investment that came crashing down with the 80's oil and gas industry collapse. A common story in my area. He had to sell our house and dropped out of all his country clubs, hunting clubs and social clubs. We moved in with my grandparents. When it was time for college a few years later I was lucky enough to get into a great private school that with financial aid grants and merit scholarships kept me out of debt. But I never had spending money, had a work-study job and keenly felt the wealth disparity with my well-heeled classmates. My situation could have been much worse and I never was truly poor or desperate. But those changes at that time of my life probably influenced me to take a very conservative career path as an insurance lawyer, marry a doctor, and save by steadily investing in my 401k with index funds.

[Wannaretireearly]

Graduated with my MSc. in Chemistry and the poor job prospects and horrible offers convinced me to go on the FIRE path, save as much as possible so I have the option of either leaving the workforce early or retraining.

I spent 8 month unemployed, 3 years working lousy contract jobs with absolutely no paid time off nor benefits, finally got a good job for 9 years, unfortunately that company got acquired by another that inflicted toxicity and a bad boss. I fortunately got another job that was even higher paying with a better boss (but sadly a crap 401k) and am back on course to be able to FIRE in another few years if I stay the course and choose to (which I don't. I prefer to work if the job is not toxic).

Thanks for sharing. Life in tech or stem has not been roses for everyone.

Looking back, getting laid off in my first job, after 3 months, circa end of 2000 was a great lesson to lbym. Good luck and well done