My Debt Free “Training Grounds”
Our debt free mindset comes in part from our family training. Sometimes you learn good habits, and sometimes you see bad decision-making that turns you in another direction. Either way, there is a wealth of information to be learned if only you just take a few minutes to consider the experience of others.
I have always said that "any fool can learn from their mistakes, a smart individual will strive to learn from the mistakes of others, and the brightest see opportunities to learn from all experiences, whether theirs or others, whether good or bad." Let’s start learning from a wide range of mistakes and experiences that we have seen in our families.
Take a look at my parents and their parents, and how they lived their lives. This will provide insight into my debt free "training grounds". This is where I built my mindset of frugality and my interest in being debt free. I believe that my "training ground" was a good one. You might agree once you see what I was exposed to during my developmental years.
My grandparents on my father’s side owned their own home and a nice cottage on a lake. My grandfather worked for the phone company, the railroad, and the hospital. He was a skilled laborer, paid reasonably well, but he never had a lot of money to throw around.
My grandmother watched the finances. That was their agreement – he made the money and she focused on household management and money management. Late into their retirement, my grandfather was surprised to learn that they had accumulated so much money. He had never imagined that to be possible. So how did they do it?
My grandparents were successful money managers. They understood the basics of The Money Game. Their skills were used to build wealth and live debt free:
- They bought a small house, a shack really, and added on to it when they could afford to do so. They hand dug the basement, doing all the work themselves.
- The paid cash for most everything. I never knew them to have credit cards. They lived debt free.
- They bought canned food at fire sales where the salvaged merchandise was pennies on the dollar.
- Grandpa worked longer than the normal retirement age, and received retirement benefits from more than one employer.
- They had good training in how to "rough it" when times were hard. My grandfather wouldn’t eat corn as an adult because he ate so much of it as a kid – it was easy to steal from nearby farmers.
- They were cautious savers, not risk taking investors. My grandmother was the real penny pincher of the family. She was known to hide money in several places around the house. She knew that if it was stashed away, then it wasn’t in their pockets to spend.
- My grandmother learned how to be an entrepreneur at an early age. She would sing and play the tambourine while her father played the piano. After the performance, she would pass through the crowd with her tambourine to collect coins from the audience.
- Saving was important. They had lived through the depression era of the early twentieth century, and they weren’t going to repeat the misery of not having money for basic needs.
- They combined recreation and food gathering to save money. My grandfather always brought home holiday dinners when the family gathered at the house. Whether it was pheasant or rabbit, he was usually back home from the hunt and downstairs cleaning the game before most of us were out of bed in the morning. He had a strong sense of being the provider.
- Both were fond of fishing and stocked their freezer with fish caught at their cottage on the lake and waterways local to their residence.
- They focused on their needs first, and their wants last. This was a key to their debt free life.
- They always had a garden at their home and at the cottage. Nothing went to waste. Kitchen scraps went to the dog or into the garden. Fish entrails went into the garden to sweeten the soil for next year’s tomatoes.
- They seldom took trips or vacations. They stayed at home mostly and enjoyed simple living like playing the piano, reading, knitting, household projects, and visiting with friends, family and neighbors. The vacations they took were driving trips. They never flew in an airplane.
- Their needs included providing for their family. I can’t recall at any time thinking that my grandparents were not well off. Even though they were debt free and lived simply, Christmas was filled with gifts, an abundance of food, and family around the table.
By today’s standards, some of their actions seem almost unimaginable. Who would hand dig a basement and eat scorched canned goods from a fire sale today? No one I know. This is a testament to the prosperity of America and the financial troubles that haven’t been seen for several generations, yet we still face many and varied financial challenges – just as real, and just as difficult. And most people aren't debt free anymore.
I’ll always think that my grandparents made wise choices. They dug dirt to make a basement, but they never had to dig themselves out of debt. They ate damaged canned goods, but they paid for them with the money they earned. They used their imagination and innovation to make their own way and live a debt free life.
They lived through tough times and they made it out of them just fine. I remember them in admiration. They are examples of a can-do spirit. And, you can do it too. You can live debt free.
My parents worked long and hard all their lives. My father taught school, and my mother only went back to work after her youngest child was in high school. Now, you know of the modest income teachers make, yet well into retirement, they are debt free and have more assets than they ever dreamed of.
They live entirely on social security, and they live debt free in comfort and style. So how did they do it?
My parents are successful money managers. They understand and play The Money Game very well indeed. They use many of the skills they learned from their parents to live debt free:
- Both worked when they could. My father took odd jobs during many summers when he wasn’t teaching.
- Both never settled for just doing okay, they strived to better themselves as opportunities presented themselves. My father retired as one of the highest paid teachers in the State of Michigan – early investing in education and experience paid off over the long haul. My mother was in charge of the office of a private school and served with the Board of Directors – quite an accomplishment for a high school graduate.
- My father worked longer than necessary to maximize his retirement income. This is another form of investing that paid off.
- Both recognized the value of an education and both made efforts to see that my father had a graduate degree. This was perhaps the most important investing they did in the early years of their marriage.
- They focused on saving money steadily, and made low risk investments like certificates of deposit.
- Saving was a way of life. They were teenagers during the hard economic times around WWII, and they knew what financial ruin felt like firsthand. They were determined to do better.
- Dolls that my mother played with as a kid were cleaned up and given to her year after year for Christmas. How about that for frugality?
- Insurance poor was one way my mother described the family. They made certain that they had insurance to cover unforeseeable expenses like accidents, illnesses and natural disasters.
- They enjoyed a garden. With three months off in the summer, my father had time to plant and tend a garden. There were peas to shuck, tomatoes to can, and herbs to dry for year-round use. We had beans, radishes, carrots, peppers, broccoli, turnips, spinach, corn and a range of berries as well.
- Everything had a use. Grass clippings were used as mulch for the flowerbeds. Leaves were turned under in the garden each fall. They knew the meaning of “waste not, want not”.
- Homes were purchased at least cost, repaired for necessity, remodeled for comfort, and then sold to upgrade to a nicer home by investing the appreciated value.
- When they first married, they lived on $15 a month budget for groceries. They purchased carefully to live within their budget and stay debt free.
- While on a summer teaching assignment, my father rented a room in a woman’s home to save money that would otherwise be spent on a hotel or apartment and meals out.
Okay, you get the idea. My parents were frugal and did without a lot of wants, but fully met all of their needs. And, all the while, focused on successfully raising three children, having a comfortable debt free lifestyle and providing for good retirement income.
These people were my firsthand trainers, the ones that I saw on a daily basis. I was counseled and advised by them, and learned by observation and practice. If they made bad decisions, I saw it and learned from it. If they made good decisions, I saw that too.
So, your initial training ground is your family. Much of that training will stick with you. Other influential factors include teachers, supervisors, authors, historic figures and other people that you look up to. The combination of all of these influences help to create your mindset with respect to earning a living, accumulating wealth, and living debt free.
Does your training and mindset lend itself to frugal habits and debt free living? For the most part, your success depends on what you believe, what you value, and your attitude. Part of your attitude and system of belief is shaped by your experience and training.
If you haven’t had good training, then you might have a lot of bad spending and saving habits to kick. If your attitude is "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go" then you have some work ahead of you.
Take these quizzes to determine where you are in relationship to a strong frugal mindset. The frugal mindset is a must for success! See how well you score.
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