Where did you get your finance knowledge?

[Vytautas]

There are a lot of people who just have no knowledge whatsoever about personal finances and it gets them into financial trouble. I was curious as to how all of you gained your finance knowledge be it from parents, school, radio talk shows, etc. I'll start off and say that most of my finance knowledge comes from getting degrees in economics and business. Before that my knowledge came from my parents telling me things like "don't get into debt" and other pretty common concepts.

[Broken Arrow]

I'm self-taught. I try to absorb everything I can get my hands on, regardless of source. Still a work in progress.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Broken Arrow

I'm self-taught. I try to absorb everything I can get my hands on, regardless of source. Still a work in progress.

I'm also self-taught, but that's as a young adult and adult. Earlier, I'm sure I was taught and influenced by my parents. My father was an accountant. We were raised frugally. A common family activity was going to a local auction on Friday night, buying box lots of treasures and going home to see what we had gotten - used toys, knick knacks, etc. We were always going to yard sales, flea markets, auctions, house sales, thrift shops, etc. Even when I was older this was true. When I was graduating college and about to start medical school, I needed to buy a new wardrobe. I only owned one or two dress shirts at that point and the school had a shirt and tie dress code. We went to a thrift shop and bought me about a dozen shirts. We probably spent less than 2 shirts would have cost at the department store.

[buildmybudget]

Most of my knowledge has resulted from a hunger to get out of the rat race. I am one of a family of ten kids, by parents who had no clue what they were doing financially. I realized this at a very early age and have since been trying to help others(including my family) make good financial decisions. I have read several books and my undergraduate degree is in finance, and now I focus solely on helping individuals successfully create and maintain a budget. Like DisneySteve and Radiance, I'm sure it's a passion that has yielded the most knowledge..

[maat55]

I grew up in a poor family with no knowledge on personal finance. I had a reasonable amount of fear of credit cards due to one of my dads ex-wives.

About seven years ago I was turned down for a car loan by my longtime bank and it made me angry, so I swore never to borrow from them again. Today, I am thankful they did so, I was due an financial attitude adjustment.

About that time, I became an regular listener of Dave Ramsey and became consumed with learning about personal finance. I credit most of my knowledge to reading many books and engaging subjects on this forum.

[creditcardfree]

Primarily self taught. My parents do well with their money so I'm sure I gleamed some things from them. I have a finance degree, worked in the mutual fund industry and have read quite a few personal finance books over the years. And...of course, I'm here a lot!

[whitestripe]

the internet?

umm... well.
my financial knowledge at this stage, was mostly learnt from accounting and business studies (high school and then certificate II and III in business administration and management). i guess that's where i learnt my FIRST portion. then I became interested in money and all its doings, which then leads to the internet. i have read some financial books, but find they preach too much in one specific direction and often have 'formulas' you have to follow. this does not interest me.
my other source would be friends, famly and colleagues i guess. you can gain a lot of info from your family, even if it is 'what NOT to do'. i have also a lot of friends in the financial and banking industry, lots of info, advice and help there!

[BillK]

First School and college with BA in business administration with supporting field in finance. The working in real estate and running a business for 21 years. I love numbers and helping people.

[kenyantykoon]

i have learnt nothing useful about money in college. the info that i have amassed is out of finance books, independent study and experience. i have learnt more in this than all the years spent in college

[Caoineag]

The internet is a wonderful thing. Seriously. I have been using it as my own personal encyclopedia for about 12 years now. I learned how to keep expenses low from my mother and learned what not to do from my father (though he did tell me to save for retirement so deserves some kudos there). I did have an uncle who believed being debt free was the way to go but the rest of my family scoffed at the idea.

[GREENBACK]

Originally Posted by Caoineag

The internet is a wonderful thing. Seriously. I have been using it as my own personal encyclopedia for about 12 years now.

This helped me a great deal with financial matters. I realized several years back that I was managing my money poorly. No huge debts but just not really paying attention to investing and saving. My parents were conservative with their money but didn't really emphasize the importance of having a solid financial plan in place.

I'm pretty much self taught with a lot still to learn. The internet has made this seriously easier. I used to just put money in the bank in an anemic savings account and thought thats all their was to saving money. Sites like this one opened my eyes.

[kgloh_23]

Ha, I learn financial knowledge for free from Financial Company. I join the company as a part timer to sell unit trust - financial product. From there I learn from my upline (Certified financial planner) the financial knowledge and the company also teach us some knowledge as we need to have it to sell the product.
From there I not only learn but also earn. Is it sound good?

[jasonnoguchi]

Formal school + school of hard knocks.

Knowing what to do and becoming more knowledgable in financial planning and financial products don't guarantee that you would do what you preach nor achieve your desired personal financial picture.

[EEinNJ]

The responses here point out something very interesting besides "where you got your financial knowledge", and that is the "why". You have to be motivated by something to seek out this knowledge.
In my case it was the realization that just working at a job, even a good one, would not be enough to get ahead and "get out of the rat race". Then I came into some money, and realized I had a chance to make it grow and achieve financial independence. I started reading a lot of books, used on-line research, etc.

[feh]

For the most part, the internet. My parents really didn't educate me on money matters. I took one econ class in college, and had accounting in high school. Other than that, I'm self-taught.

I'm pretty sure I've never read a financial book, either.

[myrdale]

When I was 5, I put a 50 cents in a toy machine and realized I'd wasted my life savings. This taught me a little on the value of money.

When I was 10, I knew that if I wanted that Lego castle I'd have to save $120 on roughly $4 a week. This taught me to save.

Around 11, my mother would make up fake checks that I had to fill out to pay utility bills and would have to balance a check book.

At the age of 13, I worked in a tobacco field for $2 an hour. Granted it was only for a week, but I worked for $2 an hour!! This taught me a good bit more on the value of money.

While being a freshman and sophmore in college, dispite having rich friends, I had to budget to living on $20 a week (fun money / eatting out).

I could have had a new truck on the first day of freshman year, but I insisted that I wanted a yellow Frontier. I walked, I walked alot for a year and ahalf before we found one. Then I had to make payments during the summer.

Only recently have I discovered Dave Ramsey (2 years). I was already doing everything he says. I'd paid the truck off very first thing. I then saved $13,000 and used $8k of it for a downpayment while keeping the rest for a starter emergency fund, then attacked the loan with advengance.

Lastly my father has a horrible story about his father buying them each an icecream cone as a child. My grandfather was extremly cheap and appeartly wished he had his dime back. I do not plan on ever being like that. I will only purchase what I want, and I will not regret the purchase afterwards.

If you roll all of that together, that's a brief history of my financial knowledge.

[wincrasher]

Mostly you'll find people who learned from the "school of hard knocks".

It's really just common sense. Self-control, separating wants from needs. Comparison shopping and knowing the value of things. Taking your time to consider a purchase instead of just doing what is quick and convenient.

[Alex_Adviser]

I have been properly given knowledge from my parents since the time i was in high school. My parents used to discuss every financial matter of our family with me and that was the starting of my Financial Knowledge. Slowly and steadily I got trained and gained sufficient knowledge with the passage of time. Even now I sometime consult my parents in some major financial decisions that I take.

[snafu]

Parents discussed family finances at the dinner table. We were expected to state what we wanted, how much it costs and justify the expenditure. We earned money by doing chores for household and neighbors. Took a couple of accounting courses in HS. Went to investing seminars sponsored by financial firms. Still reading books like Intelligent investor.

[Pitman]

My Mother. Every since I can remember, my Mother has been drilling savings, and financial knowledge in my brain. She opened up a bank account for me when I was at the wee age of 9 years old, and showed me how to manage a bank book. She also showed me how to budget my little pocket change that I would get from wrapping pennies, she's the sole reason why I'm able to turn a dollar out of $.15 Love ya Mom.