Formative Finances

Thanks for all the great comments on my last post. While it’s not something that I often dwell on, socio-economic movement has been part of who I am.

I do strongly agree with one of our anonymous comments that working hard for your money can make it more meaningful. My twin sister and I are both very successful in our own right, yet we have come to approach finances differently.

As we were growing up there were some early indications of me being a bit more of a saver than my sis. Going in to college this became even more apparent. I went to an expensive liberal arts school that forced me to work two jobs and save constantly. My sister however opted for a solid education at Oregon’s State Universities (OSU & UofO). This allowed her not only to have half the college expenses as I had, but to also get money back every month from financial aid. She still worked a college job, but she worked more like 8-10 hours a week while I never worked less than 25 and up to 30+ with my two jobs.

The thing that is interesting, is that once we got out of college and moved on to the next stages in our lives, we approached money quite differently. My first job back from Peace Corps I was determined to get a salary worth what I felt I deserved. This happened to be more than any of my friends who had stayed in Portland had ever made. My friends told me not to have such high expectations but I refused to listen to them. Even in the horrible job market of Portland I managed to get a job that paid even more than what I had been hoping for.

My sister however has been seemingly plagued by poor paying jobs. Granted that the environmental non-profit and government sectors don’t pay well, but it’s not like I’m in the corporate world working in non-profit development as I have.

I guess my point in all of this is that life experiences really have great implications on how one approaches finances. In this case we both came from the same set of genes and still manage to look at finances differently. I believe that a lot of this traces back to our formative experiences.

At the end of the day I feel that my sis and her family has been successful financially and I feel that we have both moved up in the social strata. My sister and her husband make very wise financial decisions and manage their house hold like a tight ship. I guess that in the end different choices are perhaps symbolic of how we approach life differently in many ways. Both successful in different terms, parallel yet divergent.

I’d love to hear from any of our readers on how they and their siblings may approach finances differently.

Cheers,

Miel