Writing your money history can be helpful in identifying which money issues from your past were most important to shaping your attitudes today.
Use these questions to begin exploring your relationship with money. Take one page and don’t worry about making it perfect. Write what you think and feel and get it down on paper so you can see it. Write for fifteen minutes (you can do anything for fifteen minutes!). Pick the questions that speak to you.
You don’t have to make it perfect or win the Pulitzer Prize. You just have to get it out there on paper so you can see it. Here are some questions to get the creative juices flowing:
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How did your parents handle money? What disagreements did they have?
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Did your family have significant financial reversals or good fortune during your childhood? Were you richer or poorer than your friends?
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How do you handle money in comparison to your siblings? Do you know why?
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Could you talk about money with your parents when you were a child? How about now?
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What’s your most significant memory about money?
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Did your mother choose (or have to) work?
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Did you go to work at a young age?
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Did you ever steal from your parents’ wallets or the store?
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Did you mother hide things she bought because she was afraid of your father’s anger (or vice versa)?
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How did you pay for your college education?
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Did you parents teach you how to handle money?
What money habits do you have now that you can trace back to your childhood? Are they beneficial to you today? If not, now that you know where they came from, you can begin to make conscious changes in your life and move forward.