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Nickels and dimes4/16/2023 Growing up, my family was quite traditional. My father was the sole breadwinner while my mother stayed at home to care for my sister and me. He was responsible for driving the family car and mowing the lawn, while my mother took care of household chores like cleaning, laundry and raising us kids. We would do our grocery shopping in Owen Sound on pay week, and in Hanover on alternate weeks. We fit the mold of a typical Canadian nuclear family, with a father, mother, and two kids – a boy and a girl.
Despite being raised in such a stable environment, I didn't follow the typical life plan that my upbringing might suggest. I did eventually graduate from school, attend college, start a career, get married, have children, and retire, but it was a little more unpredictable and spread out across the country. Ultimately, I ended up divorced and on my own by the age of 50. Part of me feels that my parents are to blame for this, as they didn't instill in me the religious beliefs that they held, opting instead to let me "choose my own path." While I was raised with basic Christian ethics, I spent most of my life drifting from one religion to the next, eventually landing on Pantheism. Unfortunately, I'm not entirely happy with where I ended up spiritually. Money was another area where my upbringing may not have been ideal. My father earned the majority of our household income while my mother worked part-time as a babysitter to contribute a bit more. I never really heard much about our finances growing up, and only found out by chance that my father made no more than $19,750 in a year, which would equate to about $47,916.05 today. Despite this, we never went without and always had a roof over our heads, car and food on the table. When it came to financial education, I didn't receive much guidance either. I only took one class in home economics, which touched on some basics, but it wasn't enough to instill any significant financial responsibility in me. When I went to college, I received a small grant, a loan, and a bursary, and had some cash to start. However, I was broke by the middle of December and had to get a part-time job until my second-semester funding arrived in January. After the school year ended, I moved back in with my parents and worked for minimum wage at a local grocer on Saturdays. Over the years, I've run up credit card debt and consolidated bills, only to run them up again. It wasn't until my small business failed in 2012, when I was 40 years old, that I started to learn some fiscal responsibility. I wasn't able to get a credit card for over seven years, which forced me to live within my means. While I'm now financially stable with a modest income and some savings, I worry about what the future holds, particularly given the economic instability of recent times. Nevertheless, I remain hopeful that I can weather any future downturns, so long as people don't become too greedy.
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