Mother’s Day Money Memory
The first money lesson my mum taught me was to save for the things I wanted. When I was six, the thing I wanted the most was a Strawberry Shortcake doll (those wishing to investigate the ’80s Strawberry Shortcake phenomenon further may do so via Wikipedia’s alarmingly thorough entry). So my mum agreed to match my contribution to said doll 50/50. My pocket money at the time was not substantial: 15c a week. I can’t remember what the doll cost but it was probably about $10, so that’s some quite dedicated saving for a six-year-old.
Anyway, I can still remember the day when I’d finally saved all the money, and I pushed the gigantic mass of coins over the counter to the probably annoyed salesperson. She handed over the packaged doll, and I opened it to smell the doll’s strawberry-scented hair.
Fast-forward over 20 years and here we are. I no longer have the doll. I don’t remember what happened to it; the hair scent probably faded and its arm fell off or something. But the legacy of that experience is that I still save for what I want most, which these days is to see the world. Who knows, maybe I’d never have been able to travel in the first place without that first lesson in saving. So thank you, Mum, and Happy Mother’s Day.
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Sunday, May 13th, 2007 at 8:28 am
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