The lifestyles of most of our grandparents were usually fraught with astute financial management and frugality. To revive their money management skills amongst the younger generations, here are some oft-forgotten, highly effective money skills to follow.
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1. Cash is king
Most of us know that our grandmothers never owned a credit card. Rather, she had to make cash payments to buy everything. And that's the most interesting part here. The reason is making cash payments helped her keep a close tab on her nickels. A lot of us have found her passbooks when she passed away.
In her job, she was efficient since could meticulously update all her monetary transactions. From her entries, you and I would know that she leads a frugal life. The best part: her accounts were always on the black.
2. Preserve your stuff
Nowadays, most of the products/commodities aren’t manufactured for long-term use, rather they are made to last just a couple of weeks or at the most months. It’s the throw-away culture that we are born and bred in - where everything is easily accessible and could be replaced at affordable rates. But this wasn’t the case with our grandparents.
For them, every dime spent was considered an investment, and hence, they kept everything well-maintained. They religiously cleaned, oiled, waxed, patched, repaired and painted their belongings in order to enhance their longevity. Those stuff lasted decades and that resulted in savings in the long run.
3. Develop effective skills
Our grandparents were self-sufficient in more ways than one. They worked in their agricultural lands, tilled soil, irrigated water using impoverished devices, raised livestock, repaired day-to-day machineries, etc. and would hardly require any sort of professional or skilled assistance to do these menial jobs. This helped them to keep their overall household costs low and grow astounding amounts of nest eggs.
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Basically, they learned to do these jobs on their own and always added fresh skills that kept them self-sufficient and independent of outside help. The same holds true for us as well. It’d be best if we follow in their footsteps and build self-reliance as well as save money through practical skills.
4. Improvise innovation
During the Great Depression, people who grew up at that time were forced to bank upon their innovative ideas to make it in the world, be it financially or otherwise. It was their enterprising outlook that gave them the strength to earn a living for their family and keep them in a sound state of affairs.
The same trend has made a comeback and we need to pull our socks up and tap into our own innovative strength to dish out fresh practical ways to mitigate our daily problems. Failing to adapt to our ever changing society will cost us heavily.
5. Own rather than borrow
Barring certain situations, it is always been deemed best to own rather borrow/rent. This is particularly applicable in time of adverse socioeconomic conditions. Having full ownership over, say a house, will provide you with the independence and a bliss that a rented one wouldn’t provide. This is because you could alter the facade or the garden or modify any part of your house whenever you feel like.
But the same would not be the case with a rented house as you will have to seek its owner’s permission before you can start any kind of home improvement project. Moreover, owning money-producing assets like land, house, commercial plots and so on, would be helpful for the upcoming generation. These assets would give them a strong financial footing to survive and build further wealth in their own lifetime.
Besides that, in order to build wealth, you will have to save for the rainy days. For example, you may have to visit your dentist for an immediate $1000 root canal treatment or you may have to pay for a car wreckage in the middle of the road, and so on. Having yourself covered on these areas financially will always prevent you from overspending and instead add to your own coffers at the end of the day.
Read more: 5 Ways to live frugally towards the month’s end
I have shared a number of money management skills that you can use to revive the glory our grandparents had. If you’ve one to share, then we’d love to know what is it? Thank you for obliging.
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