[drharris]

Your experience mirrors mine to a large degree. I think most intelligent kids know their family's financial situation, and adjust accordingly. I didn't even ask for name brand clothing or toys because 1) I knew we couldn't afford them, and it would put stress on them, and 2) years of life in this environment made me not care about such frivolities. Kids aren't stupid, they learn proper spending behavior by what they see. I saw my parents buy bare necessities and working hard jobs. Naturally, I learned a hard work ethic and proper spending habits (barring a few years of excess in college when I started making actual money and felt it should be spent).

Right now we make good money (gotta love computing), and because of my habits the money fight is nonexistent in our family. If anything, I find myself constantly fighting to buy our kids less crap. I saw both kinds of kids growing up, and it's a really interesting thing to see how they are now as thirty-somethings. Many of the kids like me are in my boat now - even those who don't have education and professional jobs. Kids who got everything are now suffering in the current economy. It's a stark and obvious difference, at least where I'm originally from.

It's a nice life this way. I like getting a bunch of money for Christmas, and splurging on a tea mug and a set of digital calipers. Everything else is invested in the hope of early retirement. I hope my kids can see what I'm doing and do the same.

[gms7777]

I think the key part of your comment is that kids learn by what they see their parents doing. All the tricks and schemes of trying to teach your kids the value of money will likely be useless if you, as a parent, don't have good money management skills yourself.

[drharris]

I think that holds pretty true for many things in life (i.e. the "teen pregnancy" gene), but definitely for money management. I also knew decently smart kids that didn't have a lot that now as adults go out and waste money at casinos and sports betting. They were a lot like us growing up, but their parents would spend anything extra on the lotto. So it definitely seems it has more to do with things we observe as children rather than actual income, education, and even learning from bad examples.