Everything I know about money ... I DIDN'T learn from my parents! They were appalling money managers, gambling addicts and credit card junkies. After a painful adolescence, where I never had proper equipment for school and was not allowed to go on school field trips, they forced me to leave school at 16, so they could squeeze money out of me for my "board". They also introduced me to consumer credit - signing me up for a credit account so I could buy clothes to wear to work. This turned into a full-blown dependence on credit cards on my part, and it wasn't till I moved far away from my home town at 22, that I went "cold turkey" on the credit and retrained my spending and saving habits. I love being frugal! I love having retirement savings! But alas, my careful habits have never rubbed off on my family, who continue to live as if there was no tomorrow ... and to sponge off me ...