Disclosure: This is a partnered post with Tangerine Bank. However, all opinions and views on this post are 100% my own.
Do you feel good about money?
My relationship money black and white – love and hate. I love to spend it, I find it difficult to save it! November is Financial Literacy Month in Canada. The theme this year is “Take Charge of Your Finances”. This theme made me look back at my finances over the years. I started on a bad note. It started in my first year of University. I remember getting my first department store credit card. No full-time job, no part-time job, no income except for my monthly allowance from my parents. Me and my girlfriends all had the card. Instead of going to class, we would go shopping and then eat lunch/dinner at the department store cafeteria. I hope my parents don’t read my blog!
I was very fortunate in that my parents paid for my university education. They paid for tuition, living expenses, and even car insurance. Yes I even had a car in university. It was nothing fancy but it was I had a car! When I graduated from university I had no student debt. Unfortunately I did have debt. I had a $3,000 maxed out department store credit card. How insane is that. I could not tell my parents that I had debt. What did I do? I paid the monthly minimum. I didn’t look at the interest payment. I didn’t realize what 28.8% percent interest was. All I was concerned about was paying that monthly minimum.
Here I was, I had graduated from an all expenses paid University degree unlike so many others. I had debt. As I was looking for a job, I had to keep paying my monthly minimums. And yes at 28.8% interest.
I wish there had been more financial literacy in my day. There wasn’t. That was the start of my bad journey with credit. There was no reason for it. I grew up in a household that did not carry credit card debt. In fact, my father would poke fun about people who would carry credit card debt. I would laugh with him. I wasn’t even woman enough to admit that I had credit card debt.
If you have a bad relationship with money, then I urge you to join the #MoneySavvy Twitter Chat. If you have kids going to university/college please have them join us as well. I hope that they don’t make the same mistakes that I did!
Twitter Chat Details
Date: November 12, 2019
Time: 8:00pm ET – 9:00pm ET
Host: @TangerineBank
Guest: @KelleyKeehn
Moderator: @ShesConnected
Hashtag: #MoneySavvy
About Kelley Keehn
Kelley Keehn is a financial literacy advocate who has been on a mission to “Make Canadians Feel Good About Money.” She’s a best-selling author of 9 books and her newest book, Talk Money To Me, published by Simon and Schuster, will be in bookstores December 17. Kelley served on the National Steering Committee on Financial Literacy, serves on the board of Money Mentors and the Canadian Foundation for Economic Education, has been appointed to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada’s Consumer Protection Advisory Committee and the Ontario Security Commission’s Senior Expert Advisory Committee, and, is the Consumer Advocate for the FP Canada. You can learn more about Kelley at her website: KelleyKeehn.com.
Tweet