Unique Intro to Financial Literacy

[mgnhrvth]

I have (fortunately) been pretty debt adverse even in my younger/pre-MMM days. My folks are great with their investments and finances but never really sat us (their kids) down and went over financial strategies. That said, I feel like my introduction to purposefully saving/investing was a bit roundabout:

2009-2010 was my first deployment in support of OEF. My closest teammate told me he was putting all of his pay into TSP and maxing out the SDP. I had no idea what he was talking about. I went along with it and put about $3,000 in a SDP and starting contributing a small percentage to my TSP (I think 5% at that time). We were the same age and his approach to saving was so drastic (compared to what I was doing at the time - now I max my TSP, Roth IRA etc!). It really initiated me on a path towards learning more about saving, investing, and overall financial literacy. I try to pay it forward when I can/when appropriate.

Any other unique/random on-ramps to financial literacy out there?

[forummm]

I had a professor give a lecture called "how to be a millionaire". He helped set me on the path.

[nereo]

My father showed me "the graph" when I was in middle school and got my first job.  You know, the one that shows how your money will grow exponentially with time... age on the X axis and $ on the Y.  I thought it was incredible that I could become a millionaire by the time I was in my 50s by doing nothing more than maxing out my IRA.  At the time that seemed incredible to me.
NOw I know I can achieve much, much more.

[yakamashii]

Kind of an organic introduction here. Wanted to become a teacher in a very HCOL circa 2006. Saw the teacher's union's chart of projected earnings. Compared it to the median house price of over $600,000 and realized something was very wrong with my expectations. Started tracking every penny and haven't stopped since.

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

My Dad taught me the Rule of 72 when I was about 12 and the market was doubling every 4 years on average. It was a huge motivator for me.

[babysnowbyrd]

I can't recall the moment I started to "wake up." I did have an employer talk to me about investing and show the compound interest tables etc, but I was still the type to waste money. Occasionally I saved some up, but then wasted it again. I always felt "too poor" to have any permanent investments, and thought things would be better once I graduated and got a real job and started making real money.

I'm 30 now, and feel just as poor as I did at 16, but am throwing almost 50% of my (low income) take-home pay towards CCs now.

I think I discovered Rich Dad Poor Dad first and shortly after MMM. I took a personal finance course in college at this time and it was quite good. All these things together was very inspiring. I almost got sucked into the real estate education scams via RDPD, but luckily came away with about a $4,000 "education" instead of $18,000+ like some people. Honestly, from what I learned about those types of people with their programs, hard-sell tactics etc, it was worth the education. One you learn what a dirty rat smells like, it's easy to pick up in other people later!

Anyway, I'm making the most progress now that I ever have but it still seems awfully slow and discouraging most of the time to be honest. One CC will be paid off soon, (about 5 more weeks) so I hope that will give me a boost because the next one will take another 10 months- 1 year and I still haven't hit the student loans hard yet.

[turketron]

I worked as a bank teller in high school and into college. I regularly witnessed customers (who I knew had well-paying jobs) get into major trouble from a single mistake with their paycheck or a deposit because they had no emergency fund or savings built up. I decided then that I never wanted to be in that situation, so even before I knew about MMM I was determined to be debt free and have enough in savings to weather any emergencies that may come up.

[tarheeldan]

I worked for a year between undergrad and graduate school at a non-profit credit counseling agency.

Callers would dial in looking for help, we'd run a budget and pull up their credit report and see if our debt management program would work for them. (All accounts are closed, they pay one payment to us and them we disburse it to creditors).

I was often overdrawing my checking account at the beginning. It all started to sink in though, and I soon saved half of my 26k income the rest of my time there. Reading personal finance blogs like The Simple Dollar, etc helped a lot.

[Cellista]

My parents NEVER discussed money with me.  I went into economics in part to understand these forces which have so much power to explain the world.

Amy Daczyczn's Tightwad Gazette was my light bulb moment.  I read it at 30.  I learned that you have so much power over your life if you renounce consumerism and dare to be different!

[Jesstache]

I had a roommate in college whose parents bought a house for us to live in, 4 bedrooms so 4 of us girls lived there.  Her parents would visit regularly to check up on the house and such so we got to know them pretty well.  One time he brought us all a copy of a book called, "Smart Women Finish Rich".  I think I may be the only one who read it but it was a GREAT introduction into personal finance and the value of starting saving/investing early.

After that, when I started my first real job as an engineer, I was surrounded by people who constantly stressed saving early and often, investing , maxing out 401k and tax deferred investing options.  I have been maxing my 401k since the age of 21.  It's not an option not to contribute the max.