My mother is manic depressive and refuses to manage it. My father grew up the youngest of 6 children, born to first generation immigrant parents. Needless to say the financial lesson modeled to me as a child ranged from sensible/frugal...bordering on Scrounge McDuck Cheap....to manic fueled insanity buying accompanied by the sounds of the financial house of cards being atom bombed.
I will say...my sister and I never starved. We always had our own bedrooms and for the most part led average middle class lives. But even as a little kid, I remember thinking (I didn't think it...I knew it) that there was something wrong with my mom. My dad dealt with the situation by being gone all the time.
We (my sister and I) were actually never taught anything regarding finances. My mom would clip along, keeping things fairly even keeled and then BAM! Go on some wild spending spree. As a little kid, these spending sprees were great! She'd take us to the mall and literally buy us something from every store. But as a 6 year old...I knew that the spree would end with a screaming fight between her and my father and my dad angrily cussing every time he saw one of the items my mother had purchased for either my sister or myself. So after the initial adrenaline hit wore off...all the new purchases usually just ended up generating a lot of guilt.
My father (to this day) is a walking billboard for "penny wise and a pound foolish". Growing up, he almost drove our family into bankruptcy through bad real estate deals and starting a business with some very questionable characters. But, to his credit, although he'd make silly decisions he could eventually recognize them and manage to extricate himself, but not before major financial damage had been done.
Needless to say, growing up was one disaster after another, usually with charred dollars bills being shot out of a cannon...either hers or his.
They finally split up when I was in my teens and as one previous poster said...that's when everything really collapsed. Now I will say that although both my parents were (are) bad with money (in vastly different ways) they were both workers.
Thank God...because that was the only thing that might possible save them. My mom, although manic depressive, did manage to stay in the same profession (government) long enough to qualify for a standard pension. My father as well.
As far as the OP's question. Short answer....I was financially stupid, incompetent, uninformed,moronic, dull, dumb, foolish, laughable, ludicrous, naive, senseless, shortsighted, rash, thick, unintelligent, brainless, dazed, deficient, dense, dim, doltish,
dopey, gullible, half-baked, half-witted, idiotic, imbecilic, inane, mindless, thick-headed, unthinking and witless when I left home.
Luckily, I have one quality that has saved me from myself on countless occasions. I intentionally learn from my mistakes.
I left home without a dime and went to college (borrowing heavily of course). I hated the idea of debt but back them I didn't see any other way (see list above). I made all kinds of silly mistakes but I credit three people with saving my financial life.
My wife...who busted her ass all the way through college and came out with zero debt. Wife=Hero.
Dave Ramsey (yes he gets a bad rap here and no I don't listen to his investing advise) But Dave Ramsey got my wife and I together on the same financial page and is the number one reason for our financial turnaround. Dave = Financial Boot Camp
And of course Pete who ties it all together. Mr. Money Mustache = PhD in BadAssity
My parents are both retired. Both continue down the same oddball/disaster in the making financial path coupled with a steady income.
My father. Pays off his house (Yeah!). Goes out and FINANCES $100,000 RV (Boo!)
My mother. Still goes through the manic/depressive cycle. Refuses help. Spends wildly then cries poor. Not going to end well.
My sister. Financial disaster. Worthy of her own very long post in the "Relatives Who Don't Get It" thread.