I love my parents, of course, and am so grateful for how they raised me. However, if I were to file just one complaint about my mom and dad, it would be that they were never really good with finances, and that's something that I wholeheartedly inherited from them. I'm not actually blaming them for my bad money habits, but I do wish they were able to instill in me a sense of financial responsibility and intelligence growing up. To be fair, it was not something they were raised with either.
But no excuses or finger pointing, I take full responsibility for my own actions. When I was in my late teens, I used pawn shops to borrow money to party. Later on, I resorted to payday loans to get me through to my next payday. I purchased items I didn't need or never used. I overpaid on vehicles, ignored high interest rates and fees, and ran my first credit cards into the ground. And to top it off, I was blatantly ignorant when it came to things like investments, RRSPs, and even something as basic as learning how to save money!
I'm not embarrassed to admit all of this now only because I've come a long way since those days of ignorant bliss. Thankfully, I have learned from my past mistakes and have financially educated myself over the years. However, there was still something I was entirely unfamiliar with but that I wanted to learn more about. Investing!
It's always been so intimidating to me, a foreign concept that I felt was far too complicated and complex to wrap my head around. And so I never tried. That is, until now. This summer, I finally did some research and followed through on what I learned, downloading a pair of Wealthsimple apps and then actually investing some of my money! I started small, as I recommend anyone interested in investing do, and will continue to grow my "portfolio" as I learn more about the entire process.
I may not become a millionaire on my investment choices, but that's okay. The point it that I took the plunge and made a decision to benefit my future. And it feels nice having at least an understanding of what investing is all about, at least this particular aspect of it. In the future, I may try other paths of investing but that is a discussion for another time. Until then, I will continue to see my money working for ME!!
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