By: PanzerGrenadier Reading blogs, websites and news articles about personal finance is a great way to learn and grow in the ways of being financially free. Much of why we read such material is that many authors share their own personal stories on how they managed to achieve their own personal finance dreams. Your family tree: a history in personal finance One of the most under-rated sources is our own families. Your parents, grand-parents, uncles and aunts are actually great sources of lessons for financial freedom. Each one of them has gone through more life than you have and are able to share their own life experiences with you regarding money, living and balancing our needs and wants. I spent two days with my mother as I was on leave helping to look after my 5 month old daughter and gained some interesting insights in a rare mother-son bonding session. Like many sons of mothers, I became somewhat independent since 19 when I was drafted into the Singapore Armed Forces as a conscript where I had to learn to live on my own. Since then, while I still stayed with my parents, I had my own life as I pursued my university education and started working. I moved out after getting married and having my own place. Mother’s story Hence, mother-son relationship while being all right was not that close since I had my own life to live. As my mother became my daughter’s grand-mother, it brought us closer as now we have someone in common to care for. As she was helping me with my daughter early in the week, she shared more of her life which was a mystery to me because all along she was “mother” and not someone who had her own dreams and aspirations as well as a life growing up in difficult circumstances. I’ve talked about how our parents are an important influence on our quest for financial freedom as many of our attitudes, beliefs and approaches towards living within our means, saving and investing, growing our means and protecting our means comes from observing the behaviour of those who we see day-in-day-out. My mother was one such person whose influence has been immeasurable. Her own hard life was a mini-riches-to-rags-to-riches tale. Read more...