Money Talk: What is your first money memory?

I have a few significant ones.

The VERY earliest I can remember is receiving a bill note, a nice crisp one, fresh from the bank from my mother for an occasion.

I was very young, maybe .. 5? And I remember running my fingers over it, feeling the raised bumps of the paper, marveling at how fresh and crisp it was, and how pretty the design was.

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I was 7, and I got my first “paycheque” doled out by my brother who was scamming me at the time but I didn’t know it. He made me fold all those leaflets and prep bundles, and then make me run up to the doors and hand deliver them in a “race” that he always seemed to lose on purpose.

I earned $7 a week and spent 6 hours in total for it. When I finally got to my first $20, I was so excited. I had never held a $20 bill in my hand in my life and that was a LOT OF MONEY.

I mean, really, that could buy a ton of candy in my mind, and I would spend hours thinking about all different kinds of candies I would buy, X number of this, Y number of that.

I remember hoarding candy bars after that like currency (which in some ways it was, because I would resell it at a slight profit to hungry siblings who were too lazy to walk to the convenience store to buy their own), and doing inventory every day (5 Mars Bars, check….. 4 KitKats, check…)

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I don’t remember what age I was but I started collecting all the loonies because they looked like pirate’s gold when I opened it up to marvel at it.

I would have this little Cadbury tin box I had my brother cut a slit in the top for me, and each time I got a loonie for whatever reason, I’d drop it in the box. I would then break it open once it was too full to drop in any more loonies, roll up all they money and bring it to the bank.

I started doing it with toonies too as I got older but lately, have gotten out of the habit because that *%$@( is heavy…. and I just wince at the thought of interest not being made on it, no matter if it’s just a few pennies.

I’d rather stack the bills than coins 😉

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I look back at it now, and it is funny because it doesn’t seem like a lot of money now. I have amassed so much that sits in a bank account that I check online, that I don’t physically have the money, but have the numbers in my accounts to prove that I have money.

How odd.. that when you’re a kid you go from having the physical proof of richness to now a few virtual pixels on a screen.

It seems surreal actually, that people can amass that much. I wonder what all that money looks like, stacked in hundreds on the floor.

What were your first money memories?

You can read the rest of the Money Talk questions here.