"Money, Money, Money, Must be Funny, In a Rich Man's World"

I am grateful for my parent's example they have set for me about finances and budgeting. Because of them, I have been able to get through school without debt and without any student loans. I feel that it is an important lesson to learn from parents. However, I do believe that if parents are going to teach finances, they need to live that lifestyle as well. One thing I will always appreciate about my family is that always taught us the value of money. They taught us important principles and self-control, which I believe is one of the greatest lessons to be taught for budgeting. One of the best ways they taught us was by able to visually see where our money was going, which helped me have a lot of self-control. They did this by teaching us to pay for things in cash because that visual is a way to restrain us from over spending. It helped me at least. I take each paycheck and divide it into different sections of things I need to do. 50% in the bank for savings, 40% for different expenses such as rent, gas, groceries and fun. Then the remaining 10% goes to tithing towards my church. By doing this I am able to stick to that and not go outside the bounds I set for myself. I feel like this criteria I set up for myself taught me that I need to be strict and have self-control in order to have good spending habits.