From which parent did you inherit your sensibility about money?

A recent poll in the U.K. showed that a quarter of all respondents say it was Mom, while 15 percent blame (or credit) Dad. Lisa Belkin reports on the survey at her New York Times blog.

This has me wondering about the generation growing up right now. Because, in the end, saying you adopted your parents view of money, and saying you have developed your own approach, are really two ways to say the same thing: you are influenced by the times in which you were raised. My father, conservative and cautious, was a child of the Depression. My mother, far more relaxed about finances, was a child of the sigh of relief that followed WWII.

Interestingly, a majority of all people who responded to the survey claimed no parental influence -- they said they developed their own attitudes and styles about spending and money.

Do you think the children of the early '00s will absorb frugality as their foundation? How did your parents influence your financial attitudes and practices?

 

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