What was your biggest misconception about money when you were a child? 1 September 2021 at 11:37AM in Marriage, relationships & families 35 replies 2.7K views

MSE_Laura_F

The Social team posed this question on Twitter a while back after we debated it at MSE HQ. One of my colleagues used to believe that any price ending with 99p was cheap, and another thought ATMs were just magic free money machines.

What about you, Forumites? What was your biggest misconception about money when you were a child?

MaryNB

As a child I presumed when you deposited money into the bank it was put in a safe with the rest of your money.

Ditzy_Mitzy

I used to dream that I would one day have £100, and then I'd be rich.  I thought it would enable me to purchase anything I wanted from Harrods.  Those were the days...

Frith

One day, I saw a man backing out of the inside of an ATM. The cash point was outside but he was inside the bank and he backed out of the machine and shut and locked the door behind him.

He was doubtless mending something but I thought afterwards that someone was sitting in every ATM, posting the correct money through the slot! 

annabanana82

MaryNB said:

As a child I presumed when you deposited money into the bank it was put in a safe with the rest of your money.

I thought the same, and that my money would be separated from everyone else's. I was most put out when I went to get £2 out and it wasn't the £2 coin I'd put away for safekeeping 

breaking_free

When I was aged 5 I used to love reading Disney's Scrooge McDuck comics, especially images of him diving into his money pit. I genuinely believed that I could save a big pile of paper and coin and dive into it like a porpoise. I'm still woebegone that this is a physical impossibility as it wouldn't be a soft landing...

MaryNB

annabanana82 said:

MaryNB said:

As a child I presumed when you deposited money into the bank it was put in a safe with the rest of your money.

I thought the same, and that my money would be separated from everyone else's. I was most put out when I went to get £2 out and it wasn't the £2 coin I'd put away for safekeeping 

  😂 Yeah I presumed we each had our own safe with our name on it. That's why we had to go to our particular branch. 

deannagone

I was kept very short of money even as a teen, so didn't develop any idea of how much things cost, and the hours of work that were necessary to make money.  I had no idea of setting a budget even when I started living on my own as I didn't actually earn enough money to pay my rent (which I did do) and eat/buy shoes etc.  I soon learned the value of money and what you could do without.  So made up for the ignorance of my childhood lol.

My children get pocket money and told to save if they want something that costs more than they get in a week/month.  I also give them opportunities to 'earn' money.

london21

Looking back, don't think i had any. I was very aware of money from a young age as i helped my mom with her retail business. I was familiar with counting notes. That's why i studied Accounting and finance at university and very business orientated. 

Monsternextdoor

My earliest memory of money is giving my nanna all my pennies to help her at the shop.

She told me that she was ok and was changing it in the bank for paper

I can remember thinking why do you want to swap all those coins for paper as metal is worth more than paper.

katiepoppycat

I grew up in a corner shop.  Despite serving behind the counter, I never really 'got' the value of money.  I used to get up on a Sunday morning and put all the supplements in all the newspapers and my Dad would pay me the princely sum of 50p for it - this was late 80s, early 90s.  That 50p kept me in sweets all week so I thought it was a pretty good rate of pay.  When I started buying records I realised how little I was being paid!