Part 1 - great early saver

This is a series of articles labelled from #1 to #9 which chronicles how I went from being a fanatical young saver to a pathetic spender, and then finally paving the way for financial success.

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I was actually born in a very frugal family, my father worked all his life as an immigrant worker in the UK as a steel worker and used the money to help his family back home, my father was born into a family experiencing extreme poverty and I heard stories where my grandfather didn’t have enough money to put food on the table. When my father got the opportunity to come to Great Britain he embraced it and worked hard all his life to help his family.

My father settled here in the UK and my family lived frugally, we sometimes managed to save nearly half of our income after expenses so we could invest it in the future. I was very much like my father and learned all his frugal ways, I even forced my father to open a bank account for me at the age of six, I still remember today going into the Abbey National Branch (Now Santander) and depositing my first £10 that my father gave me to save, I also remember really cherishing the book where all my deposits were recorded.

I can also remember depositing £40 every month from my Child Benefit entitlement that the UK Government pays to every child under the age of 16, I use to really looked forward to that day when we could claim the money from the Post Office and take it directly to my Action Saver Account, it was a delight to watch the balance grow and interest to be paid. Over a period of years I had actually accumulated over £2000, most of the money was from the Child Benefit and the remainder from money gifts that I was given on my birthday.

By the age of 10 I had over £3000 in my account and I was really chuffed with myself, I even got an award from Abbey National for being a great investor, during all this time I had never made a withdrawal. Life was looking quite good, I was happy my parents were happy and I was really looking forward to life. I did not understand the concepts of retirement or financial independence but something inside me wanted to save money.

Everything was going so well and I was being praised by everyone one of my relatives for saving so much money, when other kids wanted a Sega Master System I was quite happy to take my birthday money and stick it in my savings account, I was laying the foundation for an extremely wealthy and prosperous future, what could have happened to really change the way I think and make my life go downhill? Read Part 2 - Having Money Taken Away From Me.

Full Series Index

#1: Great Early Saver

#2: Having Money Taken Away From Me

#3: Seeing My Family Experience Poverty

#4: Spending to Keep Up

#5: Disaster Strikes

#6: Getting Married

#7: Absolute Financial Despair

#8: Facing Up to my Problems

#9: Laying the Foundation for Success