Part 2 - having money taken away from me

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.

In part #1: Great Early Saver, I spoke about how I had a very happy childhood, I had a stable family, loving parents and a lovely home, I had saved £3000 by the age of 10 and I can remember showing off to my friends when I showed them what I had achieved. I was even giving myself other targets like saving £4000 before Christmas and even speaking to my parents about getting a part time job to save money, my parents were really proud of me and this spurred me on to do even better.

What could have caused by attitude and mindset to change completely? What made me go from a fanatical saver to a pathetic spender? What really changed my life were the Stock Market and my brother. My Brother was much older than me and started to invest in the stock market in 1994, he made a lot of money I remember of Rail-track and Euro Tunnel and was really building his wealth, my brother never asked me to invest and I had no interest as I preferred to see all my money in my deposit book.

My brother got into trouble when he started paying for company shares using a partly paid method, this was very similar to leverage, the stock market was very buoyant at that time and I think he realized that everything would rise and he would just sell and make the profit, when his partly paid shares fell in value he had a shortfall, he needed to cover otherwise he would lose a lot of money.

My parents were forced by my brother to hand over as much money as possible to salvage the situation, my brother also forced me to go into my savings account and give him all the money, the money I had spend five years to save. I remember a sinking feeling when I had to hand over the money, my brother was very overbearing and it felt like he was forcing me to pay through emotional bullying, all those treats I forego and all the happiness I shrugged to one side to save felt like it was worth nothing, all the computer games that I said no to, the bike which I never bought, the clothes which I refused was all in my savings account and it felt like the sacrifice was worth nothing.

It was at this exact moment I felt a hatred for money, I hated myself because I missed out on so much, I hated myself because I betrayed myself of the instant gratification the money would give me. £3000 does not seem like much now but back then it was worth millions in my eyes and losing it was devastating, I suppose I got scared of saving because of the fear of losing it.

My brother never did return the money as he lost it all. We have a great relationship now but that incident is never spoken of, I know that he’s ashamed of what his done and I’ve forgiven him, there are some painful memories but I guess that’s the purpose of this blog, to reflect and heal and then keep going.

I suppose this incident really turned my into an anti saver, I was now always looking for ways to spend any money and hated the idea of saving, I wish now that I took the time to think things through so I could come to a better conclusion.

In the next part of how I got myself into financial despair things get worse, the stock market really blows everything away and start to hate saving even more. Read more #3: Seeing My Family Experience Poverty.