Where My Money Mindset Started

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I think my family has a lot to do with the way I think about money today.

One memory that really stuck with me goes back to when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I was sitting in the car with my dad, I think he’d had a rough day at work, because he was venting a bit. He turned to me and said, “If you rented out houses, you wouldn’t need to work, the rent would pay for everything.”
At the time, being a kid, I thought that sounded amazing. Free money just for owning a house? Sign me up. It wasn’t until years later that I realised what he was really talking about: cash flow, making your money work for you, not the other way around.

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Then there was my grandad. Every time I visited him, I’d get stories from “the good old days” how chocolate bars cost a penny and a cinema ticket was “a bob” (1 shilling or 12 pence). Back then I just thought he was being nostalgic. But now I get it he was talking about inflation and how money loses value over time. He was giving me my first lesson in purchasing power, without even realising it.

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And on the other side of the family, my other grandfather gave me this bit of advice in my mid-20s: “Sort out a mortgage first. Save travelling and luxuries for later, once it’s paid off.”
At first it just sounded old-fashioned. But looking back, it’s actually another version of a powerful financial principle: buy assets first, then let the assets pay for the fun stuff. Owning your home outright means lower costs and a growing asset, something with long-term value.

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What I Took From All This

Even though none of these conversations were formal “money lessons,” they planted seeds. And now, as I build this site and share tips, I can see how those early ideas shaped the way I think about cash flow, inflation, asset ownership, and delayed gratification.

Sometimes our best financial education comes from family, even if we only understand it years later.