The Unusual Ways I Learned About Money
How cattle, commodities, and cash shaped my adult attitudes and assumptions about money.
My story
Childhood — observing, earning
“Shooooooosh!” dad would say at the dinner table when commodities prices were on news. As a child, I learned about money in some unusual ways. These lessons were a byproduct of life on my family’s working farm in Indiana. Most of that learning was through observation and earning rather than overt education.
Learning by observing is not an unusual way for children in the U.S. to learn about personal finance. This is a partial contributor to low financial literacy scores in all age groups. Talking about money is taboo in America. As a result, parents do not proactively teach children about it. Yet, poor financial literacy is not unique to children. The issue spans generations and genders.
The US Treasury is leading efforts to install financial literacy reform strategies. Currently, Uncle Sam spends $273 million each year on financial literacy and education programs. This work spans 23 federal agencies and entities.
Of all my early memories of money, one of the most unusual was riding along to the grain elevator to sell crops. It was a bustling, dusty place. Other local farmers hovered to trade complaints about rain and swap stories quasi-competitively. Corn, soybeans, and wheat were the currency about which they spoke.
I saw my father manage the family farm as a business. He prepped taxes at the kitchen table. He talked about taking out operating loans for planting each year. Then, he’d obsess over yield — and commodity prices. Coordinating the sale of cattle to the local butcher shop was always interesting, too.
My mother was an Avon lady for most of my childhood — a district leader in sales at that. I used to help her with inventory management, event sales, and bank deposits. Around the holidays and in the local summer festival season, I was recruited to help set up, tear down, and greet at mom’s booth tables. Little did I know this would become useful in my SaaS career, where salesforce.com events became a part of my work.
I also grew up observing my grandmother’s grit — and love for paying in cash.
For forty years, she ran a hair salon as a licensed beautician out of her farmhouse basement. She also cooked meals for the family and farm hands. In the evenings, when surely exhausted, she helped in the fields herself. She often said to my brother, sister, and I that she “paid for her kitchen cabinets one permanent set at a time.” She also loved to tell stories about selling tomatoes to Rose Gold in Frankfurt, Indiana. That is how she and my grandfather funded the purchase of our family’s 500 acre farm.
My grandmother was proud of her role as an economic contributor to the family.
Teenage years — real jobs
Without an allowance, I started little businesses and working as young as I could. As my senior year of high school approached, my parents expected me to pay for optional activities. This included my senior class trip to Washington DC, senior portraits, sports gear, and gas.
I’ll never forget how supportive my mother’s customer base was of my show choir and FFA fundraisers. Mom wasn’t one to give us a pass on hard work. She made me sort, bag, deliver, thank customers personally for all orders.
By high school, I was more outgoing and began waitressing at Bob Evans in high school. I later took a delivery job for Pizza Hut in college. These jobs taught me as a teen that I value earning power. These experiences were also the foundation of my skills as a builder and entrepreneur.
With a gift from my grandparents, I bought my first vehicle. This was a notable economic privilege as a teenager. And, this used Jeep became a critical utility in my ability to earn in college.
Young adulthood — self-study
The summer following my freshman year at Purdue University, I opted to stay on campus. Although I took two classes and worked my part-time job at Pizza Hut, I also had free time galore.
Being the nerd I am, I spent many nights reading MSN Money while watching What Not to Wear. I applied for my first credit card that summer, too. That was long before Credit Karma could curate a personalized list of cards you’d be a good fit for as an applicant.
At age 19, I recall thinking that there was so much I did not know. This was another milestone memory. I realized how involved personal fiance can be — both logistically and emotionally. Money can be particularly tricky in a romantic partnership. At 33, I certainly understand why people feel intimidated by learning about personal finance. Savings, mortgages, insurance, credit management, and investing are also not equally accessible. It’s understandable that young adults feel ashamed they do not know more about money. Many learn about money through fractal observations, as I did.
Lessons learned
The value of transferable skills
Delivering pizza significantly influenced my attitudes. This also shaped my financial habits as an emerging adult. How?
- One major eye-opener was how I’d show up at a customer’s door and hear someone inside say “Pizza guy is here!” only to open the door, see me, and respond with visible surprise, “Oh! Pizza girl?!” → This brought early attention to gendered expectations of work roles and earning power. Interestingly, this often resulted in bigger tips. I learned to use this bizarre psychology to my advantage. In the winter, I deployed trusty phrases such as “It’s cold out here today, hope you’re keeping warm!” This consistently led to a bigger tip.
- Tips relied on delivery efficiency, planning out each trip’s series of stops. → That’s logistics 101. It was manual route optimization for the fastest order delivery and payment collection. There’s another parallel here. My father worked similarly to plan crop harvest logistics to optimize where he was and when. The goal was to maximize revenue through efficiency.
- Beyond efficiency, I learned how to focus on repeat customers within runs of 3–5 stops. → This was a lesson in LTV. Prioritizing weekly regulars meant strong, recurring tips. Recurring tips meant I could begin counting on a predictable income as a college student. This allowed me to save for small things like small Fall Break getaways.
My financial values
- Financial scarcity and my family’s opportunistic businesses illuminated the benefits of creativity, creating opportunity for myself. → Several of my career roles have been created for me because I approached an employer with a pitch/idea about how and why they should hire me. → There is a pretty clear link here to entrepreneurism!
- My parents and grandparents always paid cash for practical vehicles and kept them for decades. → Keeping and driving a car that’s paid off means I can direct income to other things. I sold my Jeep when I moved to Atlanta after college and put the cash in a savings fund. I do not particularly value having a brand new car. My current vehicle — Murray the Murano — is a 2007 Nissan.
- Grandma worked three full-time jobs to support my father’s family as he grew up. She spoke about my grandfather as being a good provider although, she wasn’t warm when describing him. → Life partnerships are also economic partnerships. But, stability and economic egalitarianism are not enough to make a satisfying marriage. It is possible my grandmother resented being a critical contributor to the financial viability of the farm. This issue may have been an elephant in the room for decades in her marriage.
I observed how my parents and grandparents valued money before I began working. Like many families, we did not discuss it openly aloud. The second thrust of my education about money was through earning it myself.
My early lessons with money — the economics of selling cattle and grain; the need to save for things I wanted; how to use existing networks to sell — were more pragmatic and operational than fun and discretionary.
What about you?
Annette Miller is the Cofounder and CEO of Enriched Couples, a financial therapy platform that uses psychology to guide couples through unifying their values, financial priorities, and future goals.
