My Mom Paid For My Education

How being raised by a strong woman launched my passion for financial independence!

It is super important to acknowledge my privilege and be radically transparent as I continue preaching about money. I had a leg up in the race as my mom paid for my education and so I never had student loan debt. However, I also want to acknowledge that when you get something like that paid for and others don't, a lot of guilt often comes with that. It would be a disservice to my mom if I didn't praise her hard-work for giving me this gift because that work truly inspired me to give back.

My mom was a first-generation college graduate and was the only one in her family to go.

She realized from that experience how important education was in that it provided her choices that the rest of her family did not have.

And in our house, education was not an option, but now a requirement.

Interestingly enough, her and my dad disagreed on paying for education. He thought us kids should take on as much debt as needed if we wanted to go. They had and continue to have very different money mindsets..

So, my mom took it upon herself to pay for all four of us to go! This is how she did it.....

Lots of sacrifice, quite honestly.

Instead of family vacations, going out to eat, the nicest clothes, any extra money went to paying our college funds. We lived comfortable, but not excessively.

My mom worked relentlessly on her own career, eventually becoming CEO of a non-profit, and took care of us kids when she got home. We weren't taught to care to keep up with the Jones's or want/appreciate 'nice things.'

And by seeing her go through that, I realized I needed to set myself up for success early on.

Some parents preach - get married, start a family, play it safe, etc.

My mom preached education, the importance of making mistakes as long as we're trying, and financial independence. She demanded we stand on our own two feet and never let ourselves get into a situation where we would have to rely on anyone else.

She said she would get us through college, then we were on our own...

And she did!