I've always been focussed on money. My Dad was a BP petrochemicals exec and was always working. Plus his Older Bruv, Dad, GrandDad, etc. were a family of accountants stretching back in time. I love numbers, have always had aptitude for these things.
When I was a teen, the wheels fell off a bit. Mum and Dad divorced (I was 14), I rebelled big time, left home at 16 (bedsit costs helped by Dad), and I bummed around getting wasted, and playing with Motorbikes etc. till I was about 18 when I saw sense and applied for Maths and Science A levels (fortunately I'd hung around at home long enough to get decent O levels). Fast forward a little and I graduated from Uni, at age 25 years, and in reasonably short order found work in computer programming, gave up bikes, took car test, met Mel, got first mortgage (£33k house), got married, had kids.
I've always run a "balanced budget" as best as possible, cleared mortgage when I could, cut up my credit card, have zilch credit. I basically hate debt because, IMHO, it means someone has control of an element of one's being, and I'm a recovering control freak
. I don't really spend very much at all on myself, except on books, and any spare money for me is currently to help bankroll my daughters (16 and 19) and help Mel out with what she wants (she manages the bills) above and beyond her Screwfix sales assistant salary.
I'm into investing now, since as of about 4 years ago, I realised that most peoples attitude to pensions might not leave them with much money to retire, and I realised that keeping cash in a bank account, was just an invitation to waste on futile house and garden projects. Now I'm hoping to sensibly amass enough so that I can "start slowing down" professional work wise at about age 60 (7 years away), and hopefully still be able to help the kids when ness, and live in reasonable comfort.
But I still wonder whether I'm actually more into numbers than money as such, and whether it's possible to make saving / amassing money into a bit of an obsession.
Matt