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In this week’s Ten Money Questions, we speak with Virginia DeBolt, one of BlogHer’s Contributing Editors for Technology and Web. She is a former educator, who now writes about teaching web design using web standards and other web related topics. She blogs at Web Teacher and First 50 Words. As you’ll read below, she gives us with more than fifty words about money memories, the intersection of work and retirement and needing less “stuff” as we age. Enjoy!
1. You wrote that the elder years have been among your happiest. How does money play into this?
I can get through the month without having to worry about whether or not I can afford to go to a movie now. That’s always been my criterion for whether or not I’m living from paycheck to paycheck. But I think I’m happier now because I’ve worked through so many of the difficult and turbulent issues of my youth and I’m more at peace with myself. I live alone, which is one of the things I enjoy and find peaceful about my life now. I’m in close daily contact with family and friends, but I really love the independence of living my life my way.
2. What is your most significant memory about money?
My parents were both from very modest backgrounds. They had to struggle to make it through high school. My mom worked her last two years of high school as a live-in helper who did laundry and cleaning for a family so she could continue with school. They only arguments I recall them having were about money. My dad would buy a new set of golf clubs or a new shotgun and my mom would get upset. But they agreed on the importance of saving and were careful about putting money aside for the future. And they were determined that I would be able to go to college.
My mom worked when I was a kid, which was not that common in those days. My dad was an electrical contractor. I remember my parents exclaiming with joy the first year he made more than $5000. I have no idea what that would be in today’s money, but it would not be big bucks. They managed well on working people’s wages.
3. What is your worst habit around finances?
I’ve wasted so much money, I could probably have that half a million they say you need to retire if I had it all back. Seems like it always involved a car...
4. I understand that your father was golf pro. What did growing up around country club people teach you about money?
We weren’t really in a country club world, just small town golf clubs. I distinctly remember “working” in the club house at the age of 6 and trying to make change from $10 for a 10 cent Coke. It seems like it took me hours and I worked up quite a sweat, but I got it right without help. Luckily, the adult involved was one of our good family friends and was willing to wait for me to work it all through in my head. When my dad quit climbing poles for the power company and went into an electrical business with a couple of other guys, we moved off the golf courses and built our own small house. The garage was constructed from salvaged ammunition boxes scrounged from a nearby air base after WWII. They built it with a loan of $5000 and a lot of DIY.
5. You were a long-time educator before turning to freelance web design and technical writing. Financial experts love to cite stories about teachers who retire as millionaires. What’s the “get rich” secret about being in education?
Teachers who retire as millionaires? Not in my world. I taught for almost 30 years in public education and as a part time instructor at the college level. All those years I put money into a teachers’ retirement fund and into the educational equivalent of a 401K. Then I worked about 7 years in the high tech world as a technical writer. In those 7 years, I put as much money in a 401K as I had managed to save in 30 years as an educator. There is no comparison in earning power for teachers vs. people in industry.
6. When you moved back to New Mexico, you downsized to a smaller house with fewer things. Do you think stuff become less important as we age?
I love not having so much stuff.
