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. I also like fitting into a smaller space. When I moved, I asked my kids what they absolutely wanted of my stuff and I got rid of everything they didn’t name. We had three garage sales, made several trips to Goodwill, and had the Salvation Army truck come pick up two truckloads of stuff! Getting rid of all that stuff was very liberating. Not long after I moved I wrote a post about the joys of getting rid of stuff on Web Teacher. But it’s also about not having so many needs and not having so many things to pay for on credit as you do when you’re younger.

7. Some say that today’s twentysomethings have a sense of entitlement when it comes to money. Do you agree and how are things different when you were that age?
Twentysomethings were raised in a consumerist world. They reflect that value system. The idea that we need to constantly consume more and more is a contributing factor to many of our problems with jobs, global pollution, and social inequity.

On the other hand, my kids are in their thirties and they struggle to survive. They aren’t paid well, health insurance is frighteningly high, apartment rent is high, utilities are high. They both work at extra jobs and can barely afford to eat, much less save for retirement. It really worries me. For an average working person like my kids, the economy is in a downward spiral that may not be fixable without some huge upheavals in our priorities.

8. One of your blogs is strictly for writing prompts. Give us a prompt about spending, saving or earning money.
OK. Here you go. Finish this story: “Money is... “

9. What are your plans for retirement?
I thought I retired when I quit working at a day job. But I’ve been writing so much, I don’t think I can call myself retired. I’ve written two HTML and CSS books since I “retired.” I write for BlogHer and eHow under set production requirements each month. This past year I’ve done three technical editing jobs on Peachpit Press Dreamweaver and CSS books.

I’ve always been a writer at some deep soul level. I’ve been doing it all my life in one way or another. I don’t think there’s an age limit on that. I’ve had more luck getting paid for technical writing than I’ve managed to find as a writer of fiction or poetry or magazine articles, but I love to write. That’s why I have that writing practice blog. I’m not very articulate in person, so writing is a necessary communication tool for me.

10. What was the best lesson you taught your children about money?
I’m not sure if I taught them anything about money. I’ll have to ask them. But they can both play a mean game of double solitaire.

More about Virginia DeBolt
Virginia DeBolt is a former educator, now writing about teaching web design using web standards and other web related topics. She is the author of two books, Mastering Integrated HTML and CSS & Integrated HTML and CSS: A Smarter, Faster Way to Learn, to help learners of web design create modern, accessible websites. She blogs at Web Teacher and First 50 Words.

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Read other interviews in Nina’s Ten Money Questions series at Queercents.