I consider myself to be a pretty good saver. I started earning my own money when I was about 9 because my mom owned a salon and she would give me little jobs to do. Each job had a corresponding pay rate and at the end of the week I would tally all of the jobs I did  and my mom would pay me. I loved the feeling of having my own money. I liked planning how to spend it too! Clothes, ice cream and books were my treasures of choice. My mom let me enjoy it for a while but then she hit me with her one of her philosophies about money (there would be many more after that), “buy what you need before you get what you want.” So for me that meant vocabulary books before clothes, lunch before slap bracelets and science project materials before movie tickets.