This post may contain affiliate links, allowing us to earn a commission on the products we would recommend to our families and closest friends. You can find more info on our Legal Stuff page.

Are you a spender or a saver? And did nurture or nature make you that way? S&S reader, John Talbot (aka Money Nerd), has some thoughts on the topic and some tips for turning yourself into a saver!

Nature and Nurture – How it Impacts Our Savings

Saving money shouldn’t be difficult, should it? When you think about it logically, it should be simple and straightforward to save. You simply work out a budget, and any money not needed to cover bills and essentials is put to one side to save.

It sounds simple, but for many people saving up money can be a constant challenge and not one they will always succeed at. But why is saving up so difficult for some people? Let’s try and answer that question and work out whether saving is a product of nature or nurture.

Early Teachings

One of the most common reasons many people struggle to save is down to education. We might learn about numbers at school, but there is a big difference between learning about finances and your typical maths class.

Financial education in UK schools, for example, is only a recent addition to our secondary school curriculums, and even now many schools struggle to implement a system for effective teaching. Given that it’s such a recent addition, it hasn’t benefited those who need it today. The vast majority of working people today won’t have learned about budgeting or saving at school, which means many people will be relying on their parents.

It’s clear that nurture is very important when it comes to learning about how to save and spend money responsibly. Outside of school and closer to home, it’s our parents and guardians that have the biggest impact on our attitudes towards money. Let’s take a closer look at the role our parents and guardians play, shall we?

Learning by Example

Saving money and learning about financial responsibilities is something that is very much a nurturing process. That isn’t to say nature isn’t important (I’ll talk more about that later), but it can’t be denied that learning to save is inherently more impacted by nurture like the environment we grow up in and how our parents teach us.

If a child grows up in a poorer household in a more impoverished location then one of two things could happen:

1) they are more frugal and keen to save. The child’s parents will likely put a stronger emphasis on saving and show them how exactly they can do this by budgeting.

2) the parents might not have been able to pass down any financial teachings because they have struggled themselves when it comes to things like budgeting.

Equally, if a child grows up in a wealthy household, that again doesn’t mean they will not be taught how to save. In fact the opposite may be true; they may not grow up to appreciate the value of money.

There really are too many different variables, but whether it is positive or negative, what we can conclude is that, for many of us, how we are brought up to think about money and finances will impact our attitudes and behaviour towards money and saving.

Taking it to the Next Level

While I think it’s fair to say our parents’ teachings will have a huge impact when it comes to learning and developing our financial skills, they alone can only teach us so much. Some parents give their child pocket money better teach their children about saving where others only provide money if chores are done.

In most cases, children who have to work to earn pocket money, or have to get a job like a paper route, will grow up to be more financially responsible. This is because they have worked for the money, so it will hold more value to them.

That’s just one example. Of course, there are many different ways this can approached, and everyone will be impacted differently. But in the general sense, the more you have to work for something the more you will value it.

So, is our attitude towards saving money all about nurture then? While I would argue that nurture is the main force between the two when it comes to teaching people the importance of saving and developing the skills they need to do so, nature is also important.

Nature is a little more complex when it comes to wanting to save money as it all comes down to psychology and people’s individual personalities. Some people will just be more naturally inclined to save and better able to resist the urge to spend money. Do you know someone who is thrifty or simply better able to stick to their budget? If so then this could easily be down to their personality and natural ability.

The left-brain right-brain theory is a good representation of how this works. Left-brained people are believed to be more logical and analytical because the left part of their brain is more dominant. This means left-brain people will be more likely to want to save and will be more likely to think about the long-term impact of spending rather than focusing on the short-term gains of spending.

The Importance of Saving

Saving money is more important than ever nowadays, but it is also something that is increasingly difficult. Even the Bank of England raising the basic rate of interest has done little to make a difference, which isn’t too surprising when you consider that the rate of inflation is still much higher than the average person’s annual pay rise.  

It can be done. It isn’t always easy, and a drive to save is something that many people will sometimes have to build themselves. Our parents and guardians have planted the seed. It’s up to us to develop the skills we need to save if we want to succeed.

———————————-

Collaborative Author Bio: John Talbot, known in the online financial community as “Money Nerd” helps people get out of debt with his writings on moneynerd.co.uk.