Our parents are our role models; we develop our sense of ethics, our dispositions, and even our eating patterns based on their behaviors. Did you ever consider that you developed your financial habits from your parents as well?
Financial Behavior Study
A scientific study was conducted by GfK Roper, the world's fourth largest market research company, on 1,004 adults age 18 and over, divided equally between men and women, to see who was the person in their lives that influenced them the most when it came to financial behaviors.
All percentages cited are less than 50%. What this means is that the population was influenced by people other than their parents; this could be a grandparent, or the person themselves. All the other influencers would make up the remaining to get to 100%.
Day to Day Spending: Who Has the Most Influence?
In general, 21% of those surveyed said their fathers had the most influence when it came to financial matters and 26% said their mothers did. This could be because children are exposed more to the day-to-day spending like clothes shopping and grocery shopping, which is done mostly by mothers. However, when it comes to buying the larger stuff, like cars, they see dad step in and the decision is made by both parents.
Borrowing Money from Parents
While dad may not be the one to go to for financial advice, dad is the one to go to when it comes to getting financial aid. Apparently, dads have the softer touch as fathers outrank mothers 21 to 12 percent when it comes to receiving help paying off large credit card bills. Perhaps this is because dads identify more with the burden of debt, or they themselves may have been bailed out by their own fathers.
Mother-Father Gender Bias for Children
It's all about identification. The father's influence was greater on sons (25%) than on daughters (18%). The mother's influence was greater on daughters (30%) than on sons (23%.) It's the old addage that boys want to be like their dads and girls want to be like their moms...well, at least most of the time.
Daddy's Boys an Girls are More Wealthy
Here's a shocking one: how much you earn is tied to the parent who influenced you the most. For those high-income earners, those who make more than $50,000 annually, 28% are more likely to be influenced by their fathers, while 37% of those people making between $20,000 and $29,000 annually were influenced by their mothers.
Family Spending Habits: Out on Your Own
Here is the most gratifying part: when it comes to big purchases, 37% are influenced by their spouse, or "significant other," versus 14% are influenced by their mothers and only 10% are influenced by their fathers. That is key to most successful relationships; you make the big decisions with your partner so they have the most influence on those decisions.
In their 2011 annual survey, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling found that 42% of respondents said their personal financial influence came in one way or another by one or both parents.
Who influenced your personal financial habits the most?