In my 'research' into personal finance, I've become very interested in peoples attitudes about money and where they come from. Of course, some of this is my Psych Major rearing its ugly head, but its still interesting. My parents were big influences. We were never poor growing up, but money was very tight.

My mom is the deal finder, she's really good at finding sales & coupons and saving as much money as possible. But she also buys things just for the deal. Their house is crapped up with about 20 years of junk and unopened items that were bought on the cheap. Recently, they had a pipe burst in their basement and had to junk a lot of it...hope that gives them something to reflect on.

They've had a LOT of financial set backs over the years, huge medical problems, hospital stays & bills,plus a housefire that resulted in us having to move into an apartment for 6 months. AND most recently, the pipe bursting.

I've been very worried about their financial situation, knowing that in their later years, it will be up to me to help them if necessary.

Due to my being in school for Financial Management, my father has taken me aside & shown me their retirement and investment accounts to get some advice from me and he revealed his "secret" to financial planning. He explained it to me this way: Knowing my mother and his spending habits; over the years, he has purposefully kept them cash poor, by heavily funding 401ks, Iras and investment accounts. So they have a lot of savings, much more than I expected, so they're actually much better off than I thought. YAY Dad!

So now I'm taking a hard look at my retiremnent. And as of this last pay period, my 401k is over $10,000.00 This is pretty good considering I've only had the 401k 2.5 years.

On a brighter note, here's a funny story about doing anything just to save a few cents: When I was a kid, my friends dad came home from the store and was all excited because between a sale and coupons, he saved $3.00 on dog biscuits. His family responded "Thats great Dave, but you know we don't have a dog, right??" He was so consumed with the savings, he didnt see that he was actually wasting money by buying the item at all. Ironically, he gave the dog biscuits to his frugal mother, who also does not own a dog, but who fed the biscuits to her cats!! I love that story and it happened like 15 years ago.