Financial Management 101: My Tootsie Roll Turning Point

I ran-skipped home, clutching a grass-stained, ten-dollar bill in my hand. I had never felt so rich in my entire (pre-teen) life! My burgeoning lawn-care business was only a week old and I was already seeing incredible returns. $10 whole dollars!  (Note: Ten dollars was the equivalent of one thousand Tootsie Rolls purchased at the local baseball park.) Just the thought of all those Tootsie Rolls filled my mouth with Saliva as I ran, which made it harder to breathe, but I didn't mind spit or drool as my clothes were covered in filth anyway.  Soon, I'd ask my dad to break the bill so I could finally discover if it would be possible to fill my first-baseman’s glove with tubular, chocolate goodness.

Like most Saturday mornings, I found my dad in his study working on our family’s finances.  Feeling on equal terms—now that I was bringing money into the household—I proudly barged into his office revealing my prize.

After doling out the anticipated praise, Dad asked me if I wanted him to take charge of the cash.  "oh, yeah," I thought to myself.  "I guess I won't be spending the whole wad on candy."  Trusting my dad to be an honest and faithful steward, I forked over the damp, and slightly-greener-than-normal bill.  Together, we journeyed to the kitchen, where taped to the inside of the food pantry hung the “The Money Board”—the place where Tanner children magically transformed their cash into “Tanner credit.”

Date	Source	Total	Tithing (10%)	Saving (50%)	Spending (40%)
01/26	Grandma	0.50¢	(Gift)		0.50¢*
02/07	Dare	$1.00	0.10¢	0.50¢	0.40¢
03/26	Birthday	$1.25	(Gift)	$1.13**	0.50¢
04/02	Tootsies	-0.25¢			-0.25¢
05/25	Balance Forward	$2.50	PAID	$1.88	0.85¢
05/25	Yard Work	$10.00	$1.00	$5.00	$2.50

*I was sometimes explicitly instructed not to save money that I was given as a gift.

**Dad would always let me round up.

Due to the meager earnings I had collected up to that point, I had never appreciated the sting of how many Tootsie Rolls I was losing by saving money for a mission fund and college tuition. Life had suddenly become hard. Did I really want to start saving for a mission, now?

As my dad helped me calculate the sums, I somewhat-reluctantly scrawled five dollars in the savings column.  In that moment of faith, I felt a reassuring surge of excitement rush over me. I was that much closer to reaching a major life goal! All at once, two things became true to me: 1) Saving money is great! And 2) Tootsie Roll hoarding is a childish pursuit. I began to dream of the next task I could perform to augment my currently-insignificant, but rapidly-accumulating sum of savings.  I even added the money I was reserving for Tootsie Rolls to my savings total.

Years later, I had successfully paid for a mission, and 10 years of university tuition without ever going into debt. Dad’s money management system worked! Unfortunately, I now lived on my own and “The Board” had become inaccessible. So naturally, I adapted Dad’s paper-based method for a digital age. I re-created “The Board” using Microsoft Excel™. I formulated cells to distribute totals across a spreadsheet: 10 percent went to tithing, 50 percent to savings, and 40 percent to spending. In recent years, I have upgraded to using Mint.com, which helps me track my spending in real time, and build an annual budget.  It also offers personalized suggestions on how I can save money. Despite all the new-fangled features that current and future technologies have to offer, the foundational principles I learned using “The Board” will continue to drive my financial values:

• Tithe first. When I give the Lord my first 10 percent, it’s easier to live on less. (Philippians 4:11)
• Save before spending. The more I save, the greater the security net I have in the inevitable event of financial emergencies.
• Spending money facilitates relationship-building. I’ve actually learned to curb being an obsessive, penny-pincher tendencies.  I used to hoard my spending cash at the expense of enjoying uplifting activities with friends or family. (e.g., Sharing Tootsie Rolls on a sunny day at the ballpark.)
•  It’s okay to move unused spending money into savings. I’ve found joy in making annual contributions to a Roth-IRA.
• Don’t purchase on credit what you can’t pay for in cash.  (e.g., I paid for my car in cash.  I pay my bills directly from my bank account, not from credit.  I consult my bank account to see what variety of food I can afford that week.) There are very few potential exceptions to this rule, including: education, medical emergencies, and a house.
• Be cash smart. I’m most often tempted to spend cash that is burning a hole in my pocket. “The Board” taught me to immediately deposit cash so I can avoid the temptation to spend it.  Most of the time, I make purchases on credit, which I immediately pay off. However, I do withdraw a small amount of cash to use for cash only situations.

By following these principles I have enjoyed a financially stress-free life, developed self-mastery, and established wise financial habits.  I have been afforded countless opportunities to improve myself and offer assistance to others in need. Regardless of the tools I will use to manage my money in the future, I will always have the principles I’ve learned from “The Board” to guide me. And though I now have enough money to buy as many Tootsie Rolls as I could possibly stomach, the sweetness that I appreciate now is the reward of being my own responsible, financial steward.