Photo Credit: kenteegardin via Compfight cc

When I was around 10 years old, my mum introduced me to the idea of working for my money. Although I’d had pocket money before that and was expected to help out with odd jobs around the house, it wasn’t until I was around 10 that Mum started offering me the chance to earn “big bucks” by doing bigger jobs around the house.

For a girl with an obsession with Tammy Girl and The One And Only clothing shops, this was like a dream come true. Finally I could earn my own money, save it and then spend it on a new T’shirt or skirt (or, later, a pair of Adidas Campus trainers).

As I grew up the amount of money I could earn got bigger. By the age of 14 I was allowed £20 a month from the family allowance, earned through doing the family ironing each week (I think my mum got a good deal there!). This was topped up with cash earned from other odd jobs around the house. 

And then, at 15, I got my first proper job. I was a Saturday girl in a local hairdressers’. I earned a whopping £17.50 per shift for sweeping up hair, making tea, answering the phone and – eventually – washing hair and rinsing foils. At the time, this seemed like big money.

I saved my money, using it to buy clothes and, when I was 17, pay for my first holiday without my parents. By then I had worked in an after school telesales job and graduated from there to sales assistant at a high street cookie chain (that one won me some new friends at college as I’d get to bring in all the unsold cookies the following day!).

I’m not that surprised to learn, then, that 66% of 18 – 24 year olds today are saving regularly each month. Although their average savings pot is much bigger than mine ever was, at an impressive £3,200, they’re proof that many young people are already familiar with the idea of putting a bit of money aside when they can. However, according to the latest Disposable Income Index less than one percent of young people questioned said their financial priority was to put money into a pension. As Scottish Friendly put it, they’re “raving, not saving”.

This is a familiar concept to me. As an eighteen year old student my last priority was a pension. I needed to earn money to pay for bills, nights out, new shoes and Topshop accessories. I wasn’t about to start thinking about retirement.

But now, at the age of 30, the idea of a pension doesn’t seem like such a silly one. In fact, it’s strange that I don’t have one really, because I’ve always been pretty sensible when it comes to saving. And – let’s face it – it’s not like I’m getting any younger.

Do you have a pension? When did you start becoming aware of the value of money? Are you a saver or a spender? 

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This is a commissioned post. 

The post would not promote Scottish Friendly’s products but would include a ‘nofollow’ link back to Scottish Friendly page (above) as well as links to the their social media accounts (listed below).

The post When did you become “money aware”? appeared first on Mother's Always Right.

I never buy clothes for myself, you see. Or rarely anyway. It’s even rarer that I make an impulse purchase.

My impulse buy

It’s a money thing.

This is something I cringe from writing, because it’s so at odds with “me”. I hate to talk about money. Which, being self-employed, is probably something I need to get over.

Maybe it’s a British thing. Or maybe it’s that I don’t find “money chat” particularly interesting. And by “money chat”, I mean anything to do with purchases, status symbols, big cars, expensive stuff, houses.

Which again, is a problem. Because we’re saving for a house.

But I want to get over my issue with “money chat” to pose a question. It’s something that I’ve wanted to write about since I was approached about an opportunity last week.

Rewind to this time last year and our financial situation was a very different one. I had one month left of unpaid maternity leave. I had already handed in my notice so I knew I wouldn’t be returning to my pre-baby job as a radio journalist. Instead, I was carving out a career as a freelance journalist and writer.

My husband’s teaching salary was a bit lower than it is now and the work wasn’t exactly pouring in. It’s hard starting out.

Money was a constant topic of conversation. Although we had enough to pay our bills – rent, taxes, food, etc. – we weren’t earning enough to save. Which, again, is a problem when you’re trying to save for a house. In the current climate of big deposits anyway.

A year on and the freelance work has picked up pace. I’m earning money writing and broadcasting. I love what I do but I put in around 65 hours a week, as well as being a mum to Frog during the afternoons.

Anyway, back to the money.

Most of what I earn goes on petrol, childcare and savings. It’s all about the house.

So when an opportunity for a little extra rears its head it’s hard to look away.

This time last week I was approached about putting a “guest post” on my blog. This “guest post” consisted of writing a random post about a subject supplied by a marketing agency. Within the post I was asked to include a link to a specific company. The link had to be a “Follow link” and would be anchored to a relevant word.

I replied to the company making the offer, explaining that if I was being paid to write about a product and include a link, I would always clearly label this type of post as “Advertorial” or “Sponsored”. This is because I wouldn’t want to confuse my readers with previous instances when fellow bloggers or writers have provided content on this blog in the “guest post” form.

I also mentioned that I would really rather only include “NoFollow” links on my blog, if I was being paid for them. This is because of Google’s recent changes to terms and conditions. But, you know, my main concern was the whole labelling of the post.

The company replied to say that yes, that was all OK. And would I be happy for their technical people to take a look at my blog and match me to a client. I said yes, that’s fine – but can you confirm in writing that you’re fine for the post to be labelled “Advertorial” or “Sponsored”… And what about the Follow / NoFollow link thing?

There was no answer for a day or so and then the company replied. They had found me a client and they gave me a link, saying that they would increase the amount of money they could pay me if I could publish the post within 24 hours.

I still had no confirmation of the labelling thing. Or the Follow / NoFollow thing. But I did have an amount of money written down. And it was a healthy amount of money.

But I stuck fast. I wasn’t going to agree to anything until I was sure of what I was agreeing to.

It went back and forth for a while. Still no clear answers.

And then I had an email. The company were willing to nearly double the amount they were offering me. This is the amount I would earn doing more than two radio shows. It’s the amount I’d earn selling more than two features. It’s not an insignificant amount.

But for that money I had to be willing to include a Follow link (and go against Google’s t’s and c’s) and, more importantly, I had to pretend like the post was my own.

In essence, I had to include a link in a post about a subject that I was being paid to write about, but I had to bury it amongst all my other posts, so it didn’t stand out as paid for.

I refused.

The company emailed me again. This time they offered yet more money. They said they could come to a compromise. How about if I labelled it as a “Guest Post”. They were afraid the terms “Advertorial” and “Sponsored” would not work. Their client would not be happy.

Again I refused. I said thank you very much, but no thanks. I didn’t feel comfortable with misleading my readers. Something about the whole offer made me feel very uneasy. I felt that to publish a post I was being paid to write, without making this transaction clear to my readers, would not be ethical.

I stood on top of my mountain of morality and I looked down.

And I saw the me of this time last year. And I wondered very much if she would have overlooked these issues and accepted the money.

And I don’t know.

What would you have done?

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