My grandmother passed away yesterday after a short struggle with cancer.  She was diagnosed just a few weeks ago, so things mercifully went quick.  She was 95.

Her and my grandfather (who died quite a few years ago) were great influences on me in many ways growing up.  I attribute many of my positive money habits to my grandparents. Here are some things that they taught me or helped to re-inforce:

• Debt - My grandparents did not believe in owing people money.  I believe that was largely a generational thing, but I grew up watching them buy something only if they had the money for it. 
• Savings – My grandparents believed in saving money.  Again, they had firsthand experience in the Great Depression.  They never had much but they always had money put away.
• Thrift – My grandparents always searched high and low for deals, especially my grandfather.  Today I always find myself searching for the best deal and looking for coupons, and I know a lot of that behavior was born watching my grandma and grandpa.
• Saving Pennies – My grandparents got me started on rolling pennies as they’d give me some spare change now and then with instructions that I had to put it in a jar and roll it up every so often (probably when I was getting to be a pest and they needed to give me something to do).  I still roll my coins, and in fact, I saved my rolled coins for years and was able to cash in almost $900 in coins which I used to fund a chunk of the engagement ring that I bought for Mrs. Beagle a few years ago.  Hard to do that nowadays with everything (including currency) moving more and more digital!

The things I learned from my grandma and grandpa went far and wide and the money areas were only a fraction of the things that they taught me, but since this is a personal finance blog I thought I’d just share a few of those things.

Although I’m sad that my grandma is gone, she had a great life.  She was 95 years old and up until earlier this year, she still lived alone with minimal health problems.  I’m going to miss her a lot but I’m forever glad that she got to see me got married, and got to see and hold Baby Beagle more than a few times.  Those are just a fraction of the memories I will forever cherish, and I’m comforted knowing that she’s now re-united with my grandfather and that I’ll see her again one day in the future.

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