Dad, thanks for these 4 great bits of financial advice

My dad has so many qualities that I have grown to admire and aspire to. His work ethic, character, patience and realistic way of looking at life are a few examples, but the one thing that I respect most is his financial savvy.

He has a masters (in psychology), but he’s not a finance whiz. He doesn’t monitor what’s happening on Wall Street too closely and it’s not like he follows the Federal Reserve on Twitter. He does, however, have a knack with numbers and the self-discipline necessary to live a smart, financial life. And he has set the blueprint for the way I live my life financially.

How parents budget, pay bills, save and spend has a significant impact on their children, with countless studies serving as evidence. In some households, the parents recklessly gamble or spend the family’s finances lavishly, while others budget down to the penny. Those choices have a direct impact on their children, and how they will ultimately grow up to manage their money.

Every day, I write about personal finance: why you should save, ways you should budget and how to maximize your money. I interview money mavens, but many of the practices I use in my own daily life are ones that I learned from my dad early on.

The financial habits that have been ingrained in my head from my dad aren’t specific — and I’ve grown to make my own financial choices separate from his — but they are still the guiding principles I use every day. Without them, my finances would be a mess. In honor of Father’s Day, here are the top financial habits I learned from my dad.

1. Track your expenses

On Saturday afternoons, you could find my dad sitting at his desk in our home office, with a stack of receipts, an accounting calculator, credit card statements and his checkbook. He would patiently go through every transaction, making sure each expense was accurately recorded.

When I was a teenager — and prone to the type of reckless driving that results in flat tires — I was given a credit card for emergency expenses, with strict instructions on what constitutes an “emergency.” Every month, my dad would sit down with me and quiz me on any expenses I had tried to sneak in.

Nothing got past that guy. He tracked my transactions down to the penny.

I cringe remembering the lectures I would get when my dad would find my receipts, crumbled and torn up at the bottom of my junk drawer. I would roll my eyes when he would ramble off the reasons why I needed to make use of the checkbook he gave me. “None of my friends even know what a checkbook is, no one uses that!” I would fire back.

While I’m not as meticulous as my dad was, his constant needling led me to track my expenses using an app (sorry, Dad. The checkbook is still a no-go), which has made my financial life much more manageable. I’m more aware of fraudulent charges, and I’m mindful of when my spending habits start to get a bit out of whack.

RATE SEARCH: Shop today for a mortgage.

2. Keep a budget

My dad was the king of budgeting. I vividly remember the day before I left for college, when he handed me a stack of Excel spreadsheet printouts with every penny budgeted out. I was lucky enough to have my parents’ financial support throughout college, and my dad certainly kept a close eye on what I spent my money on those 4 years. I learned how to budget, and if I ran out of money for groceries one month, that was my own fault.

I began closely watching what I spent, tacking the budget he made for me in Excel above my desk. That budget guided me through college, and after graduation I even used it as a template when I drew up a budget on my own. Now, I use my budget more as a guide than something that needs to be followed down to the penny, but my life would be unmanageable without it. I’m constantly tweaking my budget to reflect my changing priorities, and setting new goals for myself.

I have so many friends who don’t budget at all, or if they do, are struggling to stay within the lines. Beginning to budget when I was 18 gave me a jumpstart on forming the self-discipline to maintain and follow a budget, and my dad was the one who gave me that initial push.

3. Spend responsibly

My dad taught me how to spend responsibly in a way that I think was the most effective: letting me figure it out for myself. He gave me sound advice and was there to answer questions I had, but he never dictated to me what I should do with my cash. When I was a teenager, luxuries — like concerts tickets or trips with friends — were my responsibility, financially. I was also in charge of paying for my own gas, which my 16-year-old self found “so unfair.”

The policy extended to my college years, when extra money for tailgates, gas for my car, spring break and nights out with my friends also was my responsibility. I made enough money waitressing a few nights a week and over the summers to cover those expenses.

When I was an upperclassmen in college, all of my friends were jetting off for spring break in Mexico. I desperately wanted to go, but the trip came with a hefty price tag. I remember talking to my dad about the decision, and the advice he gave me then is advice I still use today when making hard financial choices.

He explained that if I chose to go, I would probably be wiping out the money I had made that school year. Would it be worth it not to have any money in my account? What would I do for the rest of the school year? Stay home when all my friends went out on the weekends?

My dad reminded me that every purchase meant I was giving up something else. Hasty decisions on big purchases lead to major regrets, so it’s important to consider what my life would look like after the purchase is made. Is the trade-off worth it?

Ultimately, I decided not to go on the trip to Mexico.

4. Money is important, but it isn’t everything

While my dad put a lot of emphasis on budgeting and tracking expenses, he always reminded my brother and me that money is not everything. Yes, it’s important to create a stable career for yourself so you don’t have to worry about your rent check bouncing, but no salary is worth being miserable.

He always told us: “It doesn’t matter what you choose to do, as long as you make sure you’re doing the best you possibly can at that job.” He wasn’t deterred by the fact that neither my brother nor I was interested in particularly lucrative fields; instead of medicine or law, we chose music and journalism, respectively. He encouraged our pursuits and reiterated what he had been slowly teaching us our whole lives: As long as we budgeted and lived within our means, we would be OK.

I know that I’m lucky, and that not everyone has the financial guidance I have had throughout my life. I’m glad my dad put up with my eye-rolls and exasperated sighs whenever he would give me (yet another) lecture on the importance of budgeting.

I’m thankful he didn’t budge and fork over cash when I was younger and had asked for it, with the intention of spending it foolishly on things I didn’t need.

His financial habits and practices molded mine, and I couldn’t be more grateful.