Keeping money local, protecting small Maine town economies.
Do you think more could be done to educate youth about handling money?
How important it is knowing what happens when money is or is not spent locally?
They say money habits of a child by seven years of age are established.
Do you include your children in financial literacy training? To know the value of goods or services and the work needed to pay for them?
Small Maine town and country kids especially are taught early on that money does not grow on trees.
And lectured that whatever you do purchase better have value, be worth it and then treated with respect.
But in your household is the emphasis on just getting good grades?
That daily household chores, earning money and learning how to manage it can wait until high school or college graduation?
I remember a high school class called Co Op where the instructors visited our work place.
To evaluate performance, to also have guest speakers to educate on real life money decision making.
How to buy a used car, how cash is handled a little more frugally than just whipping out a plastic credit card for swipe grab and go.
And basic better money management is the key to a better life.
It is important for kids to know it’s not how much money you make but what you do with it that is the key.
But back to the keeping the money locating and from leaving the local Maine small town economy.
The Internet and Interstate don’t help that goal to shop local, keep the money in the home town economy.
To easy to go online and find what you need that will be here tomorrow or the day after that.
To hop in the car and head down the highway to a larger population area with more choice and a bigger selection.
All scooped up and taken home drive through quick.
FAME offers some help with financial wellness, saving and spending literacy for the young Mainers.
Maybe local banks are part of the financial literacy training, not just parents.
I remember the small brown envelope at grade school that was filled with coins and put into a local bank account.
To watch the money grow and to learn how compounding interest works.
And kids got in the habit of saving, no matter how small an amount to make it grow.
To build security and have a nest egg for a rainy day or bump in the road setback.
As a kid running a local Maine farm fresh vegetable roadside stand, first hand witnessing how different customers “valued” their hard earned dollars.
Some wealthier patrons asking how fresh, when this was picked. And physically ripping into ears of corn checking for worms.
Looking for the best ears like folks sort through a pile of 2’x4’s at the local lumberyard for the straightest, most perfect ones.
Getting your money’s worth and spending it locally can be a challenge when not so much selection is available in a small Maine town.
But how willing are you to wait for the local Maine small town business owner, shop keeper to order what you need?
Or to hold up, wait a minute to shop, to have impulse self control finding what you need at the lowest price possible.
Too tedious? Thinking just get another job to create the cash that’s burning a hole in your pocket?
They say a dollar spend in a small Maine town spins around, turns over six to seven times.
How valuable is it for you to shop local and know your store owner in your small Maine home town?
What steps and lengths will you go to protect your local small Maine town or regional economy dollar?
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA