When I last left off two weeks ago my university education was cut short a few months short of graduation, as I moved home, what a pivotal choice that was. I didn’t get my degree. The was the worse use of a $13,000 loan.

After coming back to Nova Scotia I had to get a job. My first job post university was as a nanny. Never thought I would go to university to become a nanny but I did. Over the next few years I moved from job to job and moved from city to city never really having a plan for my life. Basically I surfed through my twenties and thought nothing of it. During my twenties I had 14 different places I called home. I moved from Nova Scotia to Ottawa back to Nova Scotia to Toronto to Vancouver to Los Angeles back to Toronto and then back to Nova Scotia all within 10 years.

What did I learn through this time period?

1. Have open eyes and an open heart. For six months in Los Angeles I got to work with some of the cities poorest the homeless. It was a humbling experience that taught me the value of life in itself. I worked Venice Beach which at the time had a large tent city of homeless people. I was shocked to meet and befriend homeless families. For me this was what I came to think of as an American tradegedy. It was a time when I stretched and grew and I am glad that excperience is part of my makeup.

2. If you ask, sometimes the answer is Yes. Sometimes I think we are so used to the doors getting closed on us that we forget to ask and ask big. Sometimes I still have trouble with this but I know deep down ask and ask and walls do come down.

3. Faith is a key part of life. In my twenties I came to know God in a real way. Now things have changed somewhat as I am not sure about organized religion but I do have a deep faith in a very loving God.

Today I am continuing the story of how I got to be the frugal common cent saving mom that I am. Two weeks ago I told you about the Teen years and well now it is time that the teen goes to university.

When I was in grade 12 my mom married an awesome man named Alfred Smoat. He was ex military, strict, and he loved my mom and treated her well. For her this was one of the very best things to happen in her life. Now with a father figure in the house things were a changing. Home seemed to have more structure.

Shortly after my mom married my stepfather they were transferred from jobs in Winnipeg, Manitoba were both had worked at Deer Lodge Hospital to the east coast where mom began working at Shearwater and my stepdad at the Dockyards. Finicially things seemed good and there was enough money around. I was just graduating high school and decided instead of going to the University of Manitoba where I had been accepted into the Education program ( and yes I wanted to be a teacher), I would move to Nova Scotia and attend Dalhouise doing a Bachelor of Arts. That choice forever changed my life.

I went to Dal for the first year of my Bachelor of Arts. This was my first time getting a loan, and credit, and both came way to easy.

Life lesson

1. Don’t do school on loans alone. I don’t think students realize how much that education will cost them, and then as well what happens if you cant afford to pay it back is not pretty. I know from experience.

2.Never give an eighteen year old a credit card. I was offered and got 6 my very first year of university, and guess what they were not used wisely. I had no idea what credit was or what happeened if you didnt pay on time.

After spending one year at Dalhousie I missed Winnipeg very much. I decided to continue my education at the University of Manitoba, so in the fall of 1984 I was headed back west. I decided I wanted to join a sorority. I attended rush and then pledged Alpha Phi. I loved the sisterhood and the connections that came with sisterhood. There was a downside though for me. I was living a lifestyle that well I couldnt afford, after all do you realize how much a formal dress costs??

3. Another life lesson here, don’t try to keep up with others around you. I wish I understood that at the time.

I got myself more and more in debt, and even at one point worked 3 part time jobs in an effort to have it all and be it all. I did have some successes at school. I lead a student campaign that stopped a new radio station from going up on campus that would of cost present and future students millions.

4. Learn how to connect and network was another lesson I learned. That campaign got one of the largest voter turn outs that a Canadian university had ever seen. I was proud and still am of what we did that day.

I really enjoyed most of my university years but I also feel that I was two people sorority girl and then there was me who really at times felt lost in it all. My time at university was cut  short my final year when my mom got sick my final year and I returned to Nova Scotia.

Today I continue the series I began last Sunday.

When I was a child, I thought like a child and well when I became a teen I dreamed of grander. There were lessons for this girl with dreams.

I was able to get my first job, babysitting for neighbours by the age 13. I thought it was great. I could earn money and then spend it on what I wanted. What did I learn?

• Money is currency that gets you things. For me as a teen this was the first time I could buy things, pick out things and have a say, and this was all because I had the money to do so. One of the first things I did as a teen was go to a beauty salon and get a haircut. How I got in trouble for that one. The second thing money bought me was getting my ears pierced.

I used babysitting money to fund the wants of a teen with no thought really of saving unless there was a choir trip I wanted to go on and there was a few. Then as I entered high school it was time to get my first real job. Burger King was my first part time job. There were several lessons that this first job taught me.

• When you have a job you have responsibilities. You have to show up on time, you have to do your job.
• Customer Service is important. Really isn’t it all about how we treat each other.
• Don’t show up and you will get fired. I didn’t look at a schedule properly and missed a shift. I was fired the next day.

My teen years saw me learning to handle money, saving and responsibility all at the same time. I wish back then there were the mentors and programs we have today to teach kids about money. I feel this is the most critical time in a person’s financial history and much of our financial history reverts back to how we treated money as a teen.

Next week it will be all about my Sorority Years and the Life Lessons of being an Alpha Phi.