Not really, but I’ve always veered towards being a saver than a spender, and love a bargain. An early example of this paying off was when my brother and I had savings accounts with the National and Provincial Building Society. We both saved but I had saved more than my brother (or spent less) – and when they merged with Nationwide, I got £500 bonus as I had a balance over £1,000 but my brother didn’t. He was very annoyed at this ‘unfairness’ but it was an example of money working for you that impacted my thinking.
I’ve also always tended to budget/value brands, although this shouldn’t be confused with cheap. The reason why I had more savings than my brother was I bought an Amstrad HiFi system for £70 and he had a Sony one costing £350. They essentially did the same thing, and realistically did not sound any different in a teenager’s bedroom, and both became out-dated at the same rapid rate of knots. This sense of value was reinforced through various work projects where I found that branded products were often made by contract manufacturers in the same factory, with very similar raw materials, but very different market prices.
