"When I was 8 or 9, my parents sat me down and drew a chart explaining how expensive college was, what % they would pay and how I'd have to make the rest of it myself. So by the time I was 9, I was already like, I've got to make some money."

The lovely Elizabeth Gilbert

I just came across a fantastic article on Wealthsimple where Andrew Goldman interviews Elizabeth Gilbert (she of Eat, Pray, Love fame) about money and how it plays a factor in her life.

I am a HUGE Elizabeth Gilbert fan. I love her books and love listening to her interviews. She is delightful, funny, smart, and very, very charming. I've been aware of her thoughts about money for a while since she has spoken honestly and openly about this in both Eat, Pray, Love and in various interviews. We have very similar thoughts about money and I personally relate to what she says.

Here are some of my favorite parts of the interview:

I've thought about money my entire conscious life. Both my parents had real anxiety about money. My mother grew up on a very financially strapped dairy farm in Minnesota, and every season her family wondered if they were going to lose the farm. So she developed a particular fear of debt and financial dependency, and a fear of raising a woman in the world who would not be able to take care of herself. So to me the message was: You have to find a way to support yourself in the world. We'll take care of you until you're 18, and then that's it; you're an adult. The biggest lesson of our childhood was frugality plus self-sufficiency.

When I was eight or nine, my parents actually sat me down and drew a chart explaining how expensive college was, and they explained what percentage they would be able to pay and how I would have to make the rest of it myself. So by the time I was nine, I was already like, Damn, I’ve got to make some money. Eat, Pray, Love definitely gave me a financial independence that very few creative people get to have. But it also came with a sense of great responsibility.

Rule number one for me was: Don't lose it; don’t pull a Mike Tyson. Don’t go crazy. There is no amount of money so huge that a person can't blow through it if they aren't thinking straight. I think I inherited in my DNA a deep constitutional fear of losing the farm, and every once in a while I still have to remind myself that there is no farm to lose.

Read the rest of the interview here!