Finance and my lack of knowledge

Day 40

Money management, something I'm good at but at the same time causes me a lot of stress and is the base of some of my insecurities.  First, a little bit of background (and many topics will be mixed together but I'll try to focus on the money portion): growing up in my household and considering my family origins, money and financials was/is a topic of discussions with my parents and definitely a case study for future generations.

A few things on the table though: 

1- I never lacked anything that was a primary necessity: good education, plenty of books, food at home, a place to call home, etc.  

2- I never had a regular allowance as some of my friends did, in the contrary, I almost always had to beg for some money.

3- Saving was ALWAYS encouraged, especially by dad and MORE importantly after I moved to Miami.

4- Financial discussions were rarely had in front of me, and investment knowledge (any investment knowledge) was rarely passed from my parents to me even though both of them were basically independents jobwise.  They used to treat me like a kid even though I was not one, but that's material for another day.

5- Money will always be an issue and you will find reasons to complain about it. (Thanks Mom)

And even until today, I really don't feel comfortable putting my money in any kind of investment (may that be buying a house, getting a CD, trading, investing on a business, etc) and the thing is that I've seen some of my friends do really well but other do really poorly, and me, lacking the confidence to move forward with it, turn into chicken shit pretty much.

As mentioned above, from my dad all I learned was to save and from my mom all I learned was to complain about money, from school (made that be high school or college) I had no financial formation and is a shame that my parents didn't do a better job at this, so at least I had a bit more confidence on the matter. 

The reason why I bring this up is simply because I have the opportunity to open a CD at a fairly good interest rate BUT my mind only says: "don't put that money away for so long, something might happen and those are your savings" (thanks dad -_-)

Sometimes I wish I were a bit more "sin verguenza" (shameless) as some people I know who get into 1000 different problems with money, but then I get to my senses and turn into the most grateful person knowing that I don't have those kinds of problems.

But well, just to finish for today, a midterm goal I have is to take some good finance and economy classes to obviously improve myself, but also to get to know this world a little bit better.  "Economy" is one area where I definitely lack a lot of knowledge and understanding, and the only thing I can do about it is to study and learn.

That time I turned my piggy bank into an Amazon gift card.