Being financially literate means possessing the skills and knowledge that allow someone to make informed decisions regarding their money. This includes debt, budgeting, saving, and investing. Some people learn these skills from taking classes in school, experiencing real life situations, or, like me, having learned everything they know from their parents. Being financially literate sets you up for success in life because it teaches you how to manage your money, so you will never have to struggle to make ends meet.  The greatest lesson my parents have taught me in regards to making informed decisions about money is to always have a plan to financially support myself. This is an idea that has been on my mind a lot this past year since I am currently deciding how I am going to afford college. My parents have educated me to find solutions so that I won’t be in terrible debt my entire life. To do this, I have picked a college that isn’t awfully expensive while also having everything else I need. I also plan to enroll in a work-study program in college so that I can make money to help offset the cost while I’m there. My goal is to work every summer that I’m home to do this as well. I am also taking out loans so that I won’t be struggling as much in the next four years. However, I hope to be able to pay for most of my expenses by applying for scholarships like this one so that I won’t have to worry about paying them back. I have made it a point to submit an application for every one that comes my way, but I will have to wait to see how much financial aid I will actually receive. Since I plan on attending dental school after college, my parents have also explained to me how loans carry over throughout your schooling. Knowing this, I feel much better about my financial situation because I won’t have to pay them back until I’m actually making a decent salary.  Growing up, my parents also showed us different techniques on how to save our money. First of all, every time we got paid for helping out our grandparents or received some cash for a holiday, my parents instructed us to put a quarter of it into savings. This either meant the money went to their safe, where our designated savings jars were, or it got put in our piggy banks. From doing this, we learned to never spend all of our money at once in case we came across something that we wanted. Today, I know this habit allows me to have a safety net for my future expenses as well as unplanned financial needs. These past few years, I have also learned how to budget. After I started working at the Greene County Country Club, I started splitting up the paychecks I was given. I would immediately mentally calculate how much gasoline would cost me and subtract it from my total. Then, I gave myself a range of money I could spend from then until the time I got my next paycheck, setting some aside. By doing this, I was never running short on funds because I wouldn’t let myself go over my limit, even though I still had money saved in my account. So, all in all, I’ve learned some great lessons about saving, budgeting, and planning ahead that have helped me become financially literate.