The Things I Wish I Knew Like many of us, growing up I never really understood how money worked. I just knew we never seemed to have enough of it. We weren’t poor by definition. My mom worked full-time, and she worked hard. We lived in a lower to middle class neighborhood, I went to a decent public school. On the surface, things looked okay – but behind closed doors, money was always tight. Despite her steady income, we lived paycheck-to-paycheck. Family vacations were unheard of. Back-to-school shopping wasn’t exciting and filled with name-brand clothes and shoes. We didn’t eat out frequently, and we didn’t buy new things unless they…