When I'd hear the announcer on the news report what the Dow Jones average was each day, I thought he was saying 'chairs' instead of 'shares.' So if the market was down, say, forty shares, I imagined a game of musical chairs, with someone taking away all these gray folding chairs in a big room.

queeneve

I used to think that when you got a credit card, the company just took all your money and gave you a card of that value. When you bought something with it, it would be reprogrammed to reduce the amount of money.

Anon

When I was little my older brother said that pennys where made out of gold and that they were worth a lot of money...So Everytime I got a quarter I would give it to him so he would exchange me with a penny. LATER (a lot of years later) I found out that pennys weren't gold and that I was getting ripped-off.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon

In Kindergarten, I used to believe that when you "borrowed" money, you had to pay back the same coins or bills you borrowed. In the 1960's, milk at school cost a nickel. Sometimes the teacher would suggest that a student who forgot his or her milk money "borrow" a nickel from someone else. But if the nickel went to the cafeteria to pay for the milk, how could you pay the same nickel back to the person you borrowed it from?

Vicki J.

I used to believe that all adults always had money. I remember asking my mom for some money once and being shocked and not believing her when she said she didn't have any.

Anon

When my sister was a freshman in college, my mom called her to tell her her checking account was overdrawn. My sister didn't know what that meant and my mother said, "It means you don't have any more money!" My sister countered, "Yes I do! I still have a whole box of checks!"

Marc

I used to believe that ATMs actually printed out the money fresh every time.

Kitty B

I thought that when people needed money they went to the Bank to get it. It wasn't until years later that I learned that you first had to put it in beforehand yourself.

Joe

When I was little, I used to think that CDs (certificates of deposit) were the same as the CDs that you listened to. I always heard my parents talking about them and so I thought they would invest the CDs they had in the bank or something. When I got a CD for Christmas one year, I thought that my parents took care of the banking part of it for me. It was a while before I figured out the difference between the two.

Katie O.

I used to stay in a house with a six year old and used to take her out a lot. One day when I was trying to get money out of the ATM the screen came up as insufficient funds (I am a poor student with no money). She assured me that it was ok because she knew her mums number and we could use my card to get her mum's money.

waif

When i was younger i used to believe that monopoly money was real and used to try and spend it in shops and at the ice cream van much to my mothers embarressment !!

Sara

I used to think that the bills you deposited in the bank were the same bills you got back later -- until I was about 15 years old!

Anon

That everything was free. You paid for nothing, money was just to look nice.

Blasia M

When I was little I used to believe that there was a man sitting inside ATM machines giving you your money.

Kazza

I thought that a travel visa was a special credit card which was used for travelling

Anon

When I was about 5 years old my brother and sister had me believe that pennies were made of gold so that I would trade my quartes dimes and nickles for pennies

Ryan

I used to think of all prices in terms of age. So, $100 for, say, a house was VERY expensive, because if someone were 100 years old, he/she would be VERY old! If my parents wouldn't buy me some small trinket because it was too expensive, I'd argue, "but it's only $5!" thinking that a 5-year-old is pretty young!

Samantha from California

My mom was BIG into coupons when I was a kid. One time we went to the grocery store and she asked me what kind of cereal I wanted. When I told her, she said we didn't have a coupon for that kind. I guess I must have looked really disappointed, because she let me get it anyway. I was so shocked; I didn't think you were allowed to buy cereal without a coupon.

Anon

One day when I was very young my grandpa was going to the bank. He showed me his check, and explained it to me. I told him I wanted some money too. I got out my red crayon, and some paper. I tried my best to copy his check. I even put a line under my name. I gave it to my grandpa, and asked him to take it to the bank for me. He said it wouldn't work. He said it was a hot check. I thought about it for a while. Then I took out some more paper and my blue crayon. I copied the check again, and handed it to him. I told him it wasn't hot anymore it was cold because I used blue! It took him quite awhile to explain it to me.

Kelly

I believed that if you wanted to buy something, but didn't have enough money, the kind shopkeeper would give you enough "change" so that you could afford it. It is a shame that I only ever tested this theory when buying lollies, instead of trying it out to buy a porsche!

Gisela