Ask people these 331 personal finance questions for storytelling.
I have interviewed hundreds of people about personal finances, including earning, spending, saving, investing, donations, and more. Based on the answers I received in those interviews, I have put together a list of writing prompts and personal finances to ask people when writing narratives. The personal finances series includes four categories that explore youth, young adult, adult and senior adult years. Use these prompts and questions to help you
- Identify events and memories you can write about
- Organize and write your narrative and story
- Develop questions to ask other people about their life’s
- Organize, research and write stories about others
- Know what type of information to include in narratives and stories
- Identify memorabilia, artifacts, photos, documents to include in stories
- Develop ideas for journaling, story starters, poetry, memoirs, and more
Writing Prompts and Questions to Ask People
The “Personal Finances” writing prompts and questions to ask people are part of the 28 articles, 108 category series entitled “7,500-plus Questions About Life to Ask People When Writing Narratives.” The prompts and questions are provided to help you look at personal finances from as many angles as possible when writing narratives about yourself, your family, and others. The categories and types of topics covered include:
- Youth Personal Finances (Age 0-18). Find 48 questions and prompts. Use these prompts and questions to gather and organize information to help you write narratives about yourself, your family, and others. These questions cover all aspects of personal finances: earning, spending, saving, investing, donations, and more, including thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
- Young Adult Personal Finances (Age 18-25). Find 87 questions and prompts. Use these prompts and questions to gather and organize information to help you write narratives about yourself, your family, and others. These questions cover all aspects of personal finances: earning, spending, saving, investing, donations, and more, including thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
- Adult Personal Finances (Age 25-65). Find 94 questions and prompts. Use these prompts and questions to gather and organize information to help you write narratives about yourself, your family, and others. These questions cover all aspects of personal finances: earning, spending, saving, investing, donations, and more, including thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
- Senior Adult Personal Finances (Age 65+). Find 102 questions and prompts. Use these prompts and questions to gather and organize information to help you write narratives about yourself, your family, and others. These questions cover all aspects of personal finances: earning, spending, saving, investing, donations, and more, including thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
Approach each topic from the point of view of the person/lives you are writing about. You don’t have to ask every question. Review the questions and determine which ones are most appropriate to ask. I would encourage you to modify and add questions as you desire.
I have prepared a couple of other resources that will provide value in interviewing for and writing individual, personal, and family narratives: “Complete Guide for Conducting Oral History Interviews” and “Complete Guide to Writing A Personal Narrative.”
Youth Personal Finance Questions (Age 0-18)
Writing Prompts and Questions
“Youth Personal Finances (Age 0-18)” is part of the series for writing prompts and questions about Personal Finances. Use these questions to ask, gather, and organize information to help you write narratives about yourself, your family, and others. If you are writing about a deceased person, think of the questions as if you were the person answering the questions.
- How would you describe your personal and family finances?
• Did you consider yourself to be poor, middle class, or well-to-do? Explain. - Who were the persons that provided income for your family?
- What were the income streams?
- Did you ever have jobs, chores, or others when you made money in your youth?
• Did you have an allowance? Explain.
• Did you have jobs where you were paid for your services? Such as babysitting, mowing lawns, etc.
• How much were you usually paid for each job?
• What did you learn from doing these jobs?
• How did you go about finding these jobs?
• What do you remember about these jobs?
• What were the pros and cons?
• What did you usually do with the money you earned? - Did you ever have a job during your teenage years? Explain.
• What were your jobs?
• How much did you make per hour?
• How did you use your money?
• Did you use your money to support your desires? Such as dating, school fees, clothes, car, makeup, or others?
• What were the pros and cons?
• What are the most memorable experiences?
• Did having a job teach you any lessons? Explain. - Did you save your money for a specific goal? Such as school, car, clothes.
• What was the goal?
• How much did you have to save?
• Did you achieve your goal?
• How did it make you feel?
• What were the pros and cons of this goal?
• What do you remember?
• What lessons did you learn?
• How did it affect your future use of money? - Did your parents or caregivers provide financial support for your financial needs? Explain.
- Were you ever asked or required to use the money you earned to support yourself? Such as buy clothes, makeup, pay school fees? Explain.
• How did that make you feel at the time?
• What were the pros and cons?
• What memories did you have? - Where you ever asked to help with family finances? Explain
• Describe the situation?
• How do you help support the family?
• How did that make you feel?
• What were the pros and cons?
• What memories do you have?
• What lessons did you learn? - What were the most important financial lessons you learned during your youth?
• What did you learn from watching your family?
• What did your family teach you about finances and earning money?
• What did you learn from school classes? - How old were you when you received your first saving account/checking account?
- What else would you like to say about finances at this time?
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Young Adult Personal Finances (Age 18-25)
Writing Prompts and Questions
“Young Adult Personal Finances (Age 18-25)” is part of the series for writing prompts and questions about Personal Finances. Use these questions to ask, gather, and organize information to help you write narratives about yourself, your family, and others. If you are writing about a deceased person, think of the questions as if you were the person answering the questions.
- How would you describe your personal and family finances?
• Did you consider yourself to be poor, middle class, or well-to-do? Explain. - What were your financial values?
- What was your monthly or annual income?
- What were you doing for work at this time?
- Was this enough to live on at this time in your life?
- How were you using your income?
• Monthly expenses? Describe. Explain.
• Necessities? Describe. Explain.
• Education? Describe. Explain.
• Helping others? Describe. Explain.
• Home? Describe. Explain.
• Family? Describe. Explain.
• Saving? Describe. Explain.
• Travel? Describe. Explain.
• Hobbies? Describe. Explain.
• Luxury? Describe. Explain.
• Other? Describe. Explain. - What were financial habits when it came to spending and saving?
• What are the most important lessons you have learned over time? - What were your income streams at this time?
- Was there a time when you used your funds to help others in an emergency? Explain.
• What was the cause around using your funds to help others?
• What were the pros and cons of the experience?
• What did you learn from the experience?
• How did the person, family, friend, or another respond? - Did you donate or used your funds to support organizations, churches, charities or others?
• Who did you support?
• How did you decide to support the organizations?
• What would you like to share about your donations?
• How did that make you feel?
• What were the pros or cons of sharing funds/donations?
• What memories do you have? - Was there a time when your finances were challenged?
• What happened?
• Were you able to overcome those challenges? How?
• What are your memories of this time?
• As a result of this experience, how did your future decisions? - What were the top priorities for spending your finances?
• How did you set those priorities?
• How did you go about fulfilling those priorities?
- Were you able to do any investing? Explain.
• Explain your investing strategy?
• How did you go about learning to invest?
• What were the pros and cons of your investment strategy?
• How did your strategy evolve?
• Was there a time when you lost portions of your investment? What happened?
• What are the most important lessons you have learned about investment? - Was there ever a time when you worked hard to save or purchase something?
• What was your goal? Explain.
• Did you achieve your goal?
• Were you satisfied with the achievement?
• What were the pros and cons? - Did you feel deprived of anything because of your financial status?
- Was there ever a time when you needed financial assistance from the government, church or other? Explain.
• How long did you receive this assistance?
• Did the assistance make a difference? Explain?
• What are your memories of this time?
• What are the pros and cons of receiving assistance? - Was there ever a time when you had to sell positions to make ends meet? Explain.
- Was there ever a time when you needed to declare personal and business bankruptcy?
• In what year was the bankruptcy?
• What was the background surrounding the bankruptcy?
• What caused you to decide for bankruptcy?
• Describe the process of bankruptcy?
• Describe the court process?
• What happened after the bankruptcy?
• How did you feel about the bankruptcy?
• What if any fallout came from the bankruptcy?
• How did the bankruptcy affect your life?
• Were you able to recover from the bankruptcy? Explain.
• How did you live your life differently after the bankruptcy?
• What are the pros and cons of bankruptcy?
• What memories do you have of the bankruptcy? - Was there ever a time when your financial situation caused you to live back at home? Explain.
• How did you feel about moving back home?
• How did your family respond to your need to move home?
• What were the pros and cons?
• What memories did you have? - Was there a time when you overspent? Explain.
• Were you able to recover? How. - How would you describe your debt structure?
• Was there a time when the debt was overpowering? Explain.
• Did you make changes in your life to manage debt?
• Were you able to pay off your debt? How? - What would you consider to be your financial assists at this time?
- What else would you like to share about your finances?
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Adult Personal Finances (Age 25-65)
Writing Prompts and Questions
“Adult Personal Finances (Age 25-65)” is part of the series for writing prompts and questions about Personal Finances. Use these questions to ask, gather, and organize information to help you write narratives about yourself, your family, and others. If you are writing about a deceased person, think of the questions as if you were the person answering the questions.
- How would you describe your personal and family finances?
• Did you consider yourself to be poor, middle class, or well-to-do? Explain. - What were your financial values?
- What was your monthly or annual income?
- What were you doing for work at this time?
- Was this enough to live on at this time in your life?
- How were you using your income?
• Monthly expenses? Describe. Explain.
• Necessities? Describe. Explain.
• Education? Describe. Explain.
• Helping others? Describe. Explain.
• Home? Describe. Explain.
• Family? Describe. Explain.
• Saving? Describe. Explain.
• Travel? Describe. Explain.
• Hobbies? Describe. Explain.
• Luxury? Describe. Explain.
• Other? Describe. Explain. - What were financial habits when it came to spending and saving?
• What are the most important lessons you have learned over time? - What were your income streams at this time?
- Was there a time when you used your funds to help others in an emergency? Explain.
• What was the cause around using your funds to help others?
• What were the pros and cons of the experience?
• What did you learn from the experience?
• How did the person, family, friend, or another respond? - Did you donate or used your funds to support organizations, churches, charities or others?
• Who did you support?
• How did you decide to support the organizations?
• What would you like to share about your donations?
• How did that make you feel?
• What were the pros or cons of sharing funds/donations?
• What memories do you have? - Was there a time when your finances were challenged?
• What happened?
• Were you able to overcome those challenges? How?
• What are your memories of this time?
• As a result of this experience, how did your future decisions?
12. What were the top priorities for spending your finances?
• How did you set those priorities?
• How did you go about fulfilling those priorities? - Were you able to do any investing? Explain.
• Explain your investing strategy?
• How did you go about learning to invest?
• What were the pros and cons of your investment strategy?
• How did your strategy evolve?
• Was there a time when you lost portions of your investment? What happened?
• What are the most important lessons you have learned about investment?
- Was there ever a time when you worked hard to save or purchase something?
• What was your goal? Explain.
• Did you achieve your goal?
• Were you satisfied with the achievement?
• What were the pros and cons? - Did you feel deprived of anything because of your financial status?
- Was there ever a time when you needed financial assistance from the government, church or other? Explain.
• How long did you receive this assistance?
• Did the assistance make a difference? Explain?
• What are your memories of this time?
• What are the pros and cons of receiving assistance? - Was there ever a time when you had to sell positions to make ends meet? Explain.
- Was there ever a time when you needed to declare personal and business bankruptcy?
• In what year was the bankruptcy?
• What was the background surrounding the bankruptcy?
• What caused you to decide on bankruptcy?
• Describe the process of bankruptcy?
• Describe the court process?
• What happened after the bankruptcy?
• How did you feel about the bankruptcy?
• What if any fallout came from the bankruptcy?
• How did the bankruptcy affect your life?
• Were you able to recover from the bankruptcy? Explain.
• How did you live your life differently after the bankruptcy?
• What are the pros and cons of bankruptcy?
• What memories do you have of the bankruptcy? - Did you have credit cards?
• Was there ever a time when your credit card was out of control? Explain.
• What were your philosophy and practices for using credit cards?
• What were the pros and cons?
• What memories did you have?
• Was there ever a time when you had a bad or frustrating experience with credit cards? Explain.
• What lessons did you learn from using credit cards? - Was there ever a time when your financial situation caused you to live back at home? Explain.
• How did you feel about moving back home?
• How did your family respond to your need to move home?
• What were the pros and cons?
• What memories did you have? - Was there a time when you overspent? Explain.
• Were you able to recover? How. - How would you describe your debt structure?
• Was there a time when the debt was overpowering? Explain.
• Did you make changes in your life to manage debt?
• Were you able to pay off your debt? How? - What would you consider to be your financial assists at this time?
- What else would you like to share about your finances?
Click Here to return to the writing prompts and questions about personal finances.
Senior Adult Personal Finances (Age 65+)
Writing Prompts and Questions
“Senior Adult Finances (Age 65+)” is part of the series for writing prompts and questions about Personal Finances. Use these questions to ask, gather, and organize information to help you write narratives about yourself, your family, and others. If you are writing about a deceased person, think of the questions as if you were the person answering the questions.
- How would you describe your personal and family finances?
• Did you consider yourself to be poor, middle class, or well-to-do? Explain. - What were your financial values?
- What was your monthly or annual income?
- What were you doing for work at this time?
- Was this enough to live on at this time in your life?
- How were you using your income?
• Monthly expenses? Describe. Explain.
• Necessities? Describe. Explain.
• Education? Describe. Explain.
• Helping others? Describe. Explain.
• Home? Describe. Explain.
• Family? Describe. Explain.
• Saving? Describe. Explain.
• Travel? Describe. Explain.
• Hobbies? Describe. Explain.
• Luxury? Describe. Explain.
• Other? Describe. Explain. - What were financial habits when it came to spending and saving?
• What are the most important lessons you have learned over time? - What were your income streams at this time?
- Was there a time when you used your funds to help others in an emergency? Explain.
• What was the cause around using your funds to help others?
• What were the pros and cons of the experience?
• What did you learn from the experience?
• How did the person, family, friend, or another respond? - Did you donate or used your funds to support organizations, churches, charities or others?
• Who did you support?
• How did you decide to support the organizations?
• What would you like to share about your donations?
• How did that make you feel?
• What were the pros or cons of sharing funds/donations?
• What memories do you have? - Was there a time when your finances were challenged?
• What happened?
• Were you able to overcome those challenges? How?
• What are your memories of this time?
• As a result of this experience, how did your future decisions? - What were the top priorities for spending your finances?
• How did you set those priorities?
• How did you go about fulfilling those priorities?
- Were you able to do any investing? Explain.
• Explain your investing strategy?
• How did you go about learning to invest?
• What were the pros and cons of your investment strategy?
• How did your strategy evolve?
• Was there a time when you lost portions of your investment? What happened?
• What are the most important lessons you have learned about investment? - Was there ever a time when you worked hard to save or purchase something?
• What was your goal? Explain.
• Did you achieve your goal?
• Were you satisfied with the achievement?
• What were the pros and cons? - Did you feel deprived of anything because of your financial status?
- Was there ever a time when you needed financial assistance from the government, church or other? Explain.
• How long did you receive this assistance?
• Did the assistance make a difference? Explain?
• What are your memories of this time?
• What are the pros and cons of receiving assistance? - Was there ever a time when you had to sell positions to make ends meet? Explain.
- Did you have credit cards?
• Was there ever a time when your credit card was out of control? Explain.
• What were your philosophy and practices for using credit cards?
• What were the pros and cons?
• What memories did you have?
• Was there ever a time when you had a bad or frustrating experience with credit cards? Explain.
• What lessons did you learn from using credit cards? - Was there ever a time when you needed to declare personal and business bankruptcy?
• In what year was the bankruptcy?
• What was the background surrounding the bankruptcy?
• What caused you to decide for bankruptcy?
• Describe the process of bankruptcy?
• Describe the court process?
• What happened after the bankruptcy?
• How did you feel about the bankruptcy?
• What if any fallout came from the bankruptcy?
• How did the bankruptcy affect your life?
• Were you able to recover from the bankruptcy? Explain.
• How did you live your life differently after the bankruptcy?
• What are the pros and cons of bankruptcy?
• What memories do you have of the bankruptcy? - Was there ever a time when your financial situation caused you to live back at home? Explain.
• How did you feel about moving back home?
• How did your family respond to your need to move home?
• What were the pros and cons?
• What memories did you have? - Was there a time when you overspent? Explain.
• Were you able to recover? How. - How would you describe your debt structure?
• Was there a time when the debt was overpowering? Explain.
• Did you make changes in your life to manage debt?
• Were you able to pay off your debt? How? - What would you consider to be your financial assists at this time?
- Were you able to retire as a senior adult?
• How did you prepare?
• When you retired, how much did you have for retirement?
• What were your income streams at retirement?
• Did you feel it was necessary to supplement your income during retirement? Explain.
• What were the financial pros and cons of retirement?
• What were your goals during retirement?
• How did you use your retirement funds? - What else would you like to share about your finances?
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