Father knows best: Valuable money advice from dad

[July 13, 2016]  By Caitlin Kelly

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Every Father's Day, we honor the fathers who helped and guided us. Learning to handle money wisely is sometimes the greatest gift they give us along the way.

Below some highly successful people share the best advice they received from their dads about money:

Barbara Corcoran

Realtor, star on ABC's "Shark Tank"

"My father said, 'If you don't like your boss, just quit!' I did and had 22 jobs before I started my business at age 23 and quit 21 of them. The other two I had been fired. Thank God, I started a business!"

Mehran Assadi

CEO of National Life Group, a provider of life insurance and retirement products

"Dream big but live debt-free. It's important to have dreams and aspirations, but you should be financially responsible as you work to get there."

Adena Friedman

President and COO of NASDAQ

"My father, David Testa, spent his career at T. Rowe Price, including as Chief Investment Officer. In his career, he worked through some of the biggest boom and bust cycles in the past several decades. I loved going to his office as a kid, and learned a lot from him about investing - fundamentals will always win. In the age of social media and 24-hour news, it's easy to be overtaken by the herd mentality and to make investment decisions based on fear of losing out. But the best results always come from deeply understanding the business you're investing in, staying the course, and being patient."

Mary Ellen Iskenderian

President and CEO, Women's World Banking

"The best advice I ever got from my father was given in the context of managing my finances, but I apply it to virtually every other aspect of my life. He urged me always to ask questions, particularly if I didn't understand an explanation - I should never be too embarrassed to speak up with a question. A completely self-taught (and very active) manager of our household financial portfolio, he had a remarkable rate of success in achieving his financial goals, always asking questions and pushing his advisors to explain increasingly complex financial products until he understood how they worked."

Aric Almirola

NASCAR driver

"There is a price to everything, and more goes into that price than just the actual price tag. If you think about the amount of work that you have to do to make that purchase, it makes you think a little harder."

Mika Ihamuotila

CEO, Marimekko

"Get an excellent education and work hard. It worked perfectly for me. Much better than the traditional investment tips. My excellent education was thanks to a diversity of studies and subjects and an international set of universities including studies of several different languages, in my case eight."

Bo Lu

CEO and co-founder of FutureAdvisor

"A dollar saved is a dollar earned - or more like $1.20 earned with taxes, which is why saving was more powerful to my father than earning. Habits are the strongest force you can put on your side, so focus on making good habits and the rest takes care of itself."

Josh Altman

Realtor, author "It's Your Move," featured on Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing"

"Money is for lending, not for spending. My grandfather came on a boat from Russia with no money. His first job? Pushing a push cart. He saved all the money he could, started lending it out making interest and became a very successful moneylender. He taught my father that money's for lending and my father always said the same to me."

Dara Richardson-Heron, MD

CEO, YWCA U.S.A.

"My Dad, father of four girls, made it clear to each of us that we should never be limited in any way by our race or gender, particularly true as it related to receiving equal pay for equal work. That's why I'm so fortunate he was ahead of his time and also very intentional about discussing the tremendous importance of pay equity. Because of his advice and guidance, I am on a mission every day to use my skills, experience, and expertise to help all women achieve economic empowerment and equity."

(Editing by Beth Pinsker and Alan Crosby)

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