Editor's note: In the coming days, members of the Consumer Reports Money staff will be sharing family lessons about money, both positive and negative. You're welcome to share your experiences, as well. Here, the sixth in the series:

My folks came from a long line of top-notch savers, although they were by no means miserly. My mother’s father was a coin collector. He gave my mom a set of blue leather books, each page nearly filled with pennies, nickels, dimes, or quarters from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. She told my sister, brother, and I that when were older we might want to finish the collection for him.

When I was five and my brother was ten he started sneaking coins out of the books. Soon it would have been apparent to anyone who had seen the collection that there were a lot more empty holes on each page. Knowing he was on the eve of apprehension and shared punishment was easier to bear, he split many of the remaining coins with me. We went on an afternoon bender of Sugar Daddies, Chocolate Neccos, Atomic Fireballs, SweeTarts, Clark Bars, Good N’ Plenty, Chuckles, and a few pairs of Wax Lips. Then we got impressively sick. In our moment of weakness we confessed to our parents. 

We were punished, of course, although my mom was more sad than angry. But that soon faded. The hardest bit to comprehend was that we couldn’t replace what we’d taken–the coins, the time my grandfather spent collecting them, what they meant to my mom.

Eventually we understood that it’s easy for greed and impatience to undo carefully assembled savings. To forgive (yourself included), let go, and move on when losses happen. And not to mix Sugar Daddies, Chocolate Neccos, Atomic Fireballs, SweeTarts, Clark Bars, Good N’ Plenty, and Chuckles with Wax Lips.–Amanda Walker, senior project editor