In college, my big money memory was saving up to buy a car with my boyfriend, whom I lived with.

The remark frames Hefner’s earliest “money memory” not as luxury or inheritance but as a practical, shared goal: saving toward a car. By emphasizing college, cohabitation, and joint saving, she highlights money as something negotiated within relationships and daily life—tied to independence, mobility, and adult responsibility. The phrasing suggests that formative financial experiences can be ordinary and collaborative, shaping later attitudes toward budgeting, planning, and autonomy. It also subtly signals a generational/cultural shift in norms (living with a boyfriend while in school), implying that financial decisions often intersect with personal choices and social expectations.