Anybody Can Earn Money - The Trick Today Is To Save Money.
Anybody Can Earn Money - The trick today is to save money.
Probably every man and woman in moderate circumstances is either
saving money or has planned to do so before long. It is quite
natural to put off actually beginning saving until "tomorrow,"
because today there are so many things one feels it is necessary
to buy or to do. Everybody expects to have a larger income
"after while" and intends to save then, but when the larger
income arrives, the cost of living has increased, and the
pleasures and luxuries to which one has grown accustomed eat up
the increased income.
Many men and women who planned two years ago to begin saving as
soon as hey made more money, are to-day making more money but
are not saving a cent more than they did two years ago. Many
people who read these lines know that is true from their own
experience, for every one who looks back realizes that it is not
one whit easier to save money today than it would have been when
the income was but a few dollars a week. A larger income is
often a temptation to adopt a more expensive mode of living.
The modest home which seemed cozy and attractive when the master
of the house was earning only a few dollars a week is
immediately abandoned when his salary doubles.
The instinct of the average American is to want his home, his
dress, his pleasures, and his habits all to make a show far in
advance of his actual earnings.
He impresses his friends and neighbors with the idea that he is
making twice as much money as his pocket-book ever holds-and
then he has to work in a constant fever in order to keep up with
this impression. Let us live while we live is the slogan of too
many American men and women of this generation--and that is
exactly the point we are coming to.
Let us live while we live--is the cause of nearly all the
poverty and misery of this Country. The man or woman who does
not know the pleasure of adding week by week to a sum of money
earned and owned, has missed one of the most enjoyable,
stimulating, and ever-present pleasures which can be
experienced. That statement sounds like exaggeration to the man
who has never watched a $10 account in his savings bank book
grow week by week. And he is not to blame for thinking so until
he knows better.
There is pleasure in gratifying one's inclination for spending
money, but the man who curbs his inborn inclination to
spend--and saves regularly--finds that he experiences twice the
pleasure in saving that he ever did in spending.
The secret of gaining wealth has been reduced to seven words by
Robert Louis Stevenson:--
"Earn a little, spend a little less."
Simple, isn't it?
Some people fail to accumulate enough money to take care of them
in old age, sickness or misfortune, and it is because they think
that saving is the easiest thing in the world. The fact is that
it requires more sense to save money than to make it.
"DON'T work for a mere living; show a profit for your work every
week; have something left from your earnings after all your
expenses are paid."
A son of a famous railway magnate was put at work every summer
during his vacations from school and college. One summer he
fired an engine; another summer he was a member of a surveying
party; so that when the time came for him to take his place on
the board of directors of various railroad lines, he knew the
business which he was going to direct. He also knew the life of
a fireman on a freight engine, and could have earned his living
in that calling, if fortune had taken wings and left him
dependent entirely upon his own work.
"A hard-working man always seems to be lucky.
On the same principle that luck usually breaks in favor of the
best ball team."--Ed. Howe.