“Face the world with your head forward and your buck-bone straight.”
MEN and women are not butterflies to bask in the sunshine and never give a thought to the winter which is sure to come. Some men and women spend money as fast as they receive it–but they would be mortally insulted if their intelligence was classed in the same grade of brain development as the butterfly. The man who earns $200 per month and spends it by the next pay day is as surely living from hand to mouth as the man who earns $1.50 a day and does the same.
The man and his wife who do not think of the future now and save a part of their income, even at the sacrifice of personal pleasures and luxuries are lacking in the business instinct which brings com?fortable living and peace of mind.
“It is so hard to save” is the complaint heard from those who are poor managers of money. Men and women with clever business heads do not find it hard to save. To begin with, they know better than to do things just because other people do them; and to end with, they always save for some particular purpose–perhaps to buy a home, or to make an investment that will add to their income.
A certain young married couple found that “progressive housekeeping” was the way they could save money without missing it. Their plan was this: First, they began saving to buy a davenport for their living room; when they had enough money for that, they decided they would rather add more to it and buy a pianola; when there was enough for that tucked away in the bank, they concluded they would wait and get a cheap automobile; when this was ready they said, “with a little more waiting we could make a part payment on one of those pretty bungalows on M street.”
And so they have gone along–saving the in?crease each time the husband received a raise in his pay, instead of advancing their style of living. They have only been married long enough for their oldest boy to be entering high school; but now they own their home, as well as two other pieces of property that bring in a good rental income, and the husband has recently become a partner in the business concern where he was an employee on a salary of $18 per week when he and his wife started their plan of “progressive housekeeping.”
>From today forward, let the first money you take from your wages or salary or income (or whatever you call it) be a deposit in the bank-and live on the balance. You could and would live on it if that was all you were making.
America’s richest man, John D. Rockefeller, could own a hundred private cars to travel in, but instead he uses a drawing-room car. He does not consider it necessary for him to spend thousands of dollars simply for display, and in order to do as some other less thrifty and less wealthy Wall Street men do. One of New York’s famous mer?chant princes was an example of this independence of mind, and this instinct of being a leader, instead of a follower of other people’s customs. He rode down town every day in the street cars. One day he met one of his department managers getting out of his private carriage in front of the store and said: “If I can afford to ride in the street cars, you can. Why don’t you think more of your?self and less of what you think other people will think about you? Save that money.” But the department manager thought he must make a show; he lost his job; and died in poverty, while the man who did not think it beneath his dignity to ride in the street car, left millions.
“Very little money is wasted in this country on things that people really want. But hundreds of millions of dollars are wasted by people who buy things because others have them, or because they see them in the shops.”–Albert Atwood.