“Saving is keeping your money yourself instead of scattering it among people who have as much or more than you.”–Anon.
SAVING does not mean stinginess; nor does it mean skimping and squeezing; nor does it mean sacrificing good appearance, self-respect or comfort.
There is the whole width of the world between sensibly saving money and being a “tight wad.”
Saving means more than merely keeping money–it means also spending money.
It means the management of a home.
It means the use of time, money, energy or any?thing else to the best possible advantage.
It means making every dollar bring 100 cents’ worth of return.
It means making every pound of flour bring the utmost nourishment.
It means making every hour of time deposit 60 minutes of work, study, recreation or rest into each hour of life, from childhood to the grave.
Saving means doing many of the things yourself which you are accustomed to paying others to do for you.
It may mean to a man–shaving himself; polish?ing his own shoes.
It may mean to a woman–combining and cook?ing food so that the greatest amount of nourishment and the most appetizing flavor shall be obtained at the least cost.
It does mean training the children that to waste money is a sure sign of a weak and foolish mind.
Saving means that home-keeping is a business– n business as important and requiring as clever a brain as the management of a manufacturing plant. A manufacturer gives time and thought to plan?ning where he can make a saving of even a quarter of a cent in his business–but the shrewdest of manufacturers are well matched in business ability and in results by the quick-witted and far-seeing women who realize that saving in the home makes $4 provide as much comfort, good living and worldly advancement as $5 can possibly do if han?dled carelessly or extravagantly.
Clever women will tell you that saving makes housekeeping furnish the same keen zest and interest that a man finds in his business. They will tell you that saving takes away the monotony which comes to a woman who uses only her hands and feet and not her brains in the management of her home. They will tell you that they save wisely so as to be able to spend advantageously in the time of need or opportunity, when the need will be greater or the opportunity better than that of the present.
A popular mistake is the notion that the son of a millionaire is permitted to spend money whenever and wherever he pleases, when as a matter of fact the majority of American millionaires rear their sons according to rigid rules of self-dependence.
It is told of Commodore Vanderbilt that he made his thirteen children take care of themselves dur?ing his life, although he died owning a fortune of about $100,000,000. His second son, William, who afterwards became his heir, worked as a bank clerk at a salary of $16 per week, and married on that salary. After that he struggled for twenty years to make a success of a lonely farm, and finally did succeed, but without help from his father. The old Commodore shrewdly watched the hardships and determined efforts of his son, and while seeming the sternest of fathers was training his heir in the industry and economy he knew was necessary in the handling of his great fortune.
This long hard training proved its value, for the man who had fought his own way for twenty-two years, increased the $100,000,000 left by his father to $200,000,000 within about seven years.
The lessons taught by the Commodore were fully appreciated by his son, who in turn reared his two sons in the same stern school. Cornelius Vander?bilt started his career as a clerk in a bank, and had no other means of support than his salary, while his young brother worked as a bookkeeper.
The men who have money are the men who take care of money–it is the poor who are careless and wasteful; that’s why they are poor.
“There are two things needed in these days; first, for rich men to find out how poor men live; and second, for poor men to know how rich men work.” –E. Atkinson.