“Wealth is of all things the most esteemed by men, and has the greatest power of all things in the world.”–Euripides.

FEW men of wealth spend as much as the half of their incomes and it is even quite likely that the majority of wealthy people do not spend as much as one-third of their incomes. It would seem easy indeed for a man with an in?come of a hundred thousand dollars or more to live on a half or even a third of it.

To some of us having incomes of only a thousand or even five thousand dollars a year, the spending of thirty thousand dollars each year sounds big, but thirty thousand dollars a year paid out of the income of a man worth a million dollars would not provide the things which most people plan they would like to have when they have acquired their first million.

The millionaire is almost always blessed with some poor relations, some needy friends, and he is the target for all sorts of solicitations for matters of charity and for public benefits.

The man of wealth, and particularly the man of millions, is expected to contribute liberally to every public movement, every charitable enterprise and every neighborhood affair, from the Fourth of July celebration to the Kindergarten May Party in the park.

And most men of wealth do contribute to all of these things, or such affairs would not be possible; it is the big contributions of the wealthy that provide the principal funds for all public celebrations and for all of the big charities.

Being a rich man and having even a million dollars is no guarantee of peace and comfort and plenty in one’s old age. There is another condition which attaches itself to money after we get the money. Getting it is hard enough, but keep?ing it is a deal harder. Knowing how to spend money is a fine art and knowing where to give calls for the most careful and thoughtful considera?tion. The wealthy must give and we must all give on occasions and for certain purposes. Charity makes its demands upon the smallest purse, and in fact poor people are often more liberal contributors to charitable works, in proportion to their means, than those of greater wealth.

It behooves us then, if we ever expect to grow rich ourselves, to develop judgment and discrimina?tion in our charities as well as our investments; to learn to give what we can afford to give and no more and to learn to give that little or that much, as the case may be, where it will do the greatest possible good.

A charitably inclined man of great wealth began, during his declining years, to divest himself of his fortune by giving it to schools, hospitals, homes and charities of various kinds in the form of direct gifts and endowments.

Living to a greater age than he had expected, he found himself in his last years almost an object of charity himself. He was a big-hearted man and a liberal giver, but he was not a wise man or a judicious giver. Had he been wiser and had he used greater judgment in the bestowal of his benefactions he would have first made sure, through a trust or annuity arrangement, that his wife and himself would never want.

So you see having wealth is not all of it, and not only must we learn how to spend our money for the things we need and should have, but we must take care in the giving of our money that we do not overstep the bounds of prudence and give ourselves poor. We must give, if we are not to be known as misers, and we must give all we can afford to give of the abundance which comes to us, in order that our less fortunate friends and neigh?bors may get on their feet and be started on the road to an independence of their own.

Unwise giving is worse than no giving at all and great care should be exercised in the giving of alms or in contributing to public movements or organized charities, whether one is dropping a dime into the palm of a blind man on the street corner or subscribing a thousand dollars towards the building of a home for the aged. Half of the money given to charity would not be wasted if each one of us used brains and judgment and common-sense in the bestowal of our gifts.

“With parsimony a little is sufficient; without it nothing is sufficient; but frugality makes a poor man rich.”–Seneca.

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Tags: The Secret of Wealth