THRIFT. Orison Swett Marden

It makes it a little easier to say “No” when inclined to spend foolishly or for things which arc really not worth while. His small savings have kept many a young man from falling into temptations which might have crippled or ruined him.

      The little difference between what we earn and what we spend is capital, an asset. Savings suggest to a young couple just establishing a home wonderful possibilities. Money saved means a better home, more comforts. It means a little more reading matter and better books and periodicals. It means a possible college course later on for the children, and protection for our old age. It means an opportunity to help others—perhaps our country—when the call comes. It means sound sleep, less worry and less anxiety about the future; it means exemption from the horror of horrors, fear of coming to want, anxiety lest those dear to us may suffer for lack of the comforts of life. It may mean the difference between a skillful surgeon or physician and a bungler, in a case of life or death, when sickness enters our home.

      I know a very brilliant young man who earned a great deal of money, but who felt such confidence in his continued ability to earn that he recklessly spent every cent as he went along. Suddenly his young wife was taken seriously ill, and in order to save her life he was obliged to get a noted surgeon to perform a very delicate and dangerous operation. As the surgeon would not operate until he was assured of his fee, the young man was compelled to borrow the necessary sum, which was very large. His wife’s life was saved, but her continued illness and the illness of their small children, together with the wear and anxiety, so injured the young man’s health, that his earning capacity was impaired for many years. In fact, his career was very seriously handicapped, and he and his family suffered many privations for lack of ready money to tide them over their difficulties. This young man could easily have saved a thousand dollars in a single year before his wife’s illness, but he did not think it necessary, and believed in living up to his income as he went along. He took no thought for the future.

      We never can tell when illness, or accident, may impair our earning capacity, or when some unforeseen emergency may make an unexpected call upon us. Tens of thousands of mothers and children have endured all sorts of hardships because the father never laid up any money for an emergency, and when it came there was no savings-bank balance to help them over their time of stress.

      In an address on “The Greater Thrift” delivered before the National Education Association in New York, S. W. Strauss, President of the American Society for Thrift, made this statement: “The records of the Surrogates’ Courts show that out of one hundred men who die, three leave estates of $10,000. Fifteen others leave estates from two to ten thousand dollars. Eighty-two of every hundred leave no income-producing estates at all. Thus, out of every one hundred widows, only eighteen are left in good or comfortable circumstances. Forty-seven .others are obliged to go to work and thirty-five are left in absolute want.”

      “I have little respect for the man who does not put himself in a position both to provide and retain enough material means to support comfortably those who arc dependent upon him,” says Colonel Roosevelt. “It is every man’s sacred duty to invest a certain percentage of his earnings for the protection of those depending upon him. It is not so much a question of whether it is a good business investment; it is a duty, a sacred duty, and he will be cruelly unjust to those he loves if he allows them to take a risk which he, personally, conscious of strength and power, might be justified himself in taking. Moreover the feeling that those dearest to him are provided for in case of his death, or any misfortune which may come to his business from changed conditions or bad management, must give an immense satisfaction to any man.”

      I know of nothing else which quite takes the place of a little ready money in case of need; something which will be a buffer between us and the rough knocks of the world. No one who can possibly afford it should be without such a buffer.

      Unless you are thrifty with your money, with your time, you are not success organized. Of course, there are many fine, lovable people, often geniuses in some direction, who are totally lacking in the sense of money values, and spend money,—when they have it—recklessly. But just in so far as they fail to make wise provisions for the morrow, are they ill-balaneed, and on a par with the primitive savage.

      People who ehafe under little privations, who cannot bear to deny themselves anything, but who are led by their impulses, who are not willing at times to forego a little temporary pleasure that they may lay aside something for the future, will always be handicapped.

      How many splendid opportunities we lose in life for the lack of a little ready money, just because we spent everything as we went along and laid aside nothing! Get a little money ahead, something in the bank, put your savings in an insurance policy or some other good, solid investment,—there is nothing safer or better to-day than Liberty Bonds—to give protection in case of emergency.

      I know a very brilliant man with remarkable earning capacity, but no saving ability, who lost an opportunity to buy the original Bell telephone stock, before it was watered, for fifty cents a share. The opportunity came to him, but he had to say “No,” because he had spent everything as he went along. He has earned a great deal of money, but is always “hard up,” and is constantly borrowing from his friends.

      The power of ready money is usually not half appreciated by young men and young women. This is a land of opportunity, and good chances are constantly coming to those who have the ready cash. How often we hear excuse for not seizing a rare opportunity for investment, that they had no ready money. There are always plenty of opportunities, if one only has a little reserve laid by.

      Every young person should have foresight and shrewdness enough to protect some of his savings, not only to keep him from any possible want in case of sickness, death, or emergency, but also to enable him to get a start again, provided he should meet unexpected losses. Without such a reserve he may be handicapped for years, especially if he has a family depending upon him.

      A relatively small amount of ready money has saved many a fortune in a case of panic or emergency. There are times in most people’s lives when they must have ready money, and must have it immediately. Perhaps a thousand dollars in cash would make all the difference between success and failure, and because they do not have the thousand they fail and often become victims of despair.

      It is very difficult to get a hold again after you have once lost your grip, especially in middle life! Many employers look with distrust on gray hairs seeking a livelihood. They think there is something wrong somewhere when a man of years has nothing between himself and want.

      To realize that the best years, the most productive years of one’s life have gone by, leaving no protection for old age, is certainly disheartening.

      The world looks very different to the man who has something laid aside for an emergency, for sickness, or for the comforts of old age, to what it does to the man who has nothing ahead. The man who saves is insuring against all sorts of misfortunes which may come to himself and those dear to him in the future. He is building around his home a wall of protection from insults, from unkind treatment, from cold selfishness of others.

      Chapter III.

       The Man We Trust

       Table of Contents

      Before people will back a man with capital, before bankers will loan him money or jobbers give him credit, they want to know what sort of a man he is. They will inquire into his habits, for they know these will indicate his character.

      “Is he stable in his character? Does he save his money? Has he formed habits of thrift? Can his word be relied upon? Has he good business ability? Is he industrious , and sober?” These are the first questions which a banker will ask in investigating a man who has applied for a loan. The same thing is true of the jobbers of whom he asks credit. Business men know that it is pretty safe to trust a young man who has developed the habit of thrift, who is careful of his time, his health, his savings.

      The quality which increases the confidence of others in a young man and adds tremendously to his credit is the reputation of stability, of soundness of judgment in business matters.