Lesson Four - The Habit Of Saving / Money Management

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HOW TO MASTER THE FEAR OF POVERTY

 

To whip the Fear of Poverty one must take two very definite steps, providing one is in debt.

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First, quit the habit of buying on credit, and follow this by gradually paying off the debts that you have already incurred. Being free from the worry of indebtedness you are ready to revamp the habits of your mind and redirect your course toward prosperity. Adopt, as a part of your Definite Chief Aim, the habit of saving a regular proportion of your income, even if this be no more than a penny a day. Very soon this habit will begin to lay hold of your mind and you will actually get joy out of saving. Any habit may be discontinued by building in its place some other and more desirable habit.

 

The "spending" habit must be replaced by the "saving" habit by all who attain financial independence. Merely to discontinue an undesirable habit is not enough, as such habits have a tendency to reappear unless the place they formerly occupied in the mind is filled by some other habit of a different nature.

 

The discontinuance of a habit leaves a "hole" in the mind, and this hole must be filled up with some other form of habit or the old one will return and claim its place.

 

Throughout this course many psychological formulas, which the student has been requested to memorize and practice, have been described. You will find such a formula in Lesson Three, the object of which is to develop Self-confidence.

 

These formulas may be assimilated so they become a part of your mental machinery, through the Law of Habit, if you will follow the instructions for their use which accompany each of them.

 

It is assumed that you are striving to attain financial independence.

 

The accumulation of money is not difficult after you have once mastered the Fear of Poverty and developed in its place the Habit of Saving.

 

The author of this course would be greatly disappointed to know that any student of the course got the impression from anything in this or any of the other: lessons that Success is measured by dollars alone.

 

However, money does represent an important factor in success, and it must be given its proper value in any philosophy intended to help people in becoming useful, happy and prosperous.

 

The cold, cruel, relentless truth is that in this age, of materialism a man is no more than so many grains of sand, which may be blown helter-skelter by every stray wind of circumstance, unless he is entrenched behind the power of money!

 

Genius may offer many rewards to those who possess it, but the fact still remains that genius without money with which to give it expression is but an empty, skeleton-like honor.

 

The man without money is at the mercy of the man who has it!

 

And this goes, regardless of the amount of ability he may possess, the training he has had or the native genius with which he was gifted by nature.

 

There is no escape from the fact that people will weigh you very largely in the light of bank balances, no matter who you are or what you can do.

 

The first question that arises, in the minds of most people, when they meet a stranger, is, "How much money has he?" If he has money he is welcomed into homes and business opportunities are thrown his way. All sorts of attention are lavished upon him. He is a prince, and as such is entitled to the best of the land. But if his shoes are run down at the heels, his clothes are not pressed, his collar is dirty, and he shows plainly the signs of impoverished finances, woe be his lot, for the passing crowd will step on his toes and blow the smoke of disrespect in his face.

 

These are not pretty statements, but they have one virtue - THEY ARE TRUE!

 

This tendency to judge people by the money they have, or their power to control money, is not confined to any one class of people. We all have a touch of it, whether we recognize the fact or not.

 

Thomas A. Edison is one of the best known and most respected inventors in the world, yet it is no misstatement of facts to say that he would have remained a practically unknown, obscure personage had he not followed the habit of conserving his resources and shown his ability to save money.

 

Henry Ford never would have got to first base with his "horseless carriage" had he not developed, quite early in life, the habit of saving. Moreover, had Mr. Ford not conserved his resources and hedged himself behind their power he would have been "swallowed up" by his competitors or those who covetously desired to take his business away from him, long, long ago.

 

Many a man has gone a very long way toward success, only to stumble and fall, never again to rise, because of lack of money in times of emergency. The mortality rate in business each year, due to lack of reserve capital for emergencies, is stupendous. To this one cause are due more of the business failures than to all other causes combined!

 

Reserve Funds are essential in the successful operation of business! Likewise, Savings Accounts are essential to success on the part of individuals.

 

Without a savings fund the individual suffers in two ways:

• first, by inability to seize opportunities that come only to the person with some ready cash, and,

• second, by embarrassment due to some unexpected emergency calling for cash.

 

It might be said, also, that the individual suffers in still a third respect by not developing the Habit of Saving, through lack of certain other qualities essential for success which grow out of the practice of the Habit of Saving.

 

The nickels, dimes and pennies which the average person allows to slip through his fingers would, if systematically saved and properly put to work, eventually bring financial independence.

 

Through the courtesy of a prominent Building and Loan Association the following table has been compiled, showing what a monthly saving of $5.00, $10.00, $25.00 or $50.00 will amount to at the end of ten years.

 

These figures are startling when one comes to consider the fact that the average person spends from $5.00 to $50.00 a month for useless merchandise or so-called "entertainment."

 

The making and saving of money is a science, yet the rules by which money is accumulated are so simple that anyone may follow them.

 

The main prerequisite is a willingness to subordinate the present to the future, by eliminating unnecessary expenditures for luxuries.

 

A young man, who was earning only $20.00 a week as chauffeur for a prominent New York banker, was induced by his employer to keep an accurate account of every cent he spent for one week.

 

The following is an itemized list of his expenses:

• Cigarettes………………………… $ .75

• Chewing gum…………………….    .30

• Soda fountain……………………. $1.80

• Cigars for associates……………  $1.50

• Moving picture show…………… $1.00

• Shaves, including tips………….   $1.60

• Newspaper, daily and Sunday…      .22

• Shoe shines………………………     .30

= Sub total                                           $ 7.47

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• Board and room………………   $12.00

• Money on hand………………….     .53

                                                          = $ 20.00

 

These figures tell a tragic story which might as well apply to thousands of other people as to the young man who kept this account.

 

His actual savings out of $20.00 were only 53 cents.

 

He spent $7.47 for items, every one of which could have been greatly reduced, and most of which could have been eliminated entirely.

 

In fact, by shaving himself and shining his own shoes, he could have saved nearly every cent of the $7.47.

 

Now turn to the table made up by the Building and Loan Association and observe what the saving of $7.47 a week would amount to.

 

Suppose the amount this young man actually saved had been only $25.00 a month; the saving would have increased to the snug sum of $5,000.00 by the end of the first ten years.

 

The young man in question was twenty-one years old at the time he kept this expense account. By the time he reached the age of thirty-one years he could have had a substantial amount in the bank, had he saved $25.00 a month, and this saving would have brought him many opportunities that would have led directly to financial independence.

 

Some who are short-sighted, pseudo-philosophers, are fond of pointing to the fact that no one can become rich merely by saving a few dollars a week.

 

This may be true enough, as far as the reasoning goes (which is not very far) but the other side of the story is that the saving of even a small sum of money places one in position where, oftentimes, this small sum may enable one to take advantage of business opportunities which lead directly and quite rapidly to financial independence.

 

Some years ago, before giving serious thought to the value of the savings habit, this author made up an account of the money which had slipped through his fingers. The amount was so alarming that it resulted in the writing of this lesson, and adding the Habit of Saving as one of the Fifteen Laws of Success.

 

Following is an itemized statement of this account:

• $ 4,000.00 inherited, invested in automobile supply business with a friend who lost the entire amount in one year.

• $ 3,600.00 extra money earned from sundry writing for magazines and newspapers, all spent uselessly.

• $30,000.00 earned from training 3,000 salesmen, with the aid of the Law of Success philosophy, invested in a magazine which was not a success because there was no reserve capital back of it.

• $ 3,400.00 extra money earned from public addresses, lectures, etc., all of which was spent as it came in.

• $ 6,000.00 estimated amount that could have been saved during a period of ten years, out of regular earnings, at the rate of only $50 a month.

• = $47,000.00

 

This amount, had it been saved and invested as received, in Building and Loan Associations, or in some other manner that would have earned compound. interest, would have grown into the sum of $94,000.00 at the time this lesson is being written.

 

The author is not a victim of any of the usual habits of dissipation, such as gambling, drinking and excessive entertaining.

 

It is almost unbelievable that a man whose habits of living are reasonably moderate could spend $47,000.00 within a little over ten years without having anything to show for the money, but it can be done!

 

A capital reserve of $94,000.00, working at compound interest, is sufficient to give any man all the financial freedom he needs.

 

I recall one occasion when the president of a large corporation sent me a check for $500.00 for an address I delivered at a banquet given to the employees, and I distinctly recall what went through my mind when I opened the letter and saw the check. I had wanted a new automobile and this check was exactly the amount required for the first payment. I had it spent before it had been in my hands thirty seconds.

 

Perhaps this is the experience of the majority of people. They think more of how they are going to SPEND what they have than they do about ways and means of SAVING.

 

The idea of saving, and the selfcontrol and self-sacrifice which must accompany it, is always accompanied by thoughts of an unpleasant nature, but oh, how it does thrill one to think of SPENDING.

 

There is a reason for this, and that reason is the fact that most of us have developed the habit of spending while neglecting the Habit of Saving, and any idea that frequents the human mind but seldom is not as welcome as that which frequents it often.

 

In truth, the Habit of Saving can be made as fascinating as the habit of spending, but not until it has become a regular, well grounded, systematic habit.

 

We like to do that which is often repeated, which is but another way of stating what the scientists have discovered, that we are victims of our habits.

 

The habit of saving money requires more force of character than most people have developed, for the reason that saving means self-denial and sacrifice of amusements and pleasures in scores of different ways.

 

For this very reason one who develops the savings habit acquires, at the same time, many of the other needed habits which lead to success:

• especially Selfcontrol,

• Self-confidence,

• Courage,

• Poise and

• Freedom from Fear.

 

HOW MUCH SHOULD ONE SAVE?

 

The first question that will arise is, "How Much Should One Save?" The answer cannot be given in a few words, for the amount one should save depends upon many conditions, some of which may be within one's control and some of which may not be.

 

Generally speaking, a man who works for a salary should apportion his income about as follows:

• Savings Account……………………... 20%

• Living - Clothes, Food and Shelter.... 50%

• Education…………………………….. 10%

• Recreation……………………………. 10%

• Life / Medical Insurance…………….. 10%

                                                                = 100%

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The following, however, indicates the approximate distribution which the average man actually makes of his income:

• Savings Account…………………..NOTHING

• Living - Clothes, Food and Shelter..... 60%

• Education……………………………..... 0%

• Recreation…………………………….. 35%

• Life / Medical Insurance………………. 5%

                                                                 = 100%

 

Under the item of "recreation" is included, of course, many expenditures that do not really "recreate," such as money spent for alcoholic drinks, dinner parties and other similar items which may actually serve to undermine one's health and destroy character.

 

An experienced analyst of men has stated that he could tell very accurately, by examining a man's monthly budget, what sort of a life the man is living; moreover, that he will get most of his information from the one item of "recreation." This, then, is an item to be watched as carefully as the greenhouse keeper watches the thermometer which controls the life and death of his plants.

 

Those who keep budget accounts often include an item called "entertainment," which, in a majority of cases, turns out to be an evil because it depletes the income heavily and when carried to excess depletes, also, the health.

 

We are living, right now, in an age when the item of "entertainment" is altogether too high in most budget allowances. Tens of thousands of people who earn not more than $50.00 a week are spending as much as one third of their incomes for what they call "entertainment," which usually comes in a bottle, smoke or pill, with a questionable label on it.

 

Not only are these unwise people wasting the money that should go into a savings fund, but, of far greater danger, they are destroying both character and health.

 

Nothing in this lesson is intended as a preachment on morality, or on any other subject.

 

We are here dealing with cold facts which, to a large extent, constitute the building materials out of which SUCCESS may be created.

 

However, this is an appropriate place to state some FACTS which have such a direct bearing on the subject of achieving success that they cannot be omitted without weakening this entire course in general and this lesson in particular.

 

The author of this course is NOT a reformer! Neither is he a preacher on morals, as this field of useful endeavor is quite well covered by others who, are able workers.

 

What is here stated, therefore, is intended as a necessary part of a course of philosophy whose purpose is to mark a safe road over which one may travel to honorable achievement.

 

During the year 1926 the author was in partnership with the late Don R. Mellett, who was, at that time, the publisher of the Canton (Ohio) Daily News. Mr. Mellett became interested in the Law of Success philosophy because it offered, as he believed, sound counsel to young men and young women who really wish to get ahead in life.

 

Through the pages of the Daily' News Mr. Mellett was conducting a fierce battle against the underworld forces of Canton. With the aid of detectives and investigators, some of whom were supplied by the Governor of Ohio, Mr. Mellett and the author gathered accurate data concerning the way most of the people in Canton were living.

 

In July, 1926, Mr. Mellett was assassinated from ambush, and four men, one of them a former member of the Canton police force, are now serving life sentences in the Ohio State Penitentiary for the crime.

 

During the investigation into crime conditions in Canton all reports came to the author's office, and the data here described are, therefore, known to be absolutely accurate.

 

One of the officials of a large industrial plant whose salary was $6,000.00 a year paid a Canton bootlegger an average of $300.00 a month for the liquor (if "stuff" can be called liquor) which he used for "entertaining." His wife participated in these "entertainments" which took place in his own home.

 

A paying teller in a bank, whose salary was $150.00 a month, was spending an average of $75.00 a month for liquor, and in addition to this unpardonable waste of money, out of a salary which was none too great at most, he was traveling at a pace and with a crowd which meant ruin for him later on.

 

The superintendent of a large manufacturing plant, whose salary was $5,000.00 a year, and who should have been saving at least $125.00 a month, was actually saving nothing. His bootlegger's bill averaged $150.00 a month.

 

A policeman whose income was $160.00 a month was spending over $400.00 a month on dinner parties, at a near-by roadhouse. Where he got the difference between his legitimate income and his actual expenditures is a question that reflects no particular credit on the policeman.

 

A bank official whose income, as near as it could be estimated from his previous years' income tax reports, was about $8,000.00 a year, had a monthly bootlegger's bill of more than $500.00 during the three months that his activities were checked by the Mellett investigators.

 

A young man who worked in a department store, at a salary of $20.00 a week, was spending an average of $35.00 a week with one bootlegger. The assumption was that he was stealing the difference from his employer.

 

Old Man Trouble awaited this young man, just around the corner, although it is not known by the author whether or not the two have come together as yet.

 

A salesman for a life insurance company, whose income was not known because he worked on a commission basis, was spending an average of $200.00 a month with one bootlegger. No record of any savings account was found, and the assumption is that he had none. This assumption was later confirmed when the company for which the young man worked had him arrested for embezzlement of its funds. No doubt he was spending the money which he should have turned in to the company. He is now serving a long sentence in the Ohio State Penitentiary.

 

This author conducted a Lecture Bureau in fortyone high schools, where he lectured once a month during the entire school season. The principals of these high schools stated that less than two per cent of the students showed any tendency toward saving money, and an examination through the aid of a questionnaire prepared for that purpose disclosed the fact that only five per cent of the students, out of a total of 11,000, of the high-school age, believed that the savings habit was one of the essentials for success.

 

It is no wonder the rich are becoming richer and the poor are becoming poorer!

 

It is not difficult for any man to become rich, in a country of spendthrifts such as this, where millions of people spend every cent that comes into their possession.

 

Many years ago, before the present wave of mania for spending spread over the country, F. W. Woolworth devised a very simple method of catching the nickels and dimes that millions of people throw away for trash, and his system netted him over ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLLARS in a few years' time.

 

Woolworth has died, but his system of saving nickels and dimes continues, and his estate is growing bigger and bigger. Five and Ten Cent Stores are usually painted with a bright red front. That is an appropriate color, for red denotes danger. Every Five and Ten Cent Store is a striking monument that proves, to a nicety, that one of the cardinal faults of this generation is the SPENDING HABIT.

 

We are all victims of HABIT!

 

Unfortunately for most of us, we are reared by parents who have no conception whatsoever of the psychology of habit, and, without being aware of their fault, most parents aid and abet their offspring in the development of the spending habit by overindulgence with spending money, and by lack of training in the Habit of Saving.

 

The habits of early childhood cling to us all through life.

 

Fortunate, indeed, is the child whose parents have the foresight and the understanding of the value, as a character builder, of the Habit of Saving, to inculcate this habit in the minds of their children.

 

It is a training that yields rich rewards. Give the average man $100.00 that he did not contemplate receiving, and what will he do with it? Why, he will begin to cogitate in his own mind on how he can SPEND the money. Dozens of things that he needs, or THINKS he needs, will flash into his mind, but it is a rather safe bet that it will never occur to him (unless he has acquired the savings habit) to make this $100.00 the beginning of a savings account. Before night comes he will have the $100.00 spent, or at least he will have decided in his mind how he is going to SPEND IT, thus adding more fuel to the already too bright flame of Habit of Spending.

 

We are ruled by our habits!

 

It requires force of character, determination and power of firm DECISION to open a savings account and then add to it a regular portion of all subsequent income.

 

There is one rule by which any man may determine, well in advance, whether or not he will ever enjoy the financial freedom and independence which is so universally desired by all men, and this rule has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of one's income. The rule is that if a man follows the systematic habit of saving a definite proportion of all money he earns or receives in other ways, he is practically sure to place himself in a position of financial independence.

 

If he saves nothing, he IS ABSOLUTELY SURE NEVER TO BE FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT, no matter how much his income may be.

 

The one and only exception to this rule is that a man who does not save might possibly inherit such a large sum of money that he could not spend it, or he might inherit it under a trust which would protect it for him, but these eventualities are rather remote; so much so, in fact, that YOU cannot rely upon such a miracle happening to you.

 

This author enjoys a rather close acquaintance with many hundreds of people throughout the United States and in some foreign countries. For nearly twenty-five years I have been watching many of these acquaintances, and know, therefore, from actual experience, how they live, why some of them have failed while others have succeeded, and the REASONS FOR BOTH FAILURE AND SUCCESS.

 

This list of acquaintances covers men who control hundreds of millions of dollars, and actually own many millions which they have acquired.

 

Also men who have had millions of dollars, all of which passed through their fingers and they are now penniless.

 

For the purpose of showing the student of this philosophy just how the law of habit becomes a sort of pivotal point on which success or failure turns, and exactly why no man can become financially independent without developing the habit of SYSTEMATIC SAVING, the living habits of some of these many acquaintances will be described.

 

We will begin with a complete history, in his own words, of a man who has made a million dollars in the field of advertising, but who now has nothing to show for his efforts. This story first appeared in the American Magazine, and it is here reprinted through the courtesy of the publishers of that publication. The story is true, in every respect, and it has been included as a part of this lesson because the author of the story, Mr. W. C. Freeman, is willing to have his mistakes made public with the hope that others may avoid them.

 

"I HAVE MADE A MILLION DOLLLARS BUT I HAVEN'T GOT A CENT"

 

While it is embarrassing, yes, humiliating, publicly to confess to an outstanding fault that has made a good deal of a mess of my life today, nevertheless I have decided to make this confession for the good it may do. I am going to make a clean breast of how I let slip through my fingers all the money I have earned thus far in my life-time, which approximates one million dollars. This amount I made through my work in the field of advertising, except a few thousand dollars I earned up to twenty-five years of age by teaching in country schools and by writing news letters to some country weeklies and daily newspapers.

 

Maybe one lone million does not seem a lot of money in these days of many millions and even billions; but it is a big sum of money, just the same.

 

If there are any who think to the contrary, let them count a million. I tried to figure out the other night how long it would take to do so. I found I could count an average of one hundred a minute. On this basis it would take me twenty days of eight hours each, plus six hours and forty minutes on the twenty-first day to do the stunt.

 

I doubt very much if you or I were given an assignment to count one million one-dollar bills, upon the promise that all of them would be ours at the end of that time, that we could complete it.

 

It would probably drive us mad - wouldn't it?

 

Let me say at the outset of my story that I do not regret, not for one minute, that I spent ninety per cent of the money I made.

 

To wish any of this ninety' per cent back at this time would make me feel that I would have denied much happiness to my family and to many others. My only regret is that I spent all of my money, and more besides.

 

If I had today the ten per cent I could have saved easily, I would have one hundred thousand dollars safely invested, and no debts.

 

If I had this money I would feel really and truly that l was rich; and I mean just this, for I have never had a desire to accumulate money for money's sake.

 

Just one month and one day after I was married my father met a tragic death. He was suffocated by coal gas. Having been an educator all his life - and one of the best - he had not accumulated any money. When he passed out of our family circle it was up to all of us to pull together and get along somehow, which we did.

 

Apart from the void left in our home by my father's death (my wife and I and my mother and only sister lived together), we had a joyful life, despite the fact that it was a tight squeeze to make ends meet. My mother, who was exceptionally talented and resourceful (she had taught school with my father until I was born), decided to open our home to a married couple, old friends of the family.

 

They came to live with us and their board helped to pay expenses. My mother was known far and wide for the wonderful meals she served. Later on, two well-to-do women friends of the family were taken into our home; thus increasing our revenue.

 

My sister helped very substantially by teaching a kindergarten class, which met in the big living-room of our home; my wife contributed her share to the household by taking charge of the sewing and mending.

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Lesson Four - The Habit Of Saving / Money Management

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