The Secret Of Wealth
132 total pages.
"My wife and I had acquaintances among a class of people who had money, and because we felt that we must keep up with these acquaintances we lived in a more expensive place than we could afford-- not because we had any extra comfort, but because the neighborhood was a fashionable one. We spent twice the money for clothes that we should have spent; we had to entertain to ' make a show'-- and yet we persuaded ourselves we were having a good time. '' A good time! Why, I didn't know what a good time was, and I know now that I was not really enjoying myself at all. "I tried to think that people of society were a help to me in a business way. Shucks! They never helped me buy a postage stamp, but they pretty nearly cost me my position. "It was sheer desperation at needing a bigger income that made me begin saving money. "I knew if I had money, I could make investments, and that those investments would bring me an additional income, besides what I could earn. Do you know I started my present fortune on the money I had intended spending for a new hat? That's a fact. Doing without that new hat, and taking the money to the bank, is what made me a rich man instead of a poor one. "There is a law of the universe, the law of compensation, which says: 'For everything you miss, you gain something else.' I took my bank book home and showed it to my wife, and told her what I had been thinking. We both like to live well, and she saw just as I did that the only way we could have luxuries was to increase our income. The first month it took some grit and some planning not to spend more than three-fourths of what we had been spending. But the wife cut down her expenses and I cut mine, and we made up our minds we were through trying to keep pace with people who had more money than we had. "And, I was happier when I took a little wad of money to the bank, at the end of that first month, than I ever was over any I had spent. The wife was just as interested as I was after she saw how my plan meant real comfort and luxury far beyond anything we had ever had before. She learned to figure out everything before she spent a cent, as to whether she would rather have some one thing or put that money into the bank, and bring our easy time nearer. We did not squeeze or skimp. In fact, we had more real comfort than we had ever had, because we were through with the foolishness of straining to do the things we could not afford to do.
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The Secret Of Wealth