The Secret Of Wealth

Compare the saving in buying a barrel of flour at a time of year when its price is low, over the amount expended in buying a few pounds at a time as required for the family use. Compare the price of coal early in the summer to its price in December. Compare the cost of a winter overcoat in February to its price the following October.

Another place to make the spending of money provide a bank account is in the equipment of the home, and the kind of a house in which one dwells. The folly of straining to live in a house too large or too expensive for the actual family comfort, is obvious to anybody--nevertheless, three families out of five are made miserable because of this mistake.

There is a wide difference between having a house and having a home; two rooms, with peace of mind for the present and for the future, is to be chosen far above a ten-room house which eats up the income, and makes the husband and wife nagging and nervous because they are trying to keep up a show beyond their resources. A small "home," and money accumulating in the bank-- doesn't that sound more like happiness than any over-strained habits of living?

Perhaps the money you could save on the rent of the house you now occupy would make a substantial bank account in a year. Have you ever compared the rent you are paying with the rent of the house which would answer your every need for comfort and contentment, but would not make a show? Sometimes we pay a good many dollars extra for the "neighborhood," but the neighborhood does not help to provide for your future, nor put money into your purse. A bank account establishes a family higher in people's opinions than the fact that they live across the street.

This idea of saving money by careful spending, by intelligent spending, is vividly impressed when one thinks what it would cost to get enough nourishment to keep you going if you fed only on champagne and mushrooms. It would take about $15 worth of champagne and mushrooms to give you the same amount of nourishment that you get from 15 cents' worth of bread and cheese. You say: '' That's ridiculous! Nobody expects to live on champagne and mushrooms!" Yes, it is ridiculous--and the most ridiculous part is that everybody is trying to substitute champagne and mushrooms for bread and cheese somewhere in their living habits. They have not yet waked up to the fact that they would be healthier and happier if they paid 15 cents instead of $15 for the thing they require. Then they would not have to bother about saving moneythe $14.85 would go into the bank account, and that ends the problem of how to save money out of one's present income.

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