The Golden Rules of Acquiring Wealth
In the United States where there is more land than people, it is not at all
difficult for persons in good health to make money. In this comparatively new
field there are so many avenues of success open, so many vocations which are not
crowded, that any person of either sex who is willing, at least for the time being,
to engage in any respectable occupation that offers, may find lucrative
employment.
Those who really desire to attain independence, have only to set their
minds upon it, and adopt the proper means, as they do in regard to any other
object which they wish to accomplish, and the thing is easily done. But however
easy it may be found to make money, I have no doubt many of my hearers will
agree it is the most difficult thing in the world to keep it. The road to wealth is, as
Dr. Franklin truly says, “as plain as the road to the mill.” It consists simply in
expending less than we earn; that seems to be a very simple problem. Mr.
Micawber, one of those happy creations of the genial Dickens, puts the case in a
strong light when he says that to have annual income of twenty pounds per
annum, and spend twenty pounds and sixpence, is to be the most miserable of
men; whereas, to have an income of only twenty pounds, and spend but nineteen
pounds and sixpence is to be the happiest of mortals. Many of my readers may
say, “we understand this: this is economy, and we know economy is wealth; we
know we can’t eat our cake and keep it also.” Yet perhaps more cases of failure
arise from mistakes on this point than almost any other. The fact is, many
people think they understand economy when they really do not.
True economy is misapprehended, and people go through life without
properly comprehending what that principle is. One says, “I have an income of so
much, and here is my neighbor who has the same; yet every year he gets
something ahead and I fall short; why is it? I know all about economy.” He
thinks he does, but he does not. There are men who think that economy consists
in saving cheese-parings and candle-ends, in cutting off two pence from the
laundress’ bill and doing all sorts of little, mean, dirty things. Economy is not
meanness. The misfortune is, also, that this class of persons let their economy
apply in only one direction. They fancy they are so wonderfully economical in
saving a half-penny where they ought to spend two pence, that they think they
can afford to squander in other directions.
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