The Union And Eastern Journal

It's What You Spend. A wise economy is a very different thing from a sordid penuriousness; while the latter should always be condemned, too much cannot be urged in behalf of the former.

"It's what thee'll spend, my son," said a sage old Quaker, "not what thee'll make, which will decide whether thee'll be rich or not." The advice was trite, for it was but Franklin's in another shape; "Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves." But it cannot be too often repeated. Men are continually indulging in small expenses, saying to themselves it is only a trifle, yet forgetting that the aggregate is serious, that even the seashore is made up of petty grains of sands.

Ten cents a day, even, is thirty-six dollars and a half a year, and that is the interest of a capital of six hundred dollars. The man that saves ten cents a day only is so much richer than he who does not, as if he owned a life estate in a house worth six hundred dollars. Every sixteen years, ten cents a day becomes six hundred dollars, and if invested quarterly does not take half that time. But ten cents a day is child's play, some will exclaim. Well, then, John Jacob Astor used to say, that when a man who wishes to be rich, has saved ten thousand dollars, he has won half the battle. Not that Astor thought ten thousand much. But he knew that in making such a sum, a man acquired habits of prudent economy, which would constantly keep him advancing in wealth. How many, however, spend ten thousand in a few years in extra expenses, and when, on looking back, cannot tell, as they say, "where the money went to." To save is the golden rule to get rich. To squander even in small sums, is the first step towards the poor-house.