Description
In the United States, where we have 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 an 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 I beg to say that 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.
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