Here’s inspiration from a century ago from The Baltimore and Ohio Employees Magazine (February 1916):
The Saving Road to Independence
For Men and Women of Limited Salary
DEBTS accumulate rapidly. Savings accumulate just as rapidly! It’s therefore a matter of determination, first, whether it shall be savings or debt.
Money will either serve or rule you. The minute you save your first dollar and begin to think of safe investments you are master of the situation. So reflect NOW. Do not regret later.
Many people today are closing the door of opportunity by failing to lay aside some part of their earnings—thus condemning themselves to a life of continuous hard work. Your problem is one of persistence, not one of existence. So be up and doing!
Saving is the springtime of prosperity. To be effective, it must be practiced daily. It’s the steady, consistent, aggressive saving that makes men and fortunes. Save to the limit of your possibilities!
It is not enough to make money. You must make your money work for you. Putting your money to work means investment, and investment cannot begin until you have learned, or until you have an earnest desire to learn, to save.
Economize, but in the right manner. Avoid foolish, extravagant expenditures; save your money and invest it carefully while saving. You will always be in a position to live well and view the future complacently. Isn’t it worth while? A man who has always intended to start tomorrow has nothing. He is a slave to pay day.
Every dollar you save and invest brings you just one dollar nearer the goal of prosperity—the time when interest on your investments will provide for your comforts.
Prosperity begins when a man invests his savings or surplus capital intelligently. The man who saves his money will always have an opportunity to invest it. If he invests wisely, he will soon become a man of means and of credit.
Be prepared! Being prepared is half the battle. More men and women learned the value of ready money during the last financial depression than ever before during a similar period. Cheap investments abounded on every side and a man with ready money was master of the situation.
What of tomorrow? Are you prepared for it? For any emergency that may arise? Commence TODAY to fortify yourself against sickness, misfortune or financial difficulty, by saving and investing your money systematically. There is no time to begin like now, which, spelled backwards, means success.
Work hard! Plenty of work is your greatest need. It keeps your mind clear, your body strong and your appetite good. And see that your work accomplishes something. Your days are numbered— your earning period is short. Make each day show a satisfactory result. The best results are obtained when you save, invest and realize.
Nothing makes a man feel safer, happier and more courageous for life’s battles than a nest egg in the shape of good investments. It destroys fear of a rainy day and enables him to grapple with the big things.
If you have failed so far to lay aside any money, try again today.
To be a capitalist it is not necessary that you have several thousand dollars in the bank. A man with five dollars is a capitalist just so soon as he decides to make that five dollars work for him—to place it so that, with other sums he may add to it regularly and systematically, he will save, invest and realize in the shortest space of time consistent with safety.
Remember that interest in our work means interest on your money. Get the habit of doing things! Go it alone! You can succeed.
