First, get a lad of your own age to go with you. The two of you will bolster up one
another's confidence. If you haven't someone of your own age to go with you, ask your
father to go with you.
Second, remember that by asking his advice you are paying this man a compliment. He
may feel flattered by your request. Remember that adults like to give advice to young
men and women. The architect will probably enjoy the interview.
If you hesitate to write letters asking for an appointment, then go to a man's office
without an appointment and tell him you would be most grateful if he would give you a
bit of advice.
Suppose you call on five architects and they are all too busy to see you (which isn't
likely), call on five more. Some of them will see you and give you priceless adviceadvice
that may save you years of lost time and heartbreak.
Remember that you are making one of the two most vital and far-reaching decisions of
your life. So, take time to get the facts before you act. If you don't, you may spend half
a lifetime regretting it.
If you can afford to do so, offer to pay a man for a half-hour of his time and advice.
5. Get over the mistaken belief that you are fitted for only a single occupation! Every
normal person can succeed at a number of occupations, and every normal person would
probably fail in many occupations. Take myself, for example: if I had studied and
prepared myself for the following occupations, I believe I would have had a good chance
of achieving some small measure of success-and also of enjoying my work. I refer to
such occupations as farming, fruit growing, scientific agriculture, medicine, selling,
advertising, editing a country newspaper, teaching, and forestry. On the other hand, I
am sure I would have been unhappy, and a failure, at bookkeeping, accounting,
engineering, operating a hotel or a factory, architecture, all mechanical trades, and
hundreds of other activities.
Chapter 30: "Seventy Per Cent Of All Our Worries ..."
If I knew how to solve everybody's financial worries, I wouldn't be writing this book, I
would be sitting in the White House-right beside the President. But here is one thing I
can do: I can quote some authorities on this subject and make some highly practical
suggestions and point out where you can obtain books and pamphlets that will give you
additional guidance.
Seventy per cent of all our worries, according to a survey made by the Ladies' Home
Journal, are about money. George Gallup, of the Gallup Poll, says that his research
indicates that most people believe that they would have no more financial worries if
they could increase their income by only ten per cent. That is true in many cases, but in
a surprisingly large number of cases it is not true. For example, while writing this
chapter, I interviewed an expert on budgets: Mrs. Elsie Stapleton-a woman who spent
years as financial adviser to the customers and employees of Wanamaker's Department
Store in New York and of Gimbel's. She has spent additional years as an individual
consultant, trying to help people who were frantic with worry about money. She has
helped people in all kinds of income brackets, all the way from a porter who earned less
than a thousand dollars a year to an executive earning one hundred thousand dollars a
year. And this is what she told me: "More money is not the answer to most people's
financial worries. In fact, I have often seen it happen that an increase in income
accomplished nothing but an increase in spending-and an increase in headaches. What
causes most people to worry," she said, "is not that they haven't enough money, but that
they don't know how to spend the money they have!" ... [You snorted at that last
sentence, didn't you? Well, before you snort again, please remember that Mrs. Stapleton
did not say that was true of all people. She said: "most people". She didn't mean you.
She meant your sisters and your cousins, whom you reckon by the dozens.]
A lot of readers are going to say: "I wish this guy Carnegie had my bills to meet, my
obligations to keep up-on my weekly salary. If he did, I'll bet he would change his tune."
Well, I have had my financial troubles: I have worked ten hours a day at hard physical
labour in the cornfields and hay barns of Missouri-worked until my one supreme wish
was to be free from the aching pains of utter physical exhaustion. I was paid for that
grueling work not a dollar an hour, nor fifty cents, nor even ten cents. I was paid five
cents an hour for a ten-hour day.
I know what it means to live for twenty years in houses without a bathroom or running
water. I know what it means to sleep in bedrooms where the temperature is fifteen
degrees below zero. I know what it means to walk miles to save a nickel car-fare and
have holes in the bottom of my shoes and patches on the seat of my pants. I know what
it means to order the cheapest dish on a restaurant menu, and to sleep with my trousers
under the mattress because I couldn't afford to have them pressed by a tailor.
Yet, even during those times, I usually managed to save a few dimes and quarters out of
my income because I was afraid not to. As a result of this experience, I realised that if
you and I long to avoid debt and financial worries, then we have to do what a business
firm does: we have to have a plan for spending our money and spend according to that
plan. But most of us don't do that. For example, my good friend, Leon Shimkin, general
manager of the firm that publishes this book, pointed out to me a curious blindness that
many people have in regard to their money. He told me about a book-keeper he knows,
a man who is a wizard at figures when working for his firm-yet when it comes to
handling his personal finances! ... Well, if this man gets paid on Friday noon, let us say,
he will walk down the street, see an overcoat in a store window that strikes his fancy,
and buy it-never giving a thought to the fact that rent, electric lights, and all kinds of
"fixed" charges have to come out of that pay envelope sooner or later. No-he has the
cash in his pocket, and that's all that counts. Yet this man knows that if the company he
works for conducted its business in such a slap-happy manner, it would end up in
bankruptcy.
Here's something to consider-where your money is concerned, you're in business for
yourself! And it is literally "your business" what you do with your money.
But what are the principles of managing our money? How do we begin to make a budget
and a plan? Here are eleven rules.
Rule No. 1: Get the facts down on paper.
When Arnold Bennett started out in London fifty years ago to be a novelist, he was poor
and hard-pressed. So he kept a record of what he did with every sixpence. Did he
wonder where his money was going? No. He knew. He liked the idea so much that he
continued to keep such a record even after he became rich, world-famous, and had a
private yacht.
John D. Rockefeller, Sr., also kept a ledger. He knew to the penny just where he stood
before he said his prayers at night and climbed into bed.
You and I, too, will have to get notebooks and start keeping records. For the rest of our
lives? No, not necessarily. Experts on budgets recommend that we keep an accurate
account of every nickel we spend for at least the first month-and, if possible, for three
months. This is to give us an accurate record of where our money goes, so we can draw
up a budget.
Oh, you know where your money goes? Well, maybe so; but if you do, you are one in a
thousand! Mrs. Stapleton tells me it is a common occurrence for men and women to
spend hours giving her facts and figures, so she can get them down on paper-then, when
they see the result on paper, they exclaim: "Is that the way my money goes?" They can
hardly believe it. Are you like that? Could be.
Rule No. 2: Get a tailor-made budget that really fits your needs.
Mrs. Stapleton tells me that two families may live side by side in identical houses, in the
very same suburb, have the same number of children in the family, and receive the
same income-yet their budgeting needs will be radically different. Why? Because people
are different. She says a budget has to be a personal, custom-made job.
The idea of a budget is not to wring all the joy out of life. The idea is to give us a sense
of material security-which in many cases means emotional security and freedom from
worry. "People who live on budgets," Mrs. Stapleton told me, "are happier people."
But how do you go about it? First, as I said, you must list all expenses. Then get advice.
In many cities of twenty thousand and up, you will find family-welfare societies that will
gladly give you free advice on financial problems and help you draw up a budget to fit
your income.
Rule No. 3: Learn how to spend wisely.
By this I mean: learn how to get the best value for your money. All large corporations
have professional buyers and purchasing agents who do nothing but get the very best
buys for their firms. As steward and manager of your personal estate, why shouldn't you
do likewise?
Rule No. 4: Don't increase your headaches with your income.
Mrs. Stapleton told me that the budgets she dreads most to be called into consultation
on are family incomes of five thousand dollars a year. I asked her why. "Because," she
said, "five thousand a year seems to be a goal to most American families. They may go
along sensibly and sanely for years-then, when their income rises to five thousand a
year, they think they have 'arrived'. They start branching out. Buy a house in the
suburbs, 'that doesn't cost any more than renting an apartment'. Buy a car, a lot of new
furniture, and a lot of new clothes-and the first thing you know, they are running into
the red. They are actually less happy than they were before-because they have bitten
off too much with their increase in income."
That is only natural. We all want to get more out of life. But in the long run, which is
going to bring us more happiness-forcing ourselves to live within a tight budget, or
having dunning letters in the mail and creditors pounding on the front door?
Rule No. 5: Try to build credit, in the event you must borrow.
If you are faced with an emergency and find you must borrow, life-insurance policies,
Defence Bonds and Savings Certificates are literally money in your pocket. However, be
sure your insurance policies have a savings aspect, if you want to borrow on them, for
this means a cash value. Certain types of insurance, called "term insurance", are merely
for your protection over a given period of time and do not build up reserves. These
policies are obviously of no use to you for borrowing purposes. Therefore, the rule is:
Ask questions! Before you sign for a policy, find out if it has a cash value in case you
have to raise money.
Now, suppose you haven't insurance you can borrow on, and you haven't any bonds, but
you do own a house, or a car, or some other kind of collateral. Where do you go to
borrow? By all means, to a bank! Banks all over this land are subject to strict regulation;
they have a reputation to maintain in the community; the rate of interest they can
charge is fixed firmly by law; and they will deal with you fairly. Frequently, if you are in
a financial jam, the bank will go so far as to discuss your problems with you, make a
plan, and help you work your way out of your worry and indebtedness. I repeat, I
repeat, if you have collateral, go to a bank!
However, suppose you are one of the thousands who don't have collateral, don't own any
property, and have nothing to offer as guarantee except your wages or salary? Then, as
you value your life, heed this word of warning! Do not-do not-apply to the first "loan
company" whose alluring advertisements you see in the paper. These people, to read
some of their ads, are as generous as Santa Claus. Don't you believe it! However, there
are some companies that are ethical, honest, and strictly on the level. They are doing a
service to those people who are faced with illness or emergency and have to raise
money. They charge a higher rate of interest than the banks, but they have to do this,
for they take greater risks and have greater expenses in collecting. But, before doing
business with any loan company, go to your bank, talk to one of its officers, and ask him
to recommend a loan company that he knows to be fair. Otherwise-otherwise-well, I
don't want to give you nightmares, but here is what can happen:
At one time a newspaper in Minneapolis conducted an investigation into loan companies
that were supposedly operating within the regulations laid down by the Russell Sage
Foundation. I know a man who worked on that investigation-his name is Douglas Lurton,
and he is now editor of Your Life magazine. Doug Lurton tells me that the abuses he saw
among the poorer class of debtors would make your hair stand on end. Loans that had
begun as a mere fifty dollars had soared and multiplied to three and four hundred
dollars before they were paid. Wages were garnished; and, frequently, the man whose
wages were attached was fired by his company. In numerous instances, when the man
was unable to pay, the loan sharks simply sent an appraiser into his home to "evaluate"
his furniture-and cleaned out the home! People were found who had been paying on
small loans for four and five years and still owed money! Unusual cases? To quote Doug
Lurton: "In our campaign, we so flooded the court with cases of this sort that the judges
cried uncle, and the newspaper itself had to set up an arbitration bureau to take care of
the hundreds of cases."
How is such a thing possible? Well, the answer, of course, is in all sorts of hidden
charges and extra "legal fees". Here is a rule to remember in dealing with loan
companies: if you are absolutely certain, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that you can
pay the money off quickly, then your interest will be low, or reasonably low, and you
will get off fairly. But if you have to renew, and keep on renewing, then your interest
can mount into figures that would make Einstein dizzy. Doug Lurton tells me that in
some cases these additional fees had swollen the original indebtedness to two thousand
per cent, or about five hundred times as much as a bank would charge!
Rule No. 6: Protect yourself against illness, fire, and emergency expenses.
Insurance is available, for relatively small sums, on all kinds of accidents, misfortunes,
and conceivable emergencies. I am not suggesting that you cover yourself for everything
from slipping in the bathtub to catching German measles-but I do suggest that you
protect yourself against the major misfortunes that you know could cost you money and
therefore do cost you worry. It's cheap at the price.
For example, I know a woman who had to spend ten days in a hospital last year and,
when she came out, was presented a bill-for exactly eight dollars! The answer? She had
hospital insurance.
Rule No. 7: Do not have your life-insurance proceeds paid to your widow in cash.
If you are carrying life insurance to provide for your family after you're gone, do not, I
beg of you, have your insurance paid in one lump sum.
What happens to "a new widow with new money"? I'll let Mrs. Marion S. Eberly answer
that question. She is head of the Women's Division of the Institute of Life Insurance, 60
East 42nd Street, New York City. She speaks before women's clubs all over America on
the wisdom of using life-insurance proceeds to purchase a life income for the widow
instead of giving her the proceeds in cash. She tells me one widow who received twenty
thousand dollars in cash and lent it to her son to start in the auto-accessory business.
The business failed, and she is destitute now. She tells of another widow who was
persuaded by a slick real-estate salesman to put most of her life-insurance money in
vacant lots that were "sure to double in value within a year". Three years later, she sold
the lots for one-tenth of what she paid for them. She tells of another widow who had to
apply to the Child Welfare Association for the support of her children-within twelve
months after she had been left fifteenth thousand dollars in life insurance. A hundred
thousand similar tragedies could be told.
"The average lifetime of twenty-five thousand dollars left in the hands of a woman is
less than seven years." That statement was made by Sylvia S. Porter, financial editor of
the New York Post, in the Ladies' Home Journal.
Years ago, The Saturday Evening Post said in an editorial: "The ease with which the
average widow without business training, and with no banker to advise her, can be
wheedled into putting her husband's life-insurance money into wildcat stocks by the first
slick salesman who approaches her-is proverbial. Any lawyer or banker can cite a dozen
cases in which the entire savings of a thrifty man's lifetime, amassed by years of
sacrifice and self-denial, were swept away simply because a widow or an orphan trusted
one of the slick crooks who rob women for a livelihood."
If you want to protect your widow and your children, why not take a tip from J. P.
Morgan-one of the wisest financiers who ever lived. He left money in his will to sixteen
principal legatees. Twelve were women. Did he leave these women cash? No. He left
trust funds that ensured these women a monthly income for life.
Rule No. 8: Teach your children a responsible attitude toward money.
I shall never forget an idea I once read in Your Life magazine. The author, Stella Weston
Turtle, described how she was teaching her little girl a sense of responsibility about
money. She got an extra cheque-book from the bank and gave it to her nine-year-old
daughter. When the daughter was given her weekly allowance, she "deposited" the
money with her mother, who served as a bank for the child's funds. Then, throughout
the week, whenever she wanted a cent or two, she "drew a cheque" for that amount and
kept track of her balance. The little girl not only found that fun, but began to learn real
responsibility in handling her money.
This is an excellent method and if you have a son or daughter of school age, and you
want this child to learn how to handle money, I recommend it for your consideration.
Rule No. 9: II necessary, make a little extra money off your kitchen stove.
If after you budget your expenses wisely you still find that you don't have enough to
make ends meet, you can then do one of two things: you can either scold, fret, worry,
and complain, or you can plan to make a little additional money on the side. How? Well,
all you have to do to make money is to fill an urgent need that isn't being adequately
filled now. That is what Mrs. Nellie Speer, 37-09 83rd Street, Jackson Heights, New
York, did. In 1932, she found herself living alone in a three-room apartment. Her
husband had died, and both of her children were married. One day, while having some
ice-cream at a drug-store soda fountain, she noticed that the fountain was also selling
bakery pies that looked sad and dreary. She asked the proprietor if he would buy some
real home-made pies from her. He ordered two. "Although I was a good cook," Mrs.
Speer said, as she told me the story, "I had always had servants when we lived in
Georgia, and I had never baked more than a dozen pies in my life. After getting that
order for two pies, I asked a neighbour woman how to cook an apple-pie. The sodafountain
customers were delighted with my first two home-baked pies, one apple, one
lemon. The drugstore ordered five the next day. Then orders gradually came in from
other fountains and luncheonettes. Within two years, I was baking five thousand pies a
year-I was doing all the work myself in my own tiny kitchen, and I was making a
thousand dollars a year clear, without a penny's expense except the ingredients that
went into the pies."
The demand for Mrs. Speer's home-baked pastry became so great that she had to move
out of her kitchen into a shop and hire two girls to bake for her: pies, cakes, bread, and
rolls. During the war, people stood in line for an hour at a time to buy her home-baked
foods.
"I have never been happier in my life," Mrs. Speer said. "I work in the shop twelve to
fourteen hours a day, but I don't get tired because it isn't work to me. It is an adventure
in living. I am doing my part to make people a little happier. I am too busy to be
lonesome or worried. My work has filled a gap in my life left vacant by the passing of my
mother and husband and my home."
When I asked Mrs. Speer if she felt that other women who were good cooks could make
money in their spare time in a similar way, in towns of ten thousand and up, she
replied: "Yes-of course they can!"
Mrs. Ora Snyder will tell you the same thing. She lives in a town of thirty thousand-
Maywood, Illinois. Yet she started in business with the kitchen stove and ten cents'
worth of ingredients. Her husband fell ill. She had to earn money. But how? No
experience. No skill. No capital. Just a housewife. She took the white of an egg and
sugar and made some candy on the back of the kitchen stove; then she took her pan of
candy and stood near the school and sold it to the children for a penny a piece as they
went home. "Bring more pennies tomorrow," she said. "I'll be here every day with my
home-made candy." During the first week, she not only made a profit, but had also put a
new zest into living. She was making both herself and the children happy. No time now
for worry.
This quiet little housewife from Maywood, Illinois, was so ambitious that she decided to
branch out-to have an agent sell her kitchen-made candy in roaring, thundering
Chicago. She timidly approached an Italian selling peanuts on the street. He shrugged
his shoulders. His customers wanted peanuts, not candy. She gave him a sample. He
liked it, began selling her candy, and made a good profit for Mrs. Snyder on the first
day. Four years later, she opened her first store in Chicago. It was only eight feet wide.
She made her candy at night and sold it in the daytime. This erstwhile timid housewife,
who started her candy factory on her kitchen stove, now has seventeen stores-fifteen of
them in the busy Loop district of Chicago.
Here is the point I am trying to make. Nellie Speer, in Jackson Heights, New York, and
Mrs. Ora Snyder, in May-wood, Illinois, instead of worrying about finances, did
something positive. They started in an extremely small way to make money off the
kitchen stove-no overhead, no rent, no advertising, no salaries. Under these conditions,
it is almost impossible for a woman to be defeated by financial worries.
Look around you. You will find many needs that are not filled. For example, if you train
yourself to be a good cook, you can probably make money by starting cooking classes for
young girls right in your own kitchen. You can get your students by ringing door-bells.
Books have been written about how to make money in your spare time; inquire at your
public library. There are many opportunities for both men and women. But one word of
warning: unless you have a natural gift for selling, don't attempt door-to-door selling.
Most people hate it and fail at it.
Rule No. 10: Don't gamble-ever.
I am always astounded by the people who hope to make money by betting on the ponies
or playing slot machines. I know a man who makes his living by owning a string of these
"one armed bandits", and he has nothing but contempt for the foolish people who are so
naive as to imagine that they can beat a machine that is already rigged against them.
I also know one of the best known bookmakers in America. He was a student in my
adult-education classes. He told me that with all his knowledge of horse racing, he
couldn't make money betting on the ponies. Yet the facts are that foolish people bet six
billion dollars a year on the races-six times as much as our total national debt back in
1910. This bookmaker also told me that if he had an enemy he despised, he could think
of no better way of ruining him than by getting him to bet on the races. When I asked
him what would happen to the man who played the races according to the tipster
sheets, he replied: "You could lose the Mint by betting that way."
If we are determined to gamble, let's at least be smart. Let's find out what the odds are
against us. How? By reading a book entitled How to Figure the Odds, by Oswald Jacobyan
authority on bridge and poker, a top-ranking mathematician, a professional
statistician, and an insurance actuary. This book devotes 215 pages to telling you what
the odds are against your winning when you play the ponies, roulette, craps, slot
machines, draw poker, stud poker, contract bridge, auction pinochle, the stock market.
This book also give you the scientific, mathematical chances on a score of other
activities. It doesn't pretend to show how to make money gambling. The author has no
axe to grind. He merely shows you what the odds are against your winning in all the
usual ways of gambling; and when you see the odds, you will pity the poor suckers who
stake their hard-earned wages on horse races or cards or dice or slot machines. If you
are tempted to shoot craps or play poker or bet on horses, this book may save you a
hundred times-yes, maybe a thousand times-what it costs.
Rule No. 11: If we can't possibly improve our financial situation, let's be good to
ourselves and stop resenting what can't be changed.
If we can't possibly improve our financial situation, maybe we can improve our mental
attitude towards it. Let's remember that other people have their financial worries, too.
