LIVING BEYOND OUR MEANS
Living beyond our means is a big subject that must be treated broadly,
for circumstances alter cases. There is a sane way to look at every
problem, and the matter of living beyond our means is one of the major
problems we have to face. If every man was alike and every avocation in
life was on a parity, it would be possible to dispose of this subject in
a paragraph. But men are not alike. What one could do successfully might
easily baffle another. Therefore, it seems advisable to consider the
subject by looking into its depths.
To most people debt is terrifying. To some it means nothing--and thus we
have individual temperament as an angle from which to consider. Living
beyond our ability to pay means going into debt via the shortest route.
Getting out of debt means a revision of our code to the extent of
ceasing to live beyond our means and saving something with which to pay
off what we owe. Some men can do this successfully--others fail while
seemingly trying their best to succeed--and still others do nothing to
stem the tide. With these it is a matter of how the tide serves. If
favoring winds should drive them to opulence they would more than likely
pay up, particularly those imbued with _sufficient personal honor_ to
"make good."
Such are the exigencies of life, we may as well concede that a vast
majority at some time or other find it necessary to owe more than they
can readily pay. Emergencies arise which force us into expenses that
require credit, and if we have so ordered our lives that when the pinch
comes _we have no credit established_ the fact that we pay out our last
dollar and go hungry to bed does not bring us much sympathy. Thus it
would seem that to be able to say: "I pay as I go," or, "I owe no man a
dollar," or, "I never live beyond my means" is not much of a boast,
when, after a death in the family, or other unforeseen circumstances,
we find ourselves broke and nowhere to turn for accommodation.
It has been aptly said that "_People can save themselves to death._" In
other words, one may develop the saving habit to such an extent that
"Laugh and Live" can find no room beside us on the perch of our
existence. We must admit that the systematic saver of pennies misses a
lot as he goes along, and, with time, degenerates into a sort of "Kill
Joy." In the matter of regulating his family to his way of thinking he
usually has an uphill job. Sons leave home as soon as they can;
daughters marry and breathe a sigh of relief, leaving mother behind to
slave on _in order that the hoard may grow_.
While all of this is true it only represents extreme cases, therefore it
should not be construed that this chapter is launched against _the habit
of saving_. Rather, its purpose is to suggest the thought of not
"_over-saving_" at the expense of _personal welfare_. Our best plan
would be to save in reason, not forgetting that life is here to enjoy
as we go along. Then, too, we must have a _credit rating_ among our
fellow mortals, just the same as a business person must have credit
rating among financial institutions.
[Illustration: _Squaring Things With Sister--From "The Habit of
Happiness"_]
Credit in business is worth more than money because it allows for
expansion whereas money in the bank is only good _as far as it goes_.
Many a merchant who bought and sold for cash all his life found when he
came to enlarge his business that one thing was lacking--_credit_. The
fact that he had always paid cash threw a doubt upon his financial
condition when he proposed to borrow. He had neglected to build up a
credit as he went along. The business world only knew him as a man who
paid cash and exacted cash. Taken at his fullest inventory he had
"scalped" a living out of the world for which he had done but little to
make happier or better. One calamity might easily scuttle his prospects
forever--for instance, a fire, or a bank failure. And without credit it
would be difficult to start over again.
By all means we must save something for the "rainy day" as we go
along--and our savings can be made up of other things than actual cash
in bank. One item of our savings is the habit of _keeping up our
appearances_. Living beyond our means does not incorporate the thought
that, in order to save every possible cent, we should become slipshod
and shabby. Carelessness in dress takes away from our rating as nothing
else will for it has to do with first impressions of those with whom we
come in contact. Gentility pays dividends of the highest order, being,
as it is, a badge of character. Neatness _bespeaks character_, and it is
just as cheap in dollars and cents to keep ourselves respectably clothed
as to indulge in shoddy apparel under the delusion that we have saved
money on the purchase price. Good clothing, costing more at the start,
lasts long _and looks well as long as it lasts_. Shoddy apparel never is
anything else but shoddy, and well might it proclaim the shoddy man.
When we throw away our opportunity to present a genteel appearance, just
for the sake of the bank roll, we doom ourselves to defeat in the
pursuit of knowledge. We cannot get all we want to know by the mere
reading of books. We must mingle with people; we must interchange
thought that we may crystallize what we know into practical knowledge so
it can be made into tools to work with. While a man of brains is welcome
everywhere the matter of his appearance has a lot to do with how he is
received and with whom he may fraternize.
"Isn't it a pity," we hear people say, "that, with all his brains, he
hasn't sense enough to make himself presentable?" But the worst phase of
the situation is that the unkempt man sooner or later loses faith in
himself and either ceases to hoard at the expense of his gentility or he
gives up his opportunity to mingle with others and lapses into habits
consistent with miserly thoughts.
The phrase "_a happy medium_" is well known and decidedly applicable to
the subject of saving as we go along so that we may avert the sorrows
which follow in the wake of _living beyond our means_. It suggests a
desirable middle course which permits us to adopt a sane policy, rather
than flying to an extreme.
It cannot be said that we are living beyond our means when by reason of
our association with men of affairs we need to spend more money and
thereby save less in preparing ourselves for the larger opportunities
which will naturally follow. Young men often go through college on their
"uppers," so to speak. There is not a cent which they could honestly
save as they went along without cheating themselves. The point is that
their situations in life force them to spend rather than to save money.
But in so doing the real saving was in the spending thereof. _They
enlarged their knowledge and decreased their bank accounts for the time
being._ What man parts with in an emergency is no license, however, for
him to fall back into profligacy. Never should a man entirely lose the
idea of putting something by. The college boy in this case has simply
invested his money in an education instead of a bank account.
Once on the highroad of life with a plan of action well defined and a
regular income _the habit of putting money away should become a fixed
procedure_. In no other way do we accumulate except by investment, and
investment means putting away money at interest or in some project which
promises better returns.
If we were to interview a thousand men on the subject of saving and draw
upon their experiences we would find that by investing money at interest
we pursue the safest course, far safer, in fact, than the seeking of
outside investments that _promise_ greater returns. The latter invites
the mind away from the regular avocation and educates it in time to
_take chances_ that are likely to turn into _setbacks_. The mind,
instead of applying itself to the duty of making the most out of its
regular employment, allows its interest to become scattered over too
broad a field.
It is not within the province of all men to become wealthy and, after
all, wealth is not the only desideratum; the happiest of mortals are
found in the middle walks of life and not in the extremes. The struggle
should be to escape the life which saps our strength, keeps our nerves
on edge and drives us away from the _green pastures_.