The absolutely primary requirement for systematic saving is _the
will to save_--not a mere momentary impulse to save, not a mere
general desire to save, but _the effective establishment of a fixed,
disciplined habit of saving_.
Success in anything is quite largely a matter of will-power, and
bromidic as the advice may seem, the man or woman who cannot stiffen
his spine and set his jaw with sufficient resolution to say “I will
save” lacks the essentials for overcoming those obstacles which lie in
the pathway of everyone striving for any purpose or ambition.
Anyone in the income level above bare necessity who is not sufficiently
interested in his or her own welfare to lay by a certain portion of
earnings for the future either is irresponsible mentally or does not
care what bitterness the future may bring. The creation of habit is a
mechanical process. There is no mystery about it. William James has
described it in detail. The human mind responds splendidly to a sincere
habit-creating determination. The first result is something like a
hurt. It is like the cut of a knife in living tissue. That is why
people shrink from habit-forming, unless it be habits simply following
the line of animal pleasure. Each time the discipline is applied,
however, the pain is less, and the human organism soon adopts itself to
the new habit, and even learns to change the pain to pleasure. It is
later painful to _break_ the habit.
The saving _habit_, the saving _thought_, the saving
_will_ are the keys to successful saving, and, in the measure that
these are achieved, to that degree will there be success in saving.
The most typical situation in regard to saving is an _occasional_
realization that saving should be accomplished, and a sincere effort
is often then made. But within a few weeks, or a few months, or a few
years, according to the strength of character of the individual, the
impulse, _because it is not disciplined and forged into a fixed
habit_, is lost, overwhelmed by stronger habits and impulses.