It is hard for many people to grasp the fact _that money is a wage
earner, like themselves_. Money saved is like having a helper to
decrease your working burden. It can be planned _so that it finally
can take over your “job” and earn as much as you do_. Then you will
not have to work at all to live, unless you wish to do so.
Money is not something to hide in a hole in the ground or put in a
miser’s secret bag to gloat over. It is something to dress in overalls
and send out to do its normal day’s work for you.
Despite the time and attention the potential saver may give to
accumulating money, if he does not know how to invest it wisely and
safely his time has gone for naught. Money depreciates far faster than
it accumulates, and it is of the utmost importance that the saver
devote as much care to finding a way to invest his money as he does to
accumulating it.
_Adult investment-saving should commence at twenty years of age if
possible._ If the investor has missed his chance of commencing he
should begin “as soon as possible.” It is never too late to begin, as
the handicap of tardiness may be overcome by the sure, swift work of
compound interest.
The important accumulations of capital by some of our most prominent
rich men have not been the result of chance, accident, speculation nor
even hard work solely on the part of the individual. The hard work has
been at the instance of their initial accumulation, which has been made
to move early and efficiently. When money works systematically it knows
neither the dinner-gong nor bedtime. This is not a rosy dream--money
cannot, of course, make everyone affluent--but the earning power of
invested savings is a sound business principle. If it were not for
invested capital, modern business could not exist.