The Art of Money Getting - P. T. Barnum (top novels TXT) 📗

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Title: The Art of Money Getting

or Golden Rules for Making Money

 

Author: P. T. Barnum

 

Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8581]

[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]

[This file was first posted on July 25, 2003]

[Date last updated: August 29, 2006]

 

Edition: 10

 

Language: English

 

Character set encoding: ASCII

 

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ART OF MONEY GETTING ***

 

Produced by Wayne N. Keyser in honor of his Parents,

Clifton B. and Esther N. Keyser

 

The Art of Money Getting or Golden Rules for Making Money

 

by P.T. Barnum

 

In the United States, where we have more land than people, it is not at

all difficult for persons in good health to make money. In this

comparatively new field there are so many avenues of success open, so

many vocations which are not crowded, that any person of either sex who

is willing, at least for the time being, to engage in any respectable

occupation that offers, may find lucrative employment.

 

Those who really desire to attain an independence, have only to set

their minds upon it, and adopt the proper means, as they do in regard to

any other object which they wish to accomplish, and the thing is easily

done. But however easy it may be found to make money, I have no doubt

many of my hearers will agree it is the most difficult thing in the

world to keep it. The road to wealth is, as Dr. Franklin truly says, “as

plain as the road to the mill.” It consists simply in expending less

than we earn; that seems to be a very simple problem. Mr. Micawber, one

of those happy creations of the genial Dickens, puts the case in a

strong light when he says that to have annual income of twenty pounds

per annum, and spend twenty pounds and sixpence, is to be the most

miserable of men; whereas, to have an income of only twenty pounds, and

spend but nineteen pounds and sixpence is to be the happiest of mortals.

Many of my readers may say, “we understand this: this is economy, and we

know economy is wealth; we know we can’t eat our cake and keep it also.”

Yet I beg to say that perhaps more cases of failure arise from mistakes

on this point than almost any other. The fact is, many people think they

understand economy when they really do not.

 

True economy is misapprehended, and people go through life without

properly comprehending what that principle is. One says, “I have an

income of so much, and here is my neighbor who has the same; yet every

year he gets something ahead and I fall short; why is it? I know all

about economy.” He thinks he does, but he does not. There are men who

think that economy consists in saving cheese-parings and candle-ends, in

cutting off two pence from the laundress’ bill and doing all sorts of

little, mean, dirty things. Economy is not meanness. The misfortune is,

also, that this class of persons let their economy apply in only one

direction. They fancy they are so wonderfully economical in saving a

half-penny where they ought to spend twopence, that they think they can

afford to squander in other directions. A few years ago, before kerosene

oil was discovered or thought of, one might stop overnight at almost any

farmer’s house in the agricultural districts and get a very good supper,

but after supper he might attempt to read in the sitting-room, and would

find it impossible with the inefficient light of one candle. The

hostess, seeing his dilemma, would say: “It is rather difficult to read

here evenings; the proverb says ‘you must have a ship at sea in order to

be able to burn two candles at once;’ we never have an extra candle

except on extra occasions.” These extra occasions occur, perhaps, twice

a year. In this way the good woman saves five, six, or ten dollars in

that time: but the information which might be derived from having the

extra light would, of course, far outweigh a ton of candles.

 

But the trouble does not end here. Feeling that she is so economical in

tallow candies, she thinks she can afford to go frequently to the

village and spend twenty or thirty dollars for ribbons and furbelows,

many of which are not necessary. This false connote may frequently be

seen in men of business, and in those instances it often runs to

writing-paper. You find good businessmen who save all the old envelopes

and scraps, and would not tear a new sheet of paper, if they could avoid

it, for the world. This is all very well; they may in this way save five

or ten dollars a year, but being so economical (only in note paper),

they think they can afford to waste time; to have expensive parties, and

to drive their carriages. This is an illustration of Dr. Franklin’s

“saving at the spigot and wasting at the bung-hole;” “penny wise and

pound foolish.” Punch in speaking of this “one idea” class of people

says “they are like the man who bought a penny herring for his family’s

dinner and then hired a coach and four to take it home.” I never knew a

man to succeed by practising this kind of economy.

 

True economy consists in always making the income exceed the out-go.

Wear the old clothes a little longer if necessary; dispense with the new

pair of gloves; mend the old dress: live on plainer food if need be; so

that, under all circumstances, unless some unforeseen accident occurs,

there will be a margin in favor of the income. A penny here, and a

dollar there, placed at interest, goes on accumulating, and in this way

the desired result is attained. It requires some training, perhaps, to

accomplish this economy, but when once used to it, you will find there

is more satisfaction in rational saving than in irrational spending.

Here is a recipe which I recommend: I have found it to work an excellent

cure for extravagance, and especially for mistaken economy: When you

find that you have no surplus at the end of the year, and yet have a

good income, I advise you to take a few sheets of paper and form them

into a book and mark down every item of expenditure. Post it every day

or week in two columns, one headed “necessaries” or even “comforts”, and

the other headed “luxuries,” and you will find that the latter column

will be double, treble, and frequently ten times greater than the

former. The real comforts of life cost but a small portion of what most

of us can earn. Dr. Franklin says “it is the eyes of others and not our

own eyes which ruin us. If all the world were blind except myself I

should not care for fine clothes or furniture.” It is the fear of what

Mrs. Grundy may say that keeps the noses of many worthy families to the

grindstone. In America many persons like to repeat “we are all free and

equal,” but it is a great mistake in more senses than one.

 

That we are born “free and equal” is a glorious truth in one sense, yet

we are not all born equally rich, and we never shall be. One may say;

“there is a man who has an income of fifty thousand dollars per annum,

while I have but one thousand dollars; I knew that fellow when he was

poor like myself; now he is rich and thinks he is better than I am; I

will show him that I am as good as he is; I will go and buy a horse and

buggy; no, I cannot do that, but I will go and hire one and ride this

afternoon on the same road that he does, and thus prove to him that I am

as good as he is.”

 

My friend, you need not take that trouble; you can easily prove that you

are “as good as he is;” you have only to behave as well as he does; but

you cannot make anybody believe that you are rich as he is. Besides, if

you put on these “airs,” add waste your time and spend your money, your

poor wife will be obliged to scrub her fingers off at home, and buy her

tea two ounces at a time, and everything else in proportion, in order

that you may keep up “appearances,” and, after all, deceive nobody. On

the other hand, Mrs. Smith may say that her next-door neighbor married

Johnson for his money, and “everybody says so.” She has a nice one-thousand dollar camel’s hair shawl, and she will make Smith get her an

imitation one, and she will sit in a pew right next to her neighbor in

church, in order to prove that she is her equal.

 

My good woman, you will not get ahead in the world, if your vanity and

envy thus take the lead. In this country, where we believe the majority

ought to rule, we ignore that principle in regard to fashion, and let a

handful of people, calling themselves the aristocracy, run up a false

standard of perfection, and in endeavoring to rise to that standard, we

constantly keep ourselves poor; all the time digging away for the sake

of outside appearances. How much wiser to be a “law unto ourselves” and

say, “we will regulate our out-go by our income, and lay up something

for a rainy day.” People ought to be as sensible on the subject of

money-getting as on any other subject. Like causes produces like

effects. You cannot accumulate a fortune by taking the road that leads

to poverty. It needs no prophet to tell us that those who live fully up

to their means, without any thought of a reverse in this life, can never

attain a pecuniary independence.

 

Men and women accustomed to gratify every whim and caprice, will find it

hard, at first, to cut down their various unnecessary expenses, and will

feel it a great self-denial to live in a smaller house than they have

been accustomed to, with less expensive furniture, less company, less

costly clothing, fewer servants, a less number of balls, parties,

theater-goings, carriage-ridings, pleasure excursions, cigar-smokings,

liquor-drinkings, and other extravagances; but, after all, if