Do Not Be a Spendthrift
The man who squanders his hard earned money is an enemy to himself.
By squandering money is meant expending it for something you do not need and which is of no value, use, or merit.
“A penny saved is a penny earned” is a well known saying, also “Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves.”
Don’t imagine it looks big when a young man is with his companions and throws his money right and left. Does he gain their respect? Never. They look upon him as a fool and while they are willing to take advantage of his “liberality,” it will always be noticed that they never reciprocate. They are wiser than he.
It is not necessary to be a miser either, for that is the other extreme and equally as reprehensible.
No man should live on crusts and hoard away his money for some public administrator to find and spend in fees when he is dead.
Neither can a man waste his money and expect to have any left for the rainy day that always comes to every mortal. Such a man says when he is too old to earn money, and is kicked about from pillar to post without friends or companions: “If I had only saved my money when I was young, I might be a rich man now.” That is quite true, but you wasted your money and you have reached the end of your chapter in life.
What do you want money for anyway? You can live on bread and water. There is a great question in this idea. We have needs; we have rights to be observed, to marry, to be decent, to live in healthy places, raise a family and educate them. All these things make a man, an American citizen, and if you throw away the money to make you these things, then you can not become any of them. In that case you are—nothing. Do you aspire to be a nonentity?