Self-Help: Money, Its Use and Abuse

In the tenth chapter, Smiles turns to money: how to earn it, save it and spend it.

“How a man uses money, makes it, saves it and spends it, is perhaps one of the best tests of practical wisdom.Money should never be the chief goal of life, but it is not a small matter either.Some of the finest qualities of human nature, such as generosity, honesty and self-sacrifice, are closely connected with the right use of money.‘The world,’ said Cobden, ‘has always been divided into two classes: those who have saved and those who have spent.’

Every person should arrange to live within his means; this is the very heart of honesty.For if a man does not honestly live within his own means, he must be living dishonestly on the means of somebody else.Careless spenders waste their money as they waste their time, spend tomorrow’s earnings today, and end up dragging a heavy load of debts behind them.

The proverb says that ‘an empty bag cannot stand upright’, and neither can a man who is in debt.It is hard for a person in debt to be truthful, because he must keep making excuses to the person he owes.The first step into debt is like the first step into lying: one debt follows another, as one lie follows another.Dr Johnson said, ‘Do not think of debt as only an inconvenience; you will find it a disaster. Whatever you have, spend less.’”