SEVEN
CURES FOR A LEAN PURSE
THE
SECOND CURE: CONTROL THY
EXPENDITURES
"Some
of your members, my students, have asked me this: How can a man keep one-tenth
of all he earns in his purse when all the coins he earns are not enough for his
necessary expenses?" So did Arkad address his students upon the second
day.
"Yesterday
how many of thee carried lean purses?"
"All
of us," answered the class.
"Yet,
thou do not all earn the same. Some earn much more than others. Some have much
larger families to support. Yet, all purses were equally lean. Now I will tell
thee an unusual truth about men and sons of men. It is this; That what each of
us calls our 'necessary expenses' will always grow to equal our incomes unless
we protest to the contrary.
"Confuse
not the necessary expenses with thy desires. Each of you, together with your
good families, have more desires than your earnings can gratify. Therefore are
thy earnings spent to gratify these desires insofar as they will go. Still thou
retainest many ungratified desires.
"All
men are burdened with more desires than they can gratify. Because of my wealth
thinkest thou I may gratify every desire? 'Tis a false idea. There are limits
to my time. There are limits to my strength. There are limits to the distance I
may travel. There are limits to what I may eat. There are limits to the zest
with which I may enjoy.
"I
say to you that just as weeds grow in a field wherever the farmer leaves space
for their roots, even so freely do desires grow in men whenever there is a
possibility of their being gratified. Thy desires are a multitude and those
that thou mayest gratify are but few.
"Study
thoughtfully thy accustomed habits of living. Herein may be most often found
certain accepted expenses that may wisely be reduced or eliminated. Let thy
motto be one hundred percent of appreciated value demanded for each coin spent.
"Therefore,
engrave upon the clay each thing for which thou desireth to spend. Select those
that are necessary and others that are possible through the expenditure of
nine- tenths of thy income. Cross out the rest and consider them but a part of
that great multitude of desires that must go unsatisfied and regret them not.
"Budget
then thy necessary expenses. Touch not the one- tenth that is fattening thy
purse. Let this be thy great desire that is being fulfilled. Keep working with
thy budget, keep adjusting it to help thee. Make it thy first assistant in
defending thy fattening purse."
Hereupon
one of the students, wearing a robe of red and gold, arose and said, "I am
a free man.
I
believe that it is my right to enjoy the good things of life. Therefore do I
rebel against the slavery of a budget which determines just how much I may
spend and for what. I feel it would take much pleasure from my life and make me
little more than a pack-ass to carry a burden."
To
him Arkad replied, "Who, my friend, would determine thy budget?" "I
would make it for myself," responded the protesting one. "In that
case were a pack-ass to budget his burden would he include therein jewels and
rugs and heavy bars of gold? Not so. He would include hay and grain and a bag
of water for the desert trail.
"The
purpose of a budget is to help thy purse to fatten. It is to assist thee to
have thy necessities and, insofar as attainable, thy other desires. It is to
enable thee to realize thy most cherished desires by defending them from thy
casual wishes. Like a bright light in a dark cave thy budget shows up the leaks
from thy purse and enables thee to stop them and control thy expenditures for
definite and gratifying purposes.
"This,
then, is the second cure for a lean purse. Budget thy expenses that thou
mayest have coins to pay for thy necessities, to pay for thy enjoyments and to
gratify thy worthwhile desires without spending more than nine-tenths of thy
earnings."
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