280 THE PRINCIPLES OF SELF-MASTERY
A young man who was attending high school was spending large
sums for liquor. The actual amount was not obtainable for the reason
that he paid cash as he got the liquor, and the bootlegger's records did
not, therefore, disclose the actual amount. Later this boy's parents had
him locked up "to save him from himself:' It was found that he was
stealing money from a savings fund kept by his mother, somewhere in
the house. He had stolen and spent more than $300 of this money
when discovered.
A few years ago I set up a lecture bureau in forty-one high schools,
where I lectured once each month throughout the school season. The
principals of these high schools stated that less than 2 percent of the
students showed any tendency toward saving money, and an examina-
tion through the aid of a questionnaire prepared specifically for that
purpose disclosed that only 5 percent of the students, out of a total of
11,000 of high school age, believed that the savings habit was one of
the essentials for success.
COMMENTARY
According to the 1999 EBRI Youth and Money Survey, 64 percent of students
say they do not know as much about money as they should. Even among students
who say they do a very good job of managing their money, 49 percent think they
should know more.It is no wonder that the rich are becoming richer and the poor are
becoming poorer!
We are all victims of habit.
Unfortunately for most of us, we are reared by parents who have
no concept whatsoever of the psychology of habit, and without being
aware of their fault, most parents aid and abet their offspring in the
development of the spending habit by overindulgence with spending
money, and by lack of training in the Habit of Saving.