THE ART OF ECONOMY

          

           

 OPEN DOORS

In Ghana, where we have more land than people, it is not at all difficult for persons in good health to make money. 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 exist, may find lucrative employment.

           ROAD TO WEALTH

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 readers will agree it is the most difficult thing in the world to keep it. The road to wealth is 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. 

To have a monthly income of Ghc 200 per month and spend Ghc 200 and sixty pesewas , will make you the most miserable of men; whereas, to have an income of only Ghc 200, and spend but Ghc 190  and sixty pesewas will make you the happiest of men. 

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 will like to make clear that  perhaps more cases of failure arise from mistakes on this particular point than almost any other. The fact is, many people think they understand economy when they really do not.

   THE MISCONCEPTION OF ECONOMY

True economy is misunderstood , and people go through life without properly comprehending what that principle is. 

One may say, "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 doesn’t . There are men who think that economy consists in saving soap-ends and mosquito coil pieces, and in cutting off two cedis from the plumber’s bill and doing all sorts of little, mean, dirty things. Economy is not meanness. The misfortune is, also, that these persons let their economy apply in only one direction. 

They think they are so wonderfully economical in saving a 50p where they ought to spend Ghc 5, that they think they can afford to overspend in other directions. 

In these days were we have prepaid light bills, a student May want to learn at night but is not able to because his parents see it best to put off all the lights in the house before going to sleep.In this way they save  two to three cedis of electricity in that time.But they forget the information which the young kid could have derived from reading far outweighs a ton of electricity.

But the trouble does not end here.

Feeling that they are so economical with electricity,they think they can frequently spend 20 to 30 cedis on soft drinks after every meal which is completely unnecessary.

This false mindset may be seen among students,and in those instances often runs to notebooks.You see good students who save all the old envelopes and used papers,and wouldn’t 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 fifty to hundred cedis a year,but being so economical (only in notebooks),they think they can afford to waste time and to attend expensive parties.“This is an illustration of Dr. Franklin's "saving at the spigot and wasting at the bung-hole;”

“Pesewa wise and cedi foolish”,they are like the man who bought a Ghc 1 fish for his family's dinner and then hired a Glovo courier  to take it home." I can’t imagine a man to succeed by practising this kind of economy.

          TRUE 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 pesewa here, and a cedi 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”.If you were to make a list of every item of expeniture,one labled necessities and the other headed luxuries,you’d find out the later ten times the former.

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.Akweley may say that keeps many families working tirelessly.

        THE MYTH OF EQUALITY 

In Ghana where we have religions as Christianity and Islam dominating,It is common to hear people say that we are all created to be free and equal.This is a glorious truth in one sense,yet we are not all created equally rich,and we never shall be.

“One may say; "there is a man who has an income of fifty thousand Ghana cedis  per annum, while I have but one thousand Ghana cedis.I knew that guy 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 a car ;no, I can’t do that, but I will go and hire one and drive 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 only have 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," and to waste your time and spend your money, your poor wife will be obliged to scrub her fingers off at home, and you provide her two meals a day,and just a little of everything else, in order that you may keep up "appearances," and, after all, deceive nobody.

On the other hand his wife May say that her next door neighbor Mrs Nhyira married Mr Ransford for his money and"everybody says so." She has a nice one-thousand Ghana cedis Brazilian wig, and she will make her husband get her a similar one, and she will sit in a pew right next to her Mrs Nhyira in church, in order to prove that she is her equal.

My good woman, you will not get ahead in the world, if your  envy  takes the lead. In this country, where we believe the majority rules, we ignore that principle when it comes to fashion, and let a handful of people, calling themselves the brand killers, 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.

“Wouldn’t it be 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 need 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 financial independence.

                A PIVOT POINT 

People accustomed to gratify every pesewa, 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 costly clothing,and other extravagances; but, after all, if they will try the plan of saving,a small sum of money, at interest or judiciously invested, they will be surprised at the pleasure to be derived from constantly adding to their little "pile," as well as from all the economical habits which are practiced in this way of life.