Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/201

191 NECESSARY HINTS TO THOSE THAT WOULD BE RICH.

HE uſe of money is all the advantage there is in having money.

For ſix pounds a year you may have the life of one hundred pounds, provided you are a man of known prudence and honeſty.

He that ſpends a groat a day idly, ſpends idly above ſix pounds a year, which is the price for the uſe of one hundred pounds.

He that waſtes idly a groat's worth of his time per day, one day with another, waſtes the privilege of uſing one hundred pounds each day.

He that idly loſes five ſhillings worth of time, loſes five ſhillings, and might as prudently throw five ſhillings into the ſea. He that loſes five ſhillings, not only loſes that ſum, but all the advantage that might be made by turning it in dealing, which, by the time that a young man becomes old, will amount to a conſiderable ſum of money.

Again: he that ſells upon credit, aſks a price for what he ſells equivalent to the principal and intereſt of his money for the time he is to be kept out of it; therefore, he that buys upon credit, pays intereſt for what he buys; and he that pays ready money, might let that money out to uſe: ſo that he that poſſeſſes any thing he has bought, pays intereſt for the uſe of it.