The image of Benjamin Franklin is indelibly imprinted not only in the American psyche, but also on the largest coinage ever to be printed by the United States Treasury – the $ 100 bill. It would be difficult to choose a more suitable Founding Father to feature on the $ 100 bill, because prior to his tenure as one of the greatest and most famous statesmen of the American Revolution, Franklin was the founder and owner. of a printing house.
It is this entrepreneurial spirit that has enabled Franklin to accumulate wealth, serve his community, and create a better world for future generations. But Ben Franklin not only left his myriad of inventions or a fledgling country called the United States of America to the world, he also left a lot of personal wisdom and advice from his many writings. And some of his best advice is inexpensive.
Here are five of our favorite Franklin Beads of Wisdom and what you can learn from them.
1. “A penny saved is a penny earned.”
Franklin’s most famous quote on personal finance isn’t quite accurate. Quantitatively, considering that most people calculate their income before taxes, a penny saved is actually worth more than a penny earned. Because? Because taxes reduce your real take-home pay. If you make $ 10 an hour, you will probably only see around $ 7.50 after tax. So if you can cut your expenses by $ 10, you will actually save over an hour on your take-home pay.
The lesson: Saving money is the number one key to building wealth and being financially successful.
2. “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
Investing in yourself is just as important as saving for the future. In fact, although Franklin is also credited with the saying “go to bed early, get up early, keep a man healthy, rich and wise,” Franklin was known to frequently burn midnight oil while studying languages like French, Italian. , Latin and Spanish. This acquired knowledge served him and the colonies on his travels to solicit French support during the American Revolution, paying dividends he could never have expected. Franklin’s life teaches that success does not come only from hard work, but also from diligent study.
The lesson: never stop learning. If you have the option to take a course or continue your education, please do so. Better yet, study the things that interest you in your spare time. The library card is free!
3. “To have been poor is not a shame, to be ashamed of it is.”
Franklin was a self-made man who believed that success came through hard work, diligence, and study. His own beginnings were humble in nature, but he progressed through entrepreneurship and lifelong learning. He never hesitated to be honest about who he was or how he had done.
The Lesson: Remembering the overwhelming weight of debt or poverty can be the motivation you need to maintain your personal frugality and secure a better future for yourself and your family.
4. “Anyone who thinks that money will do everything good can be suspected of doing everything for the money.”
A personal finance encyclopedia could be written with just this quote. Frugality, economy and savings are one thing, greed is another. The financial crisis that started in 2008 is a good example. Greed drove billions of dollars into risky and speculative investments, such as subprime adjustable rate mortgages and mortgage-backed securities that promised impossible returns to investors who were far beyond their comprehension but blinded by signs of the dollar crisis.
The lesson: you have to be in control of your money; he shouldn’t be in charge of you.
5. “I’d rather go to bed without having dinner than go into debt.”
Franklin understood the insidious nature of debt and firmly believed that it was better to cut spending to an extreme level than to go into debt to pay for a lifestyle that is far beyond our means. Certainly reducing basic human needs, such as food, is an option we ideally won’t be faced with anytime soon, but this quote reinforces the importance of creating an emergency fund.
The lesson: don’t live beyond your means and get out of debt as soon as possible.
Benjamin Franklin’s writings are filled with quotes that remain perfectly relevant even in the difficult and often confusing economic conditions we face today. That said, we’ll leave that last word to Professor Ben Franklin himself, who reminds us to keep our ideas about money in perspective.
“Money has never made a man happy, and he never will, there is nothing in his nature that produces happiness. The more you have, the more you want. “