Thrift, we have every reason to expect, would be stimulated by a better understanding of the avenues through which savings can be made. The most outstanding institution in this respect is the savings bank, which readily accepts small amounts, paying depositors a reasonable rate of interest, usually in the neighborhood of three or four per cent. Even the national government has entered this field with its postal savings bank system. A much higher rate of interest can be got from stock in building and loan associations. Unlike deposits in savings banks, which can be made in any amount at any time, building and loan dues are payable at stated times in stated amounts. This very characteristic, the definiteness in time and amount, though it is galling to many people, works effectively to create habits of thrift and saving. What at first appears to be a burden, soon, by the very force of habit, becomes a fixed charge against income, which is handled exactly like rent or regular store bills. Small accumulations like these are first steps to larger investments. Periodically the savings bank depositor or the owner of building and loan shares is able to buy government or industrial bonds or even real estate mortgages. The interest from these larger investments becomes the nucleus of further savings, which in time ripen, as it were, into more bonds or mortgages. Thus, the process goes on until in time many a man finds himself in possession of a greater income from his savings than he can possibly get from his labor. The hardest part of saving, as any successful man will testify, is the beginning. A dollar appears too insignificant to be saved. Besides, there are so many things its possessor feels that he ought to buy. But with foresight and a spirit of abstinence the typical American can save.

As a practical problem saving seldom appeals to young people of high school and college age. Yet of all classes they ought to acquire the habit, for a dollar saved at twenty is worth several dollars saved at forty. Early savings mean an early start in business, early home-owning, and early independence. A first-year high school boy who can begin to put five dollars a month into a building and loan association will, in the middle of his junior year in college, find himself in possession of five hundred dollars. Likewise the high school graduate who is about to take his first step into the business world can, by investing ten dollars a month in the same way, have a thousand dollars at the age of twenty-five. The saving problem becomes easy, to repeat what has already been said, after the first step has been taken.

Growth of an Investment Compounded Annually at Six Per Cent.

Report of the Peoples Building and Loan Association,

April 1, 1919

Report of the Peoples Building and Loan Association,

April 1, 1919

Table of Values and Shares