Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1874-05-23
4 h E REGISTER.
ShepherdstOwn, West Va:
Notwithstanding %, 1874
THE LAW ACCUMULATION


PAYS attention to the modus operand'
by which this is brought about and
practical consequences which follow.
Schoolboys are taught the rule OF
compound interest, but nine cut OF ten
forget all about it for the remainder OF
their lives. Yet this principal has more
to do With the accumulation OF large
fortunes than any other cause whatever;
and it has bearings on the ratio ayle OF
expenditure both personal and natural,
of which the practical character cannot
be oyerrated.
We read in a paper few months
ago of the death Of al eminent London
tapitalist, who left the enormous Tor
tune of .byee millions sterling. This
old gentleman was over ninety years OF
age at his death, and it is pretty evident
that he was a man of quiet habits and
moderate expenditure, letting bis capt.
tai accumulate year ly year by its own
natura, force. Now, it is only when 1t
has been in operation for long series
of consecutive years that we see what
the course of compound interest is. For
the first few years the augmentation Is
almost imperceptible, but when once
the power of increase has become de
veloped, it goes on at an augmena''ng
ratio until the results are almost incred-
ible There can be no doubt that i'll
the case just mentioned the wealth ac-
cumulated after the natural duration OF
life had been reached was far more than
all the seventy years previous.
Ifmoney can be invested at eight per
cent. and the interest reinvested at the
game rate. it will double itself IN hive
wears. Allow ten years for this TO take
place. owing to the loss of time and re-
investing, and we reach the remarkable
copclusion-remarkable, We mean, to
to those who have not thought about 1t
that if a man can lay by a thousand
dollars at one and twenty, and it accu-
mulates at compound interest It Will
amount to the enormous sim Of thirty
thousand dollars if he lives to the age
of seventy, to sixty thousand at eighty,
and to the amount Of a hundred and
twenty thousand at ninety. This is the
secret of the large fortunes Of the great
bankers, capitalists of Europe, whose
money goes on accommodating for gener-
atiops, augmcnts with prodigious rapid
ity after thirty or fifty years have pass
ed on
The process, however, may be revised.
4 man wastes or spends a thousand
dcllars noedlcssly by the time he is two
and twenty What is the effect ? If
he lives to seventy he will be thirty
thousand poorer for it; or we will say,
he will have lost the chance of being
thirty thousand dollars better off than
he is.
We then arrive at the general trnth,
that the Younger man is more yslua-
bic money is to him. We have seen
what q thousand dollars is to man OF
twenty-one, viz the making Of for
tune; but a thousand dollars to a man
of fifty would be of comparatively small
amount.
Suppose man begins life with econ
omical habits, and by rigid self-denial
accumulates five hundred pounds by the
time he is twenty-five. That sum will
amount to competency by the time he
desires to be free from the cares OF bus
mess, and he then land indeed for years
betore) has the pleasure OF laying ont
his money freely, and without tear IN
gratifying his tastes or in doing good
But if he is inclined to crafty his
tastes when young, to buy, we will say,
expensive furniture, or to mingle freely
in society, so that he never saved at all
until he is five and forty what good will
five hundred pounds do him thenf 1t
is, of course, good in itself but IS the
foundation of competency it is utterly
Inadequate. 1t would only amount to
two thousand pounds at sixty-fve, and
not to a competency till long after
three score and ten.
The points of the whole matter are
therefore these Every dollar saved in
youth is worth thirty dollars in old age;
every hundred dollars in foolery o. fin
ery before five and twenty is simply
three thousand dollars thrown away OF
provision for the time when work must
he burden.
Let our young men in business think
of this. They are exposed on entering
life, to iunqmerable temptations to
spend. Let such be steadily resisted.
The true course in youth is quick saw
inc and careful economy. By and by a
time will come when this will bear its
legitimate truths. This is the time for
80, handed freedom i'm expenditure