The Use of Money is all the Advantage there is in having Money. For £ 6
a Year you may have the Use of £ 100 if you are a Man of known Prudence
and Honesty.
He that spends a Groat a day idly, spends idly above £ 6 a year, which
is the Price of using £100.
He that wastes idly a Groat's worth of his Time per Day, one Day with
another, wastes the Privilege of using £ 100 each day.
He that idly loses 5 s. worth of time, loses 5 s. and might as prudently(1)
throw 5 s. in the River.
He that loses 5 s. 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, amounts to a comfortable Bag 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 like to be
kept out of it(2): 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.
Consider then when you are tempted to buy any unnecessary Household stuff,
or any superfluous thing, whether you will be willing to pay Interest,
and Interest upon Interest for it as long as you live; and more if it grows
worse by using.
ret, in buying goods, 't is best to pay Ready Money, because, He that sells
upon Credit, expects to lose 5 per Cent by Bad Debts(3); therefore he
charges, on all he sells upon Credit, an Advance~ that shall make up that
deficiency.
Those who pay for what they buy upon Credit, pay their Share of this Advance.
He that pays Ready Money, escapes or may escape that Charge.
A Penny sav'd is Twopence clear(5),
A Pin a Day is a Groat a Year.(6)