Every week you should lay by in some secure place five or ten dollars not to be used up unless in case of sickness. With economy you may place something at interest. With wise management you can save something after paying your debts.—Letter 29, 1884.
(2SM 329.1)
I have known a family receiving twenty dollars a week to spend every penny of this amount, while another family of the same size, receiving but twelve dollars a week, laid aside one or two dollars a week, managing to do this by refraining from purchasing things which seemed to be necessary but which could be dispensed with.—Letter 156, 1901.
(2SM 329.2)
Preparing for the Day of Reduced Income
You might today have had a capital of means to use in case of emergency and to aid the cause of God, if you had economized as you should. Every week a portion of your wages should be reserved and in no case touched unless suffering actual want, or to render back to the Giver in offerings to God....
(2SM 329.3)
The means you have earned has not been wisely and economically expended so as to leave a margin, should you be sick and your family deprived of the means you bring to sustain them. Your family should have something to rely upon if you should be brought into straitened places.—Letter 5, 1877.
(2SM 329.4)
A Young Man Counseled to Economize and Save
It is certain you have not economized in everything or you would now have something to show as the result of that wise economy which is praiseworthy in any young man. To carefully reserve a portion of each week’s wages and lay by a certain sum every week which is not to be touched, should be your rule....
(2SM 330.1)
Diligence in business, abstinence from pleasure, even privation, so long as health is not endangered, should be cheerfully maintained by a young man in your circumstances, and you would have a little competency untouched should you become sick, that the charities of others would not be your dependence. You have needlessly expended much means which now might be on interest, and you be having some returns....
(2SM 330.2)
You might have had, even from your limited wages, means in reserve for any demand. It might have been invested in a lot of land which would be increasing in value. But for a young man to live up to the last dollar he earns shows a great lack of calculation and discernment.
(2SM 330.3)
Since mortals have bodies and heads and hearts to be provided for, some provision for the body must be made in order to hold a proper position in the world. Not to meet the world’s standards—oh, no, no indeed; but to be of influence in the world for good. Love and sympathy may be exercised, and the tenderness of common brotherhood.—Letter 41, 1877.
(2SM 330.4)