The simplest thing to do with savings is merely to hold the cash for use when needed. It is also a sensible thing to do, if not carried too far.

One of the surest ways to waste money and a way fol lowed by tens of millions of Americans is never to have any free cash. When one of these people buys clothes, jewelry, household goods, an automobile, insurance, or va cation travel, he begins to use the item immediately, but he pays by installments that are not completed until months or years afterward. Maybe he is still making payments after the item is all used up or worn out. In exceptional cases, perhaps a family can make sensible, temporary use of install ment payments. But once a family have entered the treadmill of having their income tied up in weekly or monthly commitments, it is pretty hard for them to break out.

When a salesman and a buyer meet, the salesman nor mally has the advantage that he and the organization backing him are specialists in the items being sold, and (he terms thereon, whereas the buyer is a greenhorn. The more complicated the terms of sale, the greater the sales man’s advantage. In arranging for “convenient, easy pay ments,” a buyer forgets the total cost, his attention being diverted to the size of a single payment. A salesman in clined to be tricky obviously has more opportunity in the complications of installment contracts. So the total amount paid by an installment buyer is apt to be much larger than the cash price of what he set out to buy. Certified Financial Planner - Read More.