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PUTTING OFF 



THE RAINY DAY 



Borrowed money is "easy money" — to get. It's paying it hack that 

 brings the gray hairs. But here is a way to avoid gray hairs and overdvs 

 notes, and still have money to develop your business. It doesn't take a 

 J. Pierpont Morgan to use it, either; it's a plain plan for practical people. 



serve 

 these 



as 

 there 



EEDIT is like a buzz saw. 

 For the man who under- 

 stands its use, it has no 

 dangers. But the man who 

 takes chances, like the man 

 who "monkeys with the 

 buzz saw," is sure to come 

 to grief. Those florists 

 who, besides running their 

 own business successfully, 

 bank directors — and of 

 are not a 



creditor. Perhaps it is; but again, per- 

 haps it isn 't. If he makes a bad guess, 

 he is up against it, and there is trouble 

 when word comes from the creditor. 



Playing Safe. 



Bad debts, like bad deeds, "always 

 come home to roost." The man who 

 remarked that something or other was 

 ' ' as sure as death and taxes ' ' might as 

 truly have made the comparison read. 



few — will, therefore, find 

 little of profit in this 

 article. On the other 

 hand, those who from 

 time to time find them- 

 selves in hot water 

 financially may learn 

 the reason for the high 

 temperature and be able 

 to climb out before they 

 are scalded. 



The Common Error. 



In spite of the fact 

 that failures in this 

 trade are recorded from 

 time to time in The Ee- 

 view, this line cannot be 

 called an unprofitable 

 one, even by a pessi- 

 mist in the summer time. 

 The explanation of these 

 occasional cases of mis- 

 fortune lies in the indi- 

 vidual management, or 

 mismanagement, and in 

 nine cases out of ten 

 the item that brings in 

 the sheriff is a note 

 which the creditor is 

 unwilling to renew. 



The books of the em- 

 barrassed concern nearly 

 always show a running 

 profit, but they also 

 show that this profit 

 was not put in the bank 

 to meet the note when 

 it came due, but was 

 spent as it came, usually in an other- 

 wise praiseworthy effort to boost the 

 business. 



As a usual thing, the business into 

 which new capital has been put shows 

 so marked an improvement that the 

 man at the helm believes the way to 

 success lies in putting into the concern 

 as much more as he can. He follows 

 one improvement with another, think- 

 ing that the profits of next year, or of 

 the year or two just before the note 

 comes due, will be ample to satisfy his 



"as sure as debts and taxes." Few 

 people escape from one any more than 

 from the other, and all are distasteful. 

 There are other ways, of course, be- 

 sides the one outlined above, in which 

 an upright and honest florist — we are 

 not considering any other kind — may 

 come to be reported under "Business 

 Embarrassments," but almost invari- 

 ably this condition is the result of an 

 assumption on the part of the florist 

 which failed to come true. It is usu- 

 ally apparent that he has placed too 



much trust in the future, has taken too 

 great chances on the days ahead, in- 

 stead of "playing safe" as he went 

 along. 



"Playing safe" does not, on the 

 other hand, require the hoarding of 

 every dollar that crosses the counter. 

 There is a happy medium which gives 

 abundant leeway, but requires the 

 avoiding of extremes. 



A lump sum of $1,000 presents a 

 most respectable appear- 

 ance to anyone this side 

 of John D. 's class. Yet 

 $1 a day for three years 

 will amount to this sum 

 and nearly ten per cent 

 more. This is infantile 

 finance, 'tis true, but it 

 forms the basis for more 

 elaborate systems. It is 

 half the principle of the 

 amortization plan. 



A Big Word Explained. 



Like many simple 

 things in elaborate 

 dress, the amortization 

 plan sounds more for- 

 midable than it really 

 is. Under this plan, in- 

 stead of being called 

 upon to raise a large 

 sum of money at a cer- 

 tain time, after having 

 paid interest on that 

 amount annually or 

 semiannually, the bor- 

 rower pays a fixed sum 

 annually, and this pay- 

 ment includes the inter- 

 est and also a sum which 

 goes to reduce the prin- 

 cipal. It is not unlike 

 the system by which a 

 borrower pays his peri- 

 odic interest and at cer- 

 tain periods, in addition, 

 pays off a part of the 

 principal. 



The accompanying ta- 

 bles show how the payments are made 

 and what they include. For instance, 

 a man who has borrowed $1,000 for 

 five years at six per cent, instead of 

 paying $60 interest each year, a total 

 of $300, and a lump sum of $1,000 at 

 the expiration of that time, pays $250 

 each of the first four years and the 

 balance the fifth year. His total in- 

 terest is six per cent of the amount due 

 after each payment, and is only $178.96. 

 The first year's payment, $250, includes 

 interest — six per cent on $1,000 



