Your Thrift Habits (2nd, 1964)

[music] [music] [music] [bell] >> Boy. Okay, I give up. Oh, did I disturb you, Dad? I was just looking at this new camera. Camera? Yeah, only $40. Well, buy it. You got a steady allowance and a good part-time job. You're kidding. Who has $40? Look, Tony, no more loans. Well, just last month I financed your new baseball mitt. $8. So far you haven't paid it back. Tony. Maybe there's something wrong with the way you're handling money. Here comes the lecture. Advice, no lecture. I've got money problems, too. Take a look at our family budget. But we all have to make ends meet. And in order to make ends meet, we have to practice some thrift habits. Your grandfather once told me that thrift is the absence of waste. Um maybe you don't actually waste money, but uh sometimes you are careless with it. For example, remember those green canvas shoes you bought? Did you really need them? Or were you spending your money foolishly on a new fad? And those records you bought. You couldn't make up your mind between two favorites and bought both. And that transistor radio. Without a protective leather case, it cost $3.50 less. A real bargain. It would have been cheaper, really, to have spent the extra money for the leather case. Uh good thrift habits help prevent that kind of carelessness with money. Yeah, but how? Well, one good thrift habit is getting money matters down on paper. I'll show you what I mean. Uh we'll start with your goals, the things you want to buy. We'll call this Tony's money goals. I'll list your short-range goals, you know, the things you want to buy soon, and your long-range goals. The more expensive things you might have to save longer for. Now, what are your short-range money goals? Well, I'll need $5 for Mother's birthday, and $3.50 for the new baseball book, and then there's a record. >> [cough and clears throat] >> Oh, yes, the baseball mitt. Take it. Baseball mitts, $8. $8. All right, uh what are your long-range goals? The camera. Sure. Camera, $40. Okay, now, there are your goals. Can you afford them? Well, maybe. I get $2 a week allowance. My paper route gives me $2.75 a week. So, your total or fixed income comes to $4.75 a week. But I need money for school supplies and magazines and movies and milk for lunch and Okay, you're talking about expenses. Now, there are two kinds of expenses. Fixed expenses, which are part of your daily life, and they don't change very much. And flexible expenses. Uh all money that's used for what we might call luxuries. Now, let's draw another diagram that'll help you keep track of your expenses. Now, on it, you'll list your fixed and flexible expenses over the next 4 weeks. For the next 4 weeks, Tony was very careful keeping up his expense record. It was a good expense record. And I told him so. Well, this is fine, Tony, just fine. Have any trouble keeping it up to date? Well, not after I got into the habit of doing it. Good. I'd say your fixed expenses were milk, 50 cents, church contributions, 30 cents, and a haircut, $1.75. Are haircuts a fixed expense? Well, anything you need to spend money on regularly is a fixed expense. All right, let's look at flexible expenses. School supplies, uh-huh, snacks, magazines, model kits, game tickets, and movies. And here are your total expenses for each week. Hey, you stayed within your income all the time. Yeah, and I saved more than $7. You know, when you write down every expense, it makes you more careful about how you spend your money. Well, you've started a good thrift habit. But if you're going to reach your money goals, you need to save more of your income. To do that, you're going to have to learn to choose between certain flexible expenses, the luxuries. For example, will it be a magazine this week? Or a super deluxe sundae? Will you buy a model to add to your collection? Or would you rather go to a movie? By keeping flexible expenses to a minimum, you save more for your goals. Understand? Sure. But now that I'm watching my expenses, I guess I can afford some of the things I want. Well, it'd be better to get into the habit of using a system to save for your goals. Another system? Using a system is the best way to handle money with any success. Now, how about another chart to help you keep track of your savings? Another chart? Well, give it a try anyway. This column lists your goals, short-range and long-range. This column shows how much they cost. This column will show what you should save each week to reach your goal. Mother's gift, for example. Mother's birthday is May 15th. How many weeks to May 15th? Uh just a second. Two, three, four weeks. All right. Dividing the cost of the gift, $5, by the number of weeks, four, our answer is $1.25. Yeah, I see. I've got to save $1.25 a week. And the baseball book, I'd like that before the big series, 8 weeks from now. All right. Well, it's uh 44 cents a week. And you'll need about 50 cents a week for the mitt. Hey, Dad, don't forget the camera. I want it for when school begins next semester. Okay. That's 16 weeks. 16 weeks? Let's see, that would be >> That's $2.50 a week. $2.50. All right, now, after deducting expenses each week, list the amount left over here. And then you can apply certain amounts to your goals. If you want to reach those goals, you'll have to save $4.69 a week. But with your expenses, I'm afraid you can't manage it. But if I watch my flexible expenses and drop one of my goals, that'll help balance things. That's the idea. You could even postpone getting your camera for a while and save for a little longer. I know. It's a hard decision to make. All these thrift habits are hard. Sure. But thrift habits help you save to get what you want. And you're learning to stand on your own financially. Thanks for the help, Dad. Good night. Anytime, Tony. Well, it seemed Tony had made [music] a good start. I knew, though, that sometimes he'd slip out of his thrift habits by buying things he really didn't want or need. We all do. But most of the time he would remember the thrift habits he'd learned. Keeping track of his income and expenses. Deciding on money goals, whether short-range, such as mother's birthday gift, or long-range, such as an expensive camera. >> [music] >> And saving for these goals week by week until he could pay for them. >> [music] >> These are some of the basic thrift habits. As you can [music] see, they worked for Tony, and they'll work for you, too. >> [bell] [music]