Don't forget future debts and obligations in making up a budget. Keep accounts of them or they will come out of the woods like a highwayman. Perhaps you can include under savings such items as insurance premiums. Maybe you don't like to cross bridges until you come to them, but in this instance there won't be any bridges to cross at all if you figure ahead a little.

Hugh Chalmers, one of the country's leading automobile manufacturers, began saving when he earned five dollars a week. After he had become a successful salesman he figured that three hundred dollars a month would meet his actual personal and family expenses. So he looked upon that three hundred dollars as a monthly mortgage which must be cleared before he could begin to save. His best efforts were directed to clearing it off by the twelfth of each month. Can you imagine a more thrilling game?

Chalmers had to work hard. Sometimes it was not until the last two or three days of the twelfth-day period that he saw light ahead.

Just think of the incentive that such an object gave him in making his sales! That is the right way to go at this business of a personal budget. Make it a game, not a dry piece of bookkeeping.

A thrift census was taken of fifty-one men on salaries of one thousand dollars and upward. Twenty-three had never saved. Thirteen had saved for a time and quit. Of the fifteen who saved and held on, nine owned their homes and six had investments. None of those who had failed to save had ever kept personal books of income and outgo, whereas all but five of the successful savers had.

For many women and for many men for that matter, such as those engaged in professional pursuits or familiar with only a narrow aspect of business, I suggest that a great help to saving is to read a simple book on business forms, describing checks, drafts and notes; and also an elementary book on commercial law. Much assistance also in managing personal finances may often be obtained from one's banker.

For many people I do not believe a mere voluntary plan is enough. Some almost mechanical device may be necessary. There are innumerable devices, as varied as humanity itself. In some persons the instinct for thrift is so sure that no system could be devised to prevent them from saving. But most of us can't go it alone, at least without some self-imposed rule, and many of us need the company of others or even a severe obligation. A Chicago banker who gradually became acquainted with many of his small depositors asked them how they managed to save, and every one had a scheme for doing it.

Whether any given device for saving proves successful depends not a little upon one's tastes and mental make-up. But some method surely exists which can not fail to suit you.

One man who had arrived at a fair compensation (for mechanical work) of twenty dollars a week had been unable for years to save a cent. A sudden illness stopped his wages and when he recovered he was so far in debt to his physician that he determined he must save. So he hit upon the plan of taxing all expenditures upon a sliding scale, thus:

Five per cent. tax on all moneys expended for necessities (such as shelter, food, clothing, etc.).

Ten per cent. tax on articles luxurious in character (such as silk stockings and other frills and furbelows).

Twenty-five per cent. tax on luxuries (such as matinees, concerts, books, candies, sodas, etc.).

The money was set aside each day in a separate purse, and at the end of ten months he had saved the equivalent of five weeks' salary. "System did it," he said, "but the system had the virtue of novelty, which bolstered up my flagging perseverance."

Any one who enjoys figures would be helped by the ingenious device described in the Investors' Magazine. It was the work of a young man, who drew a chart, or graph, showing by a dotted line the amount of money expected to be saved and a solid line for the amount actual-ly saved. If the two lines coincided, of course, the scheme was being carried out perfectly. The farther the solid line sagged away from the dotted line the less was being saved, and the farther away was the accomplishment from the purpose. One of these charts shown was explained by its inventor in an interesting way:

"I have arranged a scheme so that I can actually see my hoard growing. My system is simple. It requires about two minutes a week, but it stimulates my saving instincts just enough so that I have acquired a fine nest-egg since I started doing it. The first thing I did was to procure some paper ruled off into squares. Horizontally the squares represented five dollars each. Perpendicularly, the squares represented weeks. Then I went to work to plot my 'curve.' The first week I saved five dollars and placed a dot opposite the first five-dollar mark and ran a line up from the zero-mark - that is, the intersection of my constants. Perhaps that isn't clear to you, but you will see that the more nearly vertical my curve runs the faster I am saving. Up to the fifty-dollar mark - that is, ten divisions of my vertical - I made a mark. That represented my temporary goal. If I had saved that amount in ten weeks my variant would have been a line running at forty-five degrees. As it was, it took me twice that long. Then I decided that I was going at too slow a rate, so I increased my saving each week, and the line shot off at a sharp angle upward. In that way I could actually see the improvement I made. Every time the line begins to sag a little I take the hint and deduct a nickel or a dime or a quarter from my luncheon money or other expenses. I stick to it until the curve straightens out. It seems a little thing, but I never saved a cent before I started doing it."