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Show Kathleen Norris Says: How Much Money Is iLnougk To Marry On? (Ilell Syndicate WNU Service.) wmf I ANY steady salary is enough for the right uife, and that no salary no matter how large, is enough for the wrong one. By KATHLEEN NORRIS "A JTY DAUGHTER is l engaged to a very -1- V A fine young man," writes a Massachusetts mother. moth-er. "She has been teaching for two years but would give up work if she married. I have trained her well as a housekeeper and she is not extravagant. But John's salary sal-ary is only $1,800 a year, and both her father and I feel that is not enough for a young couple who hope for children and who have certain social obligations to sustain. What, in your opinion, is the minimum mini-mum sum upon which a girl is safe to marry in these days? There is no immediate prospect of a raise for John, and it is hard to condemn them to an indefinite wait. At the same time my husband and I are most unwilling to see Margaret - trapped by drudgery and poverty. As we live in an educational institution institu-tion ourselves, and most of my husband's salary is paid in free board, free rent, and perquisites Like laundry, telephone tele-phone and transportation allowance, al-lowance, we cannot promise much help." The answer to this is that ANY steady salary is enough for the right wife, and that no salary no matter how large, is enough for the wrong one. If Margaret is intelligent enough, and strong enough, to marry mar-ry her John on his $1,800, she will discover that she can live comfortably, comforta-bly, keep free of debt and even save on that sum. If she is going to make her one object in married life the keeping up with more affluent friends, pretending eternally that she can afford what she cannot afford, af-ford, straining to entertain on their terms rather than her own, then she has lost the fight before she ever began it Bank One-Third of Income. To begin with, she must find quarters quar-ters for not more than $25 a month. Some budgets say that rent may be as much as one-third of the income, especially if rent includes garage, light hall service, furnace heat But I don't I say that rent should never be more than one-sixth of the income, in-come, becaue when I suggest a I budget for young husbands and wives I plan that ONE-THIRD of it shall always go into the bank. That seems high; indeed it IS high. But there is no safety for married happiness like the safety that financial co-operation gives. To have $600 in the bank at the end of the first year is far better than to have the bills for the arm-chair, Venetian Ve-netian blinds, shampoos, daffodils, gasoline and confectioners ice cream that Margaret ordered because darling dar-ling Johnnie loved comfort and beauty at home, or the higher rent new car, top coat club membership, member-ship, downtown luncheons that John felt were necessary to impress his business associates. In other words, if you marry on $1,800 a year, live on $1,200. It can be done; it can be done with dignity and comfort It means that your market bill, Including soap and vegetables, never runs over a dollar a day. Rent and food thus come to $55 a month, and $10 a week remains re-mains for other things, with $5 over. No scrap of food must be wasted, no expensive foods, chicken and cream, MONEY TROUBLES? "is" salary is small; there's no immediate prospect of a raise; parents par-ents cant help; then, uhat of the future? Should you marry? AY steady salary is enough to establish the small home in uhich husband and wife can build for the future, says Kathleen A orris. Read her sound advice to young moderns icho hesitate about matrimony. olive oil and steak, bottled drinks and cocktails, may be bought at all; and such everyday luxuries as telephone, tele-phone, refrigerator, club, ear, beauty beau-ty parlor must be given up for awhile at least But that still leaves the soup kettle ket-tle and the radio and the small home in which a man and a woman are building for a sound future. Ninety-nine out of every hundred successful American lives began that way. I don't mean multi-millionaires, although such fortunes as the Ford and the Woolworth fortunes for-tunes started with the saving of nickels and dimes. But I mean the hundreds of thousands of prosperous folk who live in the handsome homes we all drive past on Sunday; the big rooms and the big fires, the nice little maid- coming to the door, the boys off in college, the girls having glorious times at dances and skiing ski-ing parties. And believe me, there's a grerit relish to life lived on the terms of love in a cottage. There's a great thrill in stretching those seven precious pre-cious dollars every week to spread over butter and eggs, cornstarch and carrots, apples and bacon. No partnership in life is quite as heart-filling heart-filling as the partnership of the man and woman who have the courage to withdraw for awhile from the competition of card-parties and dinners, din-ners, new frocks and new cars, and look ahead to a bigger future. It isn't always easy to do. The impulse im-pulse to take the car on long extravagant extrav-agant trips, to send just a few flowers flow-ers to Betty in the hospital, to wire the Browns on their anniversary, or to spend as much for Christmas wrappings as for the gifts within the wrappings, is a very natural one. Road to Wealth. But what you learn in the lean years, what you gain from books and walks and plans when you decide to live within not your income, but two-thirds of it will be of priceless value to you all the rest of your life. For saving even a little and keeping out of debt is the INEVITABLE INEVITA-BLE road to wealth. You don't understand un-derstand that truth, and neither do I. But the truth remains. Families that keep absolutely out of debt and that save even a few dollars a month are as inevitably pushed toward prosperity as families, who follow the other course, sink steadily toward to-ward habitual financial trouble and incompetence and discomfort. And the strange thing is that if the thrifty family has to face an expensive illness, a reduction in salary sal-ary the rule works just the same. A few months, a few years, and they are steadily on the up grade again. Whereas the spendthrift family may inherit $10,000, may inherit 10 times that sum, and within a few years it will be deep in money trouble again. A couple I knew lived carelessly and casually in debt for some 10 years. Then the man received a legacy of some $40,000. Penalty of Extravagance. "We're going to pay something on the bills," he told me, as they expanded ex-panded joyfully to a new car. a new home, a trip abroad. But to come back to Margaret and her John. Yes. I'd marry on $1,800 a year and glory in the adventure. ad-venture. I'd marry on two-thirds ( that sum. Thirty-three years ago that's exactly what I did. |
