“Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day.” Benjamin Franklin,

John Bigelow, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1 of 12, pg 254

Ben Franklin penned these words about a topic other than money, but could just as well have been discussing saving.

Einstein referred to the magic of compound interest as the eighth wonder of the world.

Everything I’ve learned about money in the past 50 years supports the idea that slow and steady wins the day when it comes to money.

Modern financial thinking, however, denies the validity of this idea. It focuses on the mountain top and loses sight of the trail. Why are many American’s facing foreclosure? Is it because they lack the discipline or wisdom to manage their money effectively? Or, is it because they were led to believe in the “certainty” that the “market” will always pay off in the “long-term?” Why is America’s savings rate at or less than zero? Because they were told to focus on the top of the mountain and missed the crevasse at their feet.

Surprise! We don’t live in the “long-term”. Here’s a wisdom teaching that appears in every source of advice from the Ancient Bible, to the New Testament, to philosophers and teachers in every culture and every age - except perhaps the late 20th century: Save, secure your future needs, pay off your debt, invest only in that about which you are personally knowledgeable and only with money you can afford to lose.

Ben Franklin calls it ”human felicity.” We call it peace of mind. You cannot hold onto peace of mind if your mind is constantly focused on money issues in a negative way. You cannot enjoy the mountain trail if you are only looking at the pinnacle.

You need to know where you are going. You need to stop along the way and look forward and up to anticipate your next step and remind yourself of the goal. Life is lived in the present moment and money arrives and passes through your life today. If today is lost and today’s money is lost, tomorrow cannot be better and peace of mind cannot be achieved.

Here’s a simple “how to.”

Sally, a 22 year old female, graduates from college, takes a job earning $30,000.00 per year. Sally saves $5,000.00 a year in a cash value whole life insurance policy every year until her normal retirement age of 67. At that time Sally has over $1.2 million dollars cash including dividends. She can convert that saved money into an after tax income stream of more than $50,000.00 that will last her for the rest of her life.

One simple saving strategy yields “human felicity”. Imagine the results if Sally increases her contribution every year as her income rises! This one simple strategy would yield income multiples of two, three, or greater than the $1.2 million. In addition, the cash value could be accessed by loans prior to retirement to pay for vacations, cars and even houses.

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www.YouBeTheBank.com

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