Wisdom from Ben Franklin
This year marks the 300th birthday of United States Founding Father Ben Franklin, who was born on January 17, 1706. A printer, statesman, and inventor, he was famous among other things for sayings such as “Time is money” and “A penny saved is twopence clear” (”A penny saved is a penny earned”).
He loved Boston, where he was born, and Philadelphia, where he worked and lived, so when he died in 1790 he left each city a sum of $4,400 (£1000) with the condition it remain invested for 200 years. When the cities cashed out the investment in 1990, each sum was worth more than $7 million, a testament to the power of compound interest. (These investments weathered the Great Depression!)
Get out of debt as soon as possible, so compound interest isn’t working against you, then start getting compound interest on your side. The sooner you save, the more you’ll have in the end.
2 comments March 20th, 2006