A few months ago I received a couple of simple account books that my parents used on their small farm. I've found some interesting things about their early life with a young family.
One of the items I found that gave me pause for thought, was an entry for a $100.00 war bond. They had actually bought a War Bond or a Victory Bond! I stopped to think about that for a few minutes. At that time they had very little money. They had to operate a small farm that didn't produce much. They had the responsibility of 4 young children. They had 160 acres of land and rented 160 acres. Not all of the land had been cleared. Where would they ever get a $100.00 to invest in a War Bond? There must have been some dedication and sacrifice to scrape up the money to invest in a bond. I began to see how patriotic they must have been to support the war effort with their small investment.
At the time they invested in the bond they would have had no savings. Little was produced on their farm and prices for their produce was low.
For the rest of their farming days they never had any savings. In fact, to run a farm they were in debt most of the time. Their retirement nest egg came from selling some of their farm. The astounding thing is that they gave most of their land to their sons!
For most of their life they had very little but they were happy with the life they lived. They worried some times and were stressed at other times , but overall they were happy.
So I guess the saying, "You can do a lot with a little" made sense in that case.
