Let?s say that you either don?t have much money saved, or think that you don?t. Let?s assume that you wish you did. Let?s see if we can diagnose why you don?t have what you?d like to have.

All the obvious reasons apply, I?m guessing. You simply haven?t assigned a sufficiently high priority to savings, and a little time has gone by, and now worry is either just starting to emerge on your thought horizon, or you have constant, nagging financial doubts. Or something in between.

Whatever the case, here is a fact: some people at your income level are saving more money than you are. Some of them are actually doing quite well.

You know that, and it either doesn?t worry you, or it?s just starting to, or it keeps you awake at night and is making your life a living hell. So you have been saying to yourself one or more of the following:

* I am too young to bother about saving money. I have a job and expect to work until I?m 65, so I will start saving later. If I can?t spend it now, when will I be able to?

* I hang with a fast set (or some more modern phrase that means the same thing). We show each other how successful we are by buying things, having a sexy new car, eating in fine restaurants and travelling to chic places.

* We have kids. All our money goes on looking after them. We have no choice in this regard. We will start saving when the whole kid thing has calmed down.

* I don?t have much saved up. I want to be rich. The distance between where I am and where I want to be is enormous. What?s the point in setting aside a few dollars here, or a few there? It won?t make any difference. I?ll ? get a better job, or invent something, or come up with some plan later. For now, thinking about the whole thing has depressed me, so I?m going to have some ice cream.

* What I need is an easy way to get rich.

Well, good luck. You are right in one regard: accumulating wealth is not easy, and it?s going to require a little discipline on your part.

I don?t want to sound like a TV preacher, but I too used to think that there was no real point in saving before I was financially born again. I would cite all the clever arguments why it wouldn?t make any difference.

The knockout punch was that I knew that inflation would erode any money that I saved, so what was the point? One day, I received some money I hadn?t been expecting. Not much, a couple of thousand dollars. Immediately, I started to think of ways to spend it.

After all, it wasn?t enough to make a difference. And then (cue the choir), I decided to save it and see what could be done with it. In the beginning, not much could be done with it.

I opened a savings account at my bank, and earned some lousy rate of interest, like three percent. Big deal. At the end of the first year, my $2,000 would have been worth $2,060.

But something rather better than that happened. The idea of saving a little more sort of stuck with me. Every now and then, whenever I could, I put $50 or even $100 in the account. At the end of the year, I had nearer $3,000 saved up.

I can hear what you?re thinking: how did I plan to get rich on $3,000? Well, I didn?t have a plan. I was about 30 at the time, and hardly anyone that age has a plan beyond getting blind drunk tonight and having a hangover tomorrow. That was certainly my plan, and I executed it flawlessly.

Then the years went by. Now that I am staggeringly aged, that lousy three percent has accumulated every year, without fail, because I left the money alone and it grew and it grew and it grew.

I added to it every year, almost without fail. I tried to add to it every month, but that didn?t prove possible. I wish it had, but, you know, I?m human, and I?ve been out of work.

I?ve had to buy new cars occasionally; I?ve taken expensive vacations; I have dated high-rent babes; stuff like that. (Your experience may vary.)

And I have learned that I was wrong when I thought I couldn?t get rich, or that saving a little money didn?t make any difference. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Oh boy, was I wrong. I?m not rich yet, but I?m going to be. Saving a little does make a difference as the years creep by. It makes all the difference. I met a fellow in the street last week, who told me that he?d been laid off at the age of 59. Like me, he had saved whatever he could before then, and during the three years it took him to find more work, he had been able to draw on the money he had saved, and was able to hold body and soul together. Now that he has a new job, he is starting to save again.

It?s not just hot air. It works. Save what you can, when you can. Once in a blue moon, go without some thing you feel like having, but don?t strictly need.

One Saturday every now and then, instead of going into Hamilton like you always do and spending whatever you have, don?t do that. Read a book. Go for a walk. Build a model of the Andrea Doria out of balsa wood. I don?t know; just don?t spend as much as you always do on junk you don?t need. Save it instead. Not all the time. Just now and then. Or now. Or then.

And when you are as old as I am, and never want to buy another thing as long as you live, like I now don?t, you?ll certainly be rich by the standards you have now. Who knows? With a bit of luck, you might even be richer.

After my savings account came some bonds, and then, very late in my life, some stocks, which I didn?t trust then and I barely trust now.

But my stocks have being doing quite well lately, such as they are, and my money made some money this year. I saved all of it. At this rate, I?m going to be a rich old geezer.

Better late than never? I wish I?d started thinking like this when I was younger, but I didn?t. Nor did you. My message, though, is that it?s never too late. And it can be done. Take heart. Be determined. Act.

You have nothing to fear but waffling itself.