Thomas and Elizabeth were continually concerned with monetary issues until he reached his later status and raised pay levels. Therefore, we read a great deal in his letters over the decades relating to the acquiring of and managing of money.
He has some jewels about money:
“Money when first acquired is like an Infant, it requires much cherishing and great care; but when once it has attained proper strength it will, in a great measure, be able to take care of itself and reward its owner for his patience and perseverance…Whereas had it, from its smallness, met with inattention and contempt, it might have dwindled to nothing and instead of being an aftersource for the indulgence of true liberality and genuine hospitality. Its possessor might have been left in the midst of indigence, scorn and every species of misery, to die with perhaps the cutting reflection that, by his misspent time and ill-used prosperity, he has left his children, heirs to their parents imprudence, to wretchedness; together with all its concomitants.”
–Mar 26, 1832, from Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey)
Talking about their savings plan…
“How many a poor old man would now have reason to bless his stars, had he saved but one half of what he squandered, without regard to the future, in his younger and even in his middle age of life!”
–Aug 8, 1832 – from Constantinople, moored in the Bosphorus
“…do what we will, we must not expect permanence. With property, health and happiness there will be drawbacks, everything in nature pays tithes in some shape or other…”
–May 31, 1840 – from Birmingham
“…money when first acquired is like an Infant: It requires much cherishing and great care; but when once it has attained proper strength it will, in a great measure, be able to take care of itself and reward its owner for his patience and perseverance. Whereas had it, from its smallness, met with inattention and contempt, it might have dwindled to nothing and instead of being an aftersource for the indulgence of true liberality and genuine hospitality. Its possessor might have been left in the midst of indigence, scorn and every species of misery, to die with perhaps the cutting reflection that, by his misspent time and ill-used prosperity, he has left his children, heirs to their parents imprudence, to wretchedness; together with all its concomitants.”
–March 26, 1832, Constantinople, Thomas to Elizabeth