The absolutely primary requirement for systematic saving is _the will to save_--not a mere momentary impulse to save, not a mere general desire to save, but _the effective establishment of a fixed, disciplined habit of saving_.
Success in anything is quite largely a matter of will-power, and bromidic as the advice may seem, the man or woman who cannot stiffen his spine and set his jaw with sufficient resolution to say “I will save” lacks the essentials for overcoming those obstacles which lie in the pathway of everyone striving for any purpose or ambition.
Anyone in the income level above bare necessity who is not sufficiently interested in his or her own welfare to lay by a certain portion of earnings for the future either is irresponsible mentally or does not care what bitterness the future may bring. The creation of habit is a mechanical process. There is no mystery about it. William James has described it in detail. The human mind responds splendidly to a sincere habit-creating determination. The first result is something like a hurt. It is like the cut of a knife in living tissue. That is why people shrink from habit-forming, unless it be habits simply following the line of animal pleasure. Each time the discipline is applied, however, the pain is less, and the human organism soon adopts itself to the new habit, and even learns to change the pain to pleasure. It is later painful to _break_ the habit.
The saving _habit_, the saving _thought_, the saving _will_ are the keys to successful saving, and, in the measure that these are achieved, to that degree will there be success in saving. The most typical situation in regard to saving is an _occasional_ realization that saving should be accomplished, and a sincere effort is often then made. But within a few weeks, or a few months, or a few years, according to the strength of character of the individual, the impulse, _because it is not disciplined and forged into a fixed habit_, is lost, overwhelmed by stronger habits and impulses.