“Save a little money each month, and at the end of the year you'll be surprised at how little you have.”

Context & Editorial Note

This deflating joke is generally credited to Ernest Haskins, an American newspaper columnist whose "Fables" and "Meditations" circulated in the early twentieth century, though no dated first appearance has been firmly established. It is recorded here as attributed, not verified. The humor is actuarial: it mocks the gap between savings advice and savings arithmetic at small scales — while depending, for its sting, on the reader knowing that the arithmetic improves with time and rate.