"I found one day to my horror that I didn't have a dollar in the world...This particular crisis passed the next morning when the discovery that publishers sometimes advance royalties sent me hurriedly to mine." -F. Scott Fitzgerald, How to Live on $36,000 a Year (1924) How to Live on $36,000 a Year (1924) by F. Scott Fitzgerald is an essay which details Fitzgerald's attempt to live a wealthy lifestyle on an author's salary. In an attempt to give wife Zelda the life to which she had been accustomed, Fitzgerald bows to the excesses of the time. The couple spends lavishly, ends up penniless, and accrues debt. Fitzgerald pokes fun at himself in this glimpse into the sights and sounds of The Roaring Twenties, a delight for readers who love the era.