He had an interest in software at the beginning of one of the greatest shifts in the global economy through computerization. He was at the right place, at the right time. Without seeing the details of the entire story, it can be easy to condense someone’s wealth into just a string of good fortune.įor example, Bill Gates, a college dropout, became fabulously wealthy by founding Microsoft. There is a common notion that those who acquire great wealth are just lucky. Men of action are favored by the goddess of good luck. Pitch him into the Euphrates and like as not he will swim out with a pearl in his hand." - Babylonian Proverb Whatever we choose, we should set a specific and measurable performance for our goals.ħ) Good Luck Favors Those Who Take Action - "If a man be lucky, there is no foretelling the possible extent of his good fortune. ” Position yourself to make more money by improving your skills. owning debate, I will defer to a Scrooge Strategy tip and say “run the numbers and emotions” and see which method makes sense for us at this particular point in our lives.Ħ) Increase thy ability to earn – “Cultivate thy own powers to study and become wiser, to become more skillful, to so act as to respect thyself. Rather than getting sucked into renting vs. Clason’s argument is that it makes more sense to make payments that will eventually become equity rather than giving money to a landlord. I must say I don’t 100% agree with the advice that owning your home is a definite path to wealth. And greatly will it reduce his cost of living, making available more of his earnings for pleasures and the gratification of his desires.” He who takes advice about his savings from one who is inexperienced in such matters, shall pay with his savings for proving the falsity of their opinions.ĥ) Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment – “Thus come many blessings to the man who owneth his own house.
Despite the popular opinion of the day, he invests only in what he knows and understands. Warren Buffett is famous for his 2 rules of investing:īuffett’s discipline has made him one of the wealthiest men in the world. Let their wisdom protect thy treasure from unsafe investments.” Secure the advice of those experienced in the profitable handling of gold. We should put our money to work by making smart investments and taking advantage of time and compounding interest.Ĥ) Guard thy treasures from loss – “Consult with wise men. The author deems lifestyle inflation to be an ‘unusual truth’ of humanity and states, “what each of us calls our necessary expenses will always grow to equal our incomes unless we protest to the contrary.”ģ) Make thy gold multiply – “Put each coin to laboring that it may reproduce its kind even as the flocks of the field and help bring to thee income, a stream of wealth that shall flow constantly into thy purse.” Our wealth should extend beyond our income. We should try to live within our means and gratify our worthwhile desires without spending more than nine-tenths of our earnings and avoid lifestyle inflation. I’ve tried to implement it by taking 20% out of my stipend that I earn from my internship and reward myself by saving it.Ģ) Control thy expenditures – This is the second cure for a lean purse. By doing this we are now paying ourselves first and living off the rest rather than hoping we have money left at the end of the month to save for the future. If we want to save money for our future, we must begin by consistently setting aside part of our earnings today. Even those who are paying off debt should still set aside this one-tenth.
The author recommends saving at least 10% of all income earned. The average American – almost 70% live paycheck to paycheck. Here are the 7 lessons that I learnt from this book –ġ) Start thy purse to fattening - This point is actually the crux of the book: the classic principle of paying ourselves first. The first copper we save is the seed from which our tree of wealth shall grow. The book is set in ancient Babylon and follows the story of Arkad, the richest man in all of Babylon, imparting his wisdom to a younger man, Bansir, who wishes to become wealthy. While none of the concepts are likely to be earth-shattering, they encapsulate the fundamentals that are the basis to money management. The common theme of the tales is that a person can work hard, learn from their mistakes, and become wealthy. The laws of money are like the laws of gravity: assured and unchanging.
‘The Richest Man in Babylon’ written by George Clason is widely known as the “Bible of financial freedom.” Originally written as a series of pamphlets, the parables were eventually collected into a book and first published in 1926. Seneca once said, "It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor."