I’m happy to announce that I have finally read The Richest Man in Babylon.
Whew!! After letting it gather dust in my library….my virtual library.
I finally got the balls to get to work.
I got the Richest man in Babylon pdf version from a friend a few weeks back and I’m glad I did.
It’s safe to say that those who rated it as one of the best books on financial management, did not exaggerate. It teaches some basic principles that everyone needs to learn and apply.
The author George Clason did a great job, he employed the use of storytelling to pass such powerful money management tips making it such an easy and interesting read.
For anyone tired of not having their finances under control I recommend that you read it.
I picked out some very wise sayings on money management and life in general. Here are a few.
Money tips from The Richest Man in Babylon pdf 
Money makes possible the enjoyment of the best the earth affords. Money is plentiful for those who understand the simple laws which govern its acquisition. Money is governed today by the same laws which controlled it when prosperous men thronged the streets of Babylon, six thousand years ago.
To bring your ambitions and desires to fulfillment, you must be successful with money. Use the financial principles made clear in the pages that follow. Let them guide you away from the stringency of a lean purse to that fuller, happier life a full purse makes possible.
Richest Man in Babylon Summary
This book is an extensive and detailed financial guide for all lovers of money and those who wish to master the art of gathering wealth, multiplying your wealth, and creating multiple sources of income.
This book elaborates on the art of investments, the place of luck and hard work, chance and reward, calculated risks and losses.
The richest man in Babylon is a one hundred and forty-five-page book, authored by George S. Clason with eleven chapters that include practical laws and principles to wealth creation.
The book embodies a life journey of a rich man Arkad, and his secrets to building sustainable income in Babylon. As ancient as these laws and tales might be, the products and results are not to be underestimated if perfectly carried out.
The book exposes the errors in money circulation; the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. Society is impoverished but a selected few keep flourishing against the odds.
Sometimes, this makes it justifiable to ask if the gods favor some people more than others?
Does mother luck smile on a selected class of people?
Why does the amount of energy put into work not equate to the returns and earnings?
Why will an average man be scared of spending, purchasing what he wants, meeting all his needs lest his funds are wasted and he goes broke again? But a rich man can acquire all the luxury his eyes sets on without losing his place in the wealth pyramid?
This book’s storyline encompasses the life of Bansir, the chariot builder of Babylon who spends more time creating imaginations of wealth than working to achieve.
The story extends to Kobbi, the musician, whose lives circle round debts and loans. He borrows to meet his needs. His earnings are quickly gone, leaving him with no asset to show for his hard work and musical skill.
Both complain about how their level of expertise is leading them nowhere.
We do not wish to go on year after year living slavish lives. Working, working, working! Getting nowhere.” Bansir complains.
In their bid to understand how people acquired gold and grow rich from their earnings, they remembered an old friend, Arkad, who is now the richest man in Babylon.
Their mention of Arkad began in a mocking tone, they couldn’t come to accept the fact that the same guy they grew up with now seats at the hem of Babylon’s treasury and financial line.
Gold is the transactional currency in Babylon, but it remains a mystery how Arkad rose to stardom in such a short period.
Coming to terms that they need guidance, they decided to enroll under the tutelage of Arkad.
Arkad’s wealth can be termed extraordinary because no matter how much he spends, he never lacks gold. His earnings increase as much as he spends.
His fame and exploits grew tremendously to an extent that the king sought for his services to teach the young men of Babylon how to make money, keep money and grow money.
His secrets and principles are all that are offered in the book to offer assistance to anyone who wishes to gain mastery of Financial intelligence and management.
The principles of wealth in this book are summarized in these points.
- Save ten percent of your income
- Save before you spend, invest before you spend, spend whatever is left after saving and investing.
- Do not dive into any investment scheme or business that you do not thoroughly understand
- Gold multiplies, make your money work for you-Passive income
- Be frugal-Live less than you earn
- Find a skill and work hard
- Luck doesn’t exist-Resist from gambling away your earnings
- Increase the percentage you save as your earnings increase
- Work to ensure an income for your future
- “Enjoy life while you are here”- Don’t starve yourself while trying to save or invest.
- Live otherwise according to your income and let not yourself become afraid to spend. Life is good and life is rich with things worthwhile and things to enjoy
- Cut down expenses-Set priorities
- Avoid Impulse buying- Buying without a budget
- Purchase assets, not liabilities
- Strive to become a landlord before thinking of owning a car
- Live an impactful life- “He must pay his debts with all the promptness within his power, not purchasing that for which he is unable to pay. “You must take care of your family that they may think and speak well of him. “You must make a will of record that, in case the Gods call him, proper and honorable division of your property be accomplished. “You must have compassion upon those who are injured and smitten by misfortune and aid them within reasonable limits. You must do deeds of thoughtfulness to those dear to you.
- Build, dish out value, and become more skillful.
- Destroy procrastination
- Make money now
- Smell opportunities before they arrive and cash in on them
- Settle your debts. Your debtor is your master, free yourself from slavery.
- Think like a forex trader, invest like a crypto trader and spend like a market trader.
The book elaborates on the dangers of gambling, chasing fortune games, and free funds.
Arkad elaborates thus; “But, when a man playeth the games, the situation is reversed for the chances of profit are always against him and always in favor of the gamekeeper. The game is so arranged that it will always favor the keeper. It is his business at which he plans to make a liberal profit for himself from the coins bet by the players.
Few players realize how certain are the game keeper’s profits and how uncertain are their chances to win. “For example, let us consider wagers placed upon the cube. Each time it is cast we bet which side will be uppermost. If it be the red side the game master pays to us four times our bet. But if any other of the five sides come uppermost, we lose our bet.
Thus the figures show that for each cast we have five chances to lose, but because the red pays four for one, we have four chances to win. In a night’s play, the game master can expect to keep for his profit one-fifth of all the coins wagered. Can a man expect to win more than occasionally against odds so arranged that he should lose one-fifth of all his bets?”
“Yet some men do win large sums at times,” volunteered one of the listeners.
I bet you will also reply thus.
We have heard stories of people winning millions through, lotto, polls, and all that. But are such earnings sustainable?
Well, let’s hear Arkad’s reply.
“Quite so, they do,” Arkad continued. “Realizing this, the question comes to me whether money secured in such ways brings permanent value to those who are thus lucky.
His narration about gambling draws my memories back to a particular question that circulated social media some days back.
The Richest Man in Babylon + pdf!
- Like the law of gravity, these laws of money are universal and unchanging.
- My earnings from my lyre are quickly gone. Often must I plan and scheme that my family is not hungry.
- Perhaps there is some secret we might learn if we but sought from those who knew.
- It costs nothing to ask wise advice from a good friend.
- “In those things toward which we exerted our best endeavors we succeeded.
- Now, at last, we see a light, bright like that from the rising sun. It biddeth us to learn more that we may prosper more.
- If you have not acquired more than a bare existence in the years since we were youths, it is because you either have failed to learn the laws that govern the building of wealth, or else you do not observe them.
- I would not be satisfied with the lot of a poor man. On the contrary, I would make myself a guest at this banquet of good things.
- I decided that if I was to achieve what I desired, time and study would be required.
- too often does youth think that age knows only the wisdom of days that are gone, and therefore profits not.
- I found the road to wealth when I decided that a part of all I earned was mine to keep. And so will you.
- If you did keep for yourself one-tenth of all you earn, how much would you have in ten years?
- Every gold piece you save is a slave to work for you. Every copper it earns is its child that also can earn for you. If you would become wealthy, then what you save must earn, and its children must earn, that all may help to give to you the abundance you crave.
- Pay yourself first.
- you have learned your lessons well. You first learned to live upon less than you could earn. Next, you learned to seek advice from those who were competent through their own experiences to give it. And, lastly, you have learned to make gold work for you.
- You have taught yourself how to acquire money, how to keep it, and how to use it.
- Opportunity is a haughty goddess who wastes no time with those who are unprepared.
- Will power is but the unflinching purpose to carry a task you set for yourself to fulfillment. If I set for myself a task, be it ever so trifling, I shall see it through.
- When I set a task for myself, I complete it. Therefore, I am careful not to start difficult and impractical tasks, because I love leisure.
- Insure an income for thy future. Look thou at the aged and forget not that in the days to come thou also will be numbered among them. Therefore invest thy treasure with the greatest caution that it be not lost.
- A small return and a safe one is far more desirable than risk.
- Do not overstrain or try to save too much. If one-tenth of all you earn is as much as you can comfortably keep, be content to keep this portion. Live otherwise according to your income and let not yourself get niggardly and afraid to spend. Life is good and life is rich with things worthwhile and things to enjoy.
- A part of all you earn is yours to keep.
- Wealth that comes quickly goeth the same way. The wealth that stayeth to give enjoyment and satisfaction to its owner comes gradually because it is a child born of knowledge and persistent purpose.
- Our wise acts accompany us through life to please us and to help us. Just as surely, our unwise acts follow us to plague and torment us.
26.In the front rank of the torments that do follow us are the memories of the things we should have done, of the opportunities which came to us and we took not.
- thou shouldst know that to borrowing and lending there is more than the passing of gold from the hands of one to the hands of another.
- If you desire to help thy friend do so in a way that will not bring thy friend’s burdens upon thyself.
- Youth is ambitious. Youth would take short cuts to wealth and the desirable things for which it stands. To secure wealth quickly youth often borrows unwisely. Youth, never having had experience, cannot realize that hopeless debt is like a deep pit into which one may descend quickly and where one may struggle vainly for many days.
- But help must be given wisely, lest, like the farmer’s ass, in our desire to help we but take upon ourselves the burden that belongs to another.
- Seek to associate thyself with men and enterprises whose success is established that thy treasure may earn liberally under their skillful use and be guarded safely by their wisdom and experience.
- The hungrier one becomes, the clearer one’s mind works.
- Better a little caution than a great regret.
- Work well-done, does good to the man who does it. It makes him a better man.
- Work attracted his many friends who admired his industry and the success it brought. Work brought him the honors he enjoyed so much in Damascus. Work brought him all those things I have approved. And I thought work was fit only for slaves.
Which one is your favourite?
We would love to hear your thoughts, have you read The Richest Man in Babylon? What financial lessons did you learn?
2 Comments
Marysa
This has been a good year to save, and not spend. I haven’t heard about this book, and it sounds like there are a lot of good ideas in it.
Simeon Muchena
A part of all I earn is mine to keep! What a fundamental lesson!