The Richest Man in Babylon

The Richest Man in Babylon is a collection of stories from George Clason series of articles on thrift and financial success. If you consider that Mr. Clason lived around the turn of the previous century, it still offers considerable insights to handling money.

The Richest Man in Babylon is a guy called Arkad and lived in the city of Babylon circa 4000 BC. The series of articles details how Arkad teaches several people how he became so rich. Some of the other articles tell of people influenced by Arkad to become rich, who became rich, themselves. And they share their wisdom to all who seek it.

From the basic cures for a lean purse to the five laws of gold, they share their wisdom if you seek it.

The basic cures for a lean purse are as follows:

1. Start thy purse to fattening - Keep 1/10th of your earnings for yourself, i.e. pay yourself first.
2. Control thy expenditures - Budget, live below your means.
3. Make thy gold multiply for you - Let money work for you.
4. Guard thy treasures from loss - Protect your capital.
5. Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment - Invest in your own home.
6. Insure a future income - Cash flow not capital gains.
7. Increase thy ability to earn - Learn new things, gain new skills.

As for the five laws of gold:

1. Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family.
2. Gold laboreth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field.
3. Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling.
4. Gold slippith away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with which he is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep.
5. Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.

It sounds almost too basic, but how many of us can say that we apply these things.

Besides the story of the richest man of Babylon, the book also includes the stories of the gold lender of Babylon, the camel trader of Babylon and the luckiest man in Babylon. All these add up to a real valuable read. You can get the story of the The Richest Man in Babylon from Amazon.