The Richest Man In Babylon Summary

• You first learn to live upon less then you could earn
• You learn to seek advice from those who are competent through their own experience to give it
• You learn to make gold work for you

1.Start thy purse to fattening

• For every ten coins thou placest within thy purse take out for use but nine (save 10% of your income)
• “Which desirest thou the most? Is it the gratification of thy desires of each day, a jewel, a bit of finery, better raiment, more food; things quickly gone and forgotten? Or is it substantial belongings. Gold, lands, herds, merchandise, income-bringing investments? The coins thou takest from thy purse bring the first. The coins thou leavest within it bring the latter”

• The book emphasizes the importance of saving a portion of your income before spending it on other things.
• Aim to save at least 10% of your earnings and gradually increase that amount over time.

• Control your expenses and avoid living beyond what you can afford.
• The book encourages individuals to budget wisely, prioritize needs over wants, and avoid excessive debt.

• Money is a medium by which earthly success is measured.
• 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 gives you ultimate freedom of what you want to do when you want to do it, how much you want to do it, and with whom you want to do it.

We do not wish to go on year after year living the same lives. Working, working, working! Getting nowhere.

A man's wealth is not in the purse he carries. A fat purse quickly empties if there is no golden stream to refill it.

Learning is of two kinds:

1. The things we learned and knew.
2. The training taught us how to find out what we did not know.

"When a youth comes to age for advice he receives the wisdom of years".

The alarm you set sleepily at 12 at night is ringing loudly at 7 in the morning. You have to leave your warm bed, eat something and get dressed. Now, leaving your cozy house is even harder than all of that hassle. Well, you do it and suddenly it's 5 pm. You have to go back home rest a bit and get ready for the next day. Such fun, right? And for what? Just to be able to pay your credit card statement in full for the next month.

Now, here is a question: Do you think that this system has ever changed in the world for the past five thousand years? Get up in the morning, work for your masters. Pay off your debt to your masters with interest and repeat again all over. Can you spot any difference between the slavery of Babylon five thousand years ago and the modern slavery of today? I will try to answer this question with the success story of a Babylonian named Dabasir who lived five thousand years ago. A story about a man who was able to achieve financial freedom...

Long story short; Nothing has changed in five thousand years. This is both a good and a bad thing. Good, because the ways out of slavery haven't changed either. But bad, because some of us just can't get out of this loop. Thankfully, Dabasir engraved some steps that can be taken on the path to financial freedom on a clay tablets five thousand years ago and whose accuracy has not changed for generations.

Pay yourself first:

“I found the road to wealth when I decided that a part of all I earned was mine to keep. It should be not less than a tenth, no matter how little you earn. It can be as much more as you can afford. Pay yourself first”

“Wealth, like a tree, grows from a tiny seed. The first copper you save is the seed from which your tree of wealth shall grow. The sooner you plant that seed the sooner shall the tree grow. And the more faithfully you nourish and water that tree with consistent savings, the sooner may you bask in contentment beneath its shade.'

| Wealth is built, not won

“Budget thy expenses that thou mayest have coins to pay for thy necessities, to pay for thy enjoyments, and to gratify thy worthwhile desires without spending more than nine-tenths of thy earnings.”

“Study thoughtfully thy accustomed habits of living. Herein may be most often found certain accepted expenses that may wisely be reduced or eliminated.”

| By eliminating small momentary gratifications, you may have more, and can afford the fine things in life

"Gold, indeed, is a willing worker. It is ever eager to multiply when opportunity presents itself. To every man who hath a store of gold set by, opportunity comes for its most profitable use. As the years pass, it multiplies itself in surprising fashion.”

“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 it's children must earn, that all may help to give to you the abundance you crave” 

| Money attracts money, this law is almost supernatural when experienced

Men of action are favoured by the goddess of good luck

To attract good luck to oneself, it is necessary to take advantage of opportunities

1. Money comes 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. Money labours diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field.

3. Gold clings to the protection of the cautions owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling.

4. Gold slips 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. Money flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who follows the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.

Regularly save a portion of your income to gradually build financial security and stability.

Invest wisely to not only grow your wealth but also secure a prosperous and financially abundant future.

Be cautious with investments, seek advice, and take steps to minimize potential financial risks and losses.

Use the financial principles made clear below. Let them guide you away from the stringency of a lean purse to that fuller, happier life a full purse makes possible.

Like the law of gravity, these laws of money are universal and unchanging.

1. Start thy purse to fattening

2. Control thy expenditures

3. Make thy gold multiply

4. Guard thy treasures from loss

5. Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment

6. Insure a future income

7. Increase thy ability to earn

A fat purse quickly empties if there be no golden stream to refill it.

I wish an income that will keep flowing into my purse whether I sit upon the wall or travel to far lands.

"It costs nothing to ask wise advice from a good friend and Arkad was always that. Never mind though our purses be as empty as the falcon's nest of a year ago. Let that not detain us. We are weary of being without gold in the midst of plenty. We wish to become men of means."

Amassing wealth isn’t difficult but it has two preconditions:

1) You need to want money – It needs to become a priority; and

2) You need to understand it – You need to understand how it works.

Fortunately, the basics aren’t hard to master. Nor have they changed in the last few thousand years.

The Richest Man In Babylon basically tries to answer three questions:

1) How Can I Acquire Money?

2) How Can I Not Lose My Money? and

3) How Can I Make Money Multiply?

Now Let's Talk about them in detail!

The secret to acquiring money is to work for it.

1. Stop procrastinating. Get out there and earn a living.
2. keep working at honing your your craft so your earning power increase.
3. Make sure you set up a pension so you can keep acquiring money even when you get too old and doddery to work for it.

I warned you, this ain’t rocket science.

There are two ways not to lose money:

1. Don’t spend it; and
2. To not lose your money in bad investments...