Richest man in babylon budget breakdown how to#
Richest man in babylon budget breakdown series#

This sounds like Pay Yourself First – Algamish told Arkad to save at least 10% of all his earnings.

I found the road to wealth when I decided that a part of all I earned was mine to keep. Arkad explains that he learned the secret of money from Algamish, the moneylender, in return for copying a stone tablet under a deadline:.He warns against both spending all your money and against hoarding it. 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. They decide to ask Arkad, who gives them tough love:

See also: Richest Man in Babylon - The Lessons

And he must have taught it to his son Nomasi, who is now one of the richest men in the nearby city of Ninevah.

Richest man in babylon budget breakdown how to#

They decide that Arkad knows a secret about how to secure an income. Arkad has an income that constantly keeps his purse full, no matter how liberally he spends. A fat purse quickly empties if there be no golden stream to refill it. Indeed, he is the Richest Man in Babylon after whom the book is named.Ī man’s wealth is not in the purse he carries.They discuss their old friend Arkad, who has become rich. He is little better off than the King’s slaves.He tells his friend Kobbi the musician that he can’t understand why he is still poor after a lifetime of hard labour.

Richest man in babylon budget breakdown series#

The book includes a series of stories or parables, the first of which is about a man who desired gold (presumably a fairly common desire at the time).īansir is a chariot builder who despite needing money, finds it hard to motivate himself to build another chariot. Money is governed today by the same laws which controlled it when prosperous men thronged the streets of Babylon, six thousand years ago.

Though Babylon is long gone, Clason assures us that:.

By means of an elaborate drainage system they reclaimed an immense area of swamp land at the mouths of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers and put this also under cultivation.Ĭlason also points out that the city had no desires to build an empire, and that its wars were “local and defensive”.

Make of thy dwelling a profitable investmentīabylon was by the Euphrates, in present-day Iraq, and relied on the river to fertilise its soil.īabylonian engineers diverted the waters from the river by means of dams and immense irrigation canals.

Here are the seven “cures” which the book is based around:

It claims to describe a set of universal and unchanging laws which will steer you away from a lean purse and towards a fat purse.

The book uses archaic, biblical-style language, which doesn’t make my job any easier. The cradle in which was nurtured the basic principles of finance now recognized and used the world over.īabylon became the wealthiest city of the ancient world because its citizens … appreciated the value of money … practised sound financial principles provided for themselves what we all desire … incomes for the future.

For some reason, Clason chose to set his book in ancient Bablyon:.

The book is based around a series of financial pamphlets by Clason which were handed out by banks and insurance companies, and so became well-known.

That is not always a guarantee of quality, and since the book was first published in 1926, I have my doubts – but let’s see.Ĭlason was born in Missouri in 1874 and after a spell in the army, worked a career in publishing.

I don’t know much about the book – or Clason, or indeed Babylon – other than that a lot of people on the internet recommend it.