The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
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Book Reviews of The Richest Man in Babylon
Book Review: As Relevant Today As The Day It Was Written -- Buy It, Apply It, and Prosper!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is especially relevant in this day of rampant consumerism and conspicuous spending. Few understand what it takes to create real wealth, which is a tragic shame, since the principles are surprisingly simple and easy to implement.
Wealth creation is a process; a process that can be learned just as surely as one can learn how to tie a shoe or ride a bike. And just as learning to tie a shoe, or ride a bike are daunting at first, creating wealth becomes second nature once its principles are finally understood and mastered. This book will help you to understand and master the principles of wealth creation.
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Book Review: "Gold is reserved for those who know its laws and abide by them."
Summary: 5 Stars
The Richest Man in Babylon is an older book written by George Clason around 1926. To give you a real idea of the age of the book, its author served in the Spanish-American War (that was in 1898 for those of you wondering). The book is not written as one constant story; instead it is a collection of parables the author wrote over a period of time, all assembled into one collection. Each parable has a theme to it, such as seven cures for a lean purse and the five laws of gold.
The writing style is unique. Most of the story is told through character dialogue, in a language that I can only describe as Shakespeare without the rhyme. You will see the words "thou" and "thy" frequently throughout the book. It took me a few pages to get used to the style, but after that I hardly noticed it.
What I like most about this book is the length. My copy is only 155 pages, but those pages cover most of the major personal finance lessons with easy to understand stories that still manage to get the message across.
The Seven Cures for a Lean Purse is the first lesson. The 7 steps to accumulating money (in my own words):
1. Pay yourself first
2. Spend less than you make
3. Take advantage of compound interest
4. Exercise risk management and don't lose money
5. Own your own home
6. Create passive income so eventually you can stop working
7. Improve your ability to earn more money
The rest of book continues to build on these 7 ideas, as well as add a few new ones.
Recommendation:
If you are looking for a short but great lesson on personal finance this is the book to go too. The lessons in this book are timeless, and since it's such a quick read it's definitely worth a look. If you're just getting started on learning the basics of personal finance this is a great place to start.
Book Review: May you use their wisdom wisely
Summary: 5 Stars
I came upon this book from the reference section in "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". Actually if you read all the books in that reference section, you will have realized that Kiyosaki has no original ideas of his own. But getting back to this book...The Babylonians were the first engineers, the first mathematicians. They were the first with written history and a system of currency. They built huge buidings and their fortress walls are one of the seven wonders of the world. Now, all these are gone, but their wisdom remains eternal.
This book contains stories of the ancient Babylonians, each with an important lesson. There is a bit of repetition, but this lesson is so important it might as well be repeated throughout the book. This is the lesson of saving what you earned. Save at least ten percent. Even when you are not making alot, save that ten percent! And before you know it, you will have this huge amount of money that you don't know what you should do with it. But before you spend it on playstation games, wait! This money should be used to help you make more money. And the money you make from this, you save ten percent. Then you use this money to make more money and save ten percent of what you earned and so on and so forth. And before you know it, whamo! You are the next Warren Buffet.
The other important lesson in this book is to work hard. Treat hardwork as a friend rather as an enemy and you will be rewarded greatly.
These are more or less the messages of this book. Simple as they sound, you should definitely read the book yourself because the stories are just amazingly inspirational and heart-felt. Can you imagine they were carved in stone many centuries ago and still, they are some of the best writing and with MEANING as compared to most of the garbage writing printed out today? This is the second best book I ever read.
Book Review: Rise From Financial Slavery
Summary: 5 Stars
Training for my M.A. degree involved deep analysis of literature, and a mastery of the many known devices that authors use to grab a reader's attention.
This book uses a simple device (called archaism) to deliver small stories which, stylistically, read like Biblical parables -- though they have nothing at all to do with Judaism or Christianity -- this book worships only at the altar of gold. And a most practical and profitable sermon it is.
How ironic is it, that also during my M.A. studies, the great universities of our land never taught me one fraction of the financial truths laid out so clearly in this book. Profound truths, that can free the low-wage-earners like myself (or anyone who makes a living in the arts) from the slavery-like yoke offered by credit card companies, from risky and stupid investments, and from the foolish desires that generally cause people to overspend.
The book centers on the theme of slavery. The literal slavery of ancient times is astonishingly allegorical of the financial slavery that debtors find themselves in. This type of slavery is not new. It hounded Charles Dickens, preoccupied Thoreau, and drove Marx to conclude that labor needed to revolt ... But all that is distraction. This book has the true answer to wage slavery, and that is that one must keep what he earns, and make it grow. Simple ideas to comprehend, and simple to execute if one can grasp the truths the author describes. Money, and the laws governing it, are unchanging.
Some readers may be put off by the book's device of the parable. Its dialogue and situations are sometimes heavy handed and overly preachy, once you see the parable's moral coming at you a mile away ... but this book speaks the truths that are worthy of Aesop. I am richer for having read this book, both financially and spiritually.
Book Review: Clasic, classic, classic.
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read a lot of finance books by a lot of different authors: Bach, Chatzky, Orman, Kiyosaki just to name a few, but the "Richest Man in Babylon" is the simplest, most clear cut. It also has the least ego (thank you Eckhart Tolle). Simple is good in my case. I don't like a lot of fancy words clouding my understanding of finance. Clason repeats what a lot of other finance experts say, but the difference is that Clason said it first. So he wins. And the book is short.
The "Thou"s and "thy"s are a bit silly and annoying, I admit--but you get used to it and after a while--it's fun. The financial basics told thru parables (i.e. bible-esque tales). I read a few parts out loud to my husband and he was cracking up.
Richest Man in Babylon in a Nutshell:
Pay yourself 1st: Save 10% of your income.
Pay your debtors: 20% of your income
Live off 70% of your income.
7 Cures for a lean purse:
1st CURE: Start thy purse to fattening.
Save 10 % of what you earn.
2nd CURE: Control thy expenditures.
Budget your income.
3rd CURE: Make thy gold multiply.
Invest
4th CURE: Guard thy treasures from loss.
Study your investments to reduce risk. Make sure you are FDIC insured.
5th CURE: Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment.
Own your home.
6th CURE: Insure a future income.
Invest for old age.
7th CURE: Increase thy ability to earn.
Acquire education and experience to increase income.
Fave quote: A part of all I earn is mine to keep.
If you loved it: Think and Grow Rich, The Automatic Millionaire
If you hated it: Rich Dad Poor Dad