It teaches the values of saving, overcoming poor habits such as procrastination & being able to take advantage of opportunities


The Richest Man In Babylon by George Clason was originally written in 1926. Through the narratives of Bansir, and his broke musician friend, we can see the standard folk who try to figure out how to get out of debt, the salary slavery and to finally attain wealth. Clason also uses the narrative of the richest man in Babylon Arkad who was initially poor but later learnt how to accumulate wealth. Through Arkad, the rest of Babylon gets to understand the secrets of wealth accumulation.

Clason's book is a timeless classic and most of its message still holds true today. It teaches the values of saving, overcoming poor habits such as procrastination and being able to take advantage of opportunities. It is amazing how he was able to vividly elucidate the Babylonian lifestyle, as if he were there in that society. However, importantly, he was able to bring out these timeless values that anyone can apply today and in years to come. It is interesting that the ancient idea of compounding is what we today see as saving or making an investment.

I highly recommend this simple book to anyone who may be looking for inspiration on how to accumulate wealth. Nevertheless, the idea here is to put what you learn into practice to see any results.

Very repetitive, the financial lessons are very simplistic and some even outdated

I don't know why people like this. No offense ment if you do. Ehhh, maybe a little offense.

This seemed to me a decidedly mediocre set of advice, couched in stupid faux classical language. The result is that you have to work harder to read and understand the nonsense than if they had just come out and said "hey, save money" and "invest in land." A real quote from this is “Where the determination is, the way can be found,” it's not wrong, just generic surface level Instagram hustler shit. Really, the majority of the advice is basic and generic, not really helpful beyond what you might encounter in like a Dave Ramsey podcast or blog post. Someone else here compared it to Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and that seems accurate. Both use fake parables to impart mediocre 'wisdom' and both seem kind of self serving in the process.

There's a specific flavor to this book that I think parallels with a sort of weird hyper-independant "I'm going to get mine" ethos that was romanticized in the late 1900's. I can't quite put my finger on it. But my perception is that it woefully ignores global impacts of our behavior in favor of personal independence and personal gratification.

As such, this book is kind of a whitewashing of greed and avarice, a textual Wall Street "greed is good (if it helps your family)"ethos. And while I think my views are evolving, I'm beginning to see this whole genre as sort of harmful in that way. Not that I think someone reads this and says "oh fuck yea, let's outsource a factory to Indonesia" or "hell yeah brother, lets collatoralize some risky mortgages" but it supports that ecosystem in a way. It brings and personifies a sort of narcissism that allows people to ignore the larger effects of their actions. How what they do on a micro scale perpetuates pain and suffering on a global scale. Head down. Focused on getting mine. Damn the externalities.

So while the book itself is just kind of annoying and obtuse, I think the larger implications of its existence are troubling. I see it as a symptom of a sickness in society.

Clason’s (22-42) "Seven Cures for a Lean Purse" chapter gives you a good overview of the book. The seven principles mentioned are the following:
1.tStart thy purse to fattening
2.tControl thy expenditures
3.tMake thy gold multiply
4.tGuard thy treasures from loss
5.tMake of thy dwelling a profitable investment
6.tInsure a future income
7.tIncrease thy ability to earn

Average American spends $ 1.22 for every dollar they make (Parker). For all the indebted people Clason (108) writes that you should save 10 %, pay 20 % to your debtors, and live with the 70 %.

كتاب ممتع، استمتعت إليه عبر اليوتيوب... الكتاب بالكامل عبارة عن قصص متصلة منفصلة، عن أشخاص عاشوا في بابل و قصص نجاحاتهم التي تلت نكبات عصيبة حلت بهم، تمكنوا بذكاء من تسخيرها لتكون نقطة إنطلاق لحياة ناجحة مرفهة و سعيدة، ما عدا اخر بضعة دقائق التي كانت مديحاً مختصراً عن بابل القديمة.

الشيئين الوحيدين اللذين أخذهما على الكتاب، هما أولاً و كالعادة فكرة الرأسمالية الموجودة في معظم الكتب الغربية، و ثانياً الربوية "الربا" التي تتحدث عنها قصص الكتاب بأريحية، و فيما عداهما فالكتاب حقاً ممتع و ملئ بالنصائح البسيطة المفيدة.

الكتاب يتمحور حول بضعة نقاط "مكررة":

أغنى رجل في بابل طرق وخطوات تعلمك كيف يمكنك أن تجمع المال وتصبح ثريا وكيف تحافظ عليه.
وهو كتاب عملي وبالطبع لدي الحماس لتطبيق ما ورد به
...
أنصح به من يرغبون بعمل مشاريع خاصة بهم ولكل من يريد أن يصبح ثريا ...وطبعا جميعنا نحب أن نكون أثرياء ونمتلك المال الذي سيساعدنا في تحقيق أهدافنا الحياتية
إسلوب الكتاب مبسط قصصي .. وجميل يمكن لكل واحد منا فهمه
....
فأذا أردت أن تبدأ في قراءة الكتب التي من هذا الصنف فسيكون أغنى رجل في بابل خير بداية

كتاب جميل ومفيد

فكرة الكتاب في العائد المركب وقد أسماها إينشتاين بالأعجوبة الثامنة حيث أن الأرباح تتعاظم بسبب إعادة استثمارها لفترات زمنية طويلة.
كتاب مفيد للغاية ودائما ما أنصح به طلاب الجامعة وحديثي التخرج لأن البدء مبكرا بالاستثمار يحقق أهداف مالية كبيرة وغير متوقعة.

"If determination is there, ways can be found"

This classic poetic map, helping us to discover and reap the treasure of finances, teaches through tales one can only imagine to be too idealistic to be true at the face of it. Cardinal rules, conjured even before the birth of Christ, will take you through the world of trade, money and gold in ever so entertaining ways beyond one's wildest imaginations.

The rules have stood the test of time as it has been documented at the end of the book that how the archaeologists who found the clay tablets upon which these rules were documented practiced these rules and were able to gain control of their finances in ways incomprehensible to them before. They used these ways and were surprised to see the results as they simultaneously built on their corpus, returned back their loans with due diligence and also comfortably carried on with their daily needs being met periodically without a hitch.

Now the burning question- What the hell are these rules which even after 8000 years hold ground? Well there are umpteen of them in the book but some of them one must be exposed to so as to feel the golden rub off:p so here comes:-

1) You should always pay yourself no less than one tenth of whatever you earn. I know some of you might be feeling disappointed but that's true guys. Life is simple and coming to simple conclusions only will bring in sense to your life. The first question that I had in my mind after reading this was that if I'm getting the whole income, what is the meaning of paying one tenth of whatever I earn to myself? Well to clear the smoke on that, your expenses on things such as rent, food, objects etc don't count as a payment to yourself because they go as they come. These things should be accounting to 70% of your salary. There is an assumption here that everyone must be having some or the other obligations to fulfill so 20% should be kept for that whereas the last 10% should be kept only for you.

2) Control thy expenditures. There is a big difference between your burning desires and fleeting wishes that keep you enslaved on a daily basis. These are the very vicious wishes that leads one's boat to the rocks of loss and remorse. This is a very difficult part as differentiating between the two is the first step towards controlling your expenditures. One way to evaluate between the two is to imagine whatever you wish for and ask yourself how would your life be affected if this wish is not fulfilled and if the answer is 'nothing much' then it is not worth pursuing.

3) Multiply thy gold. If your money doesn't earn money for you then it is speaking to you in a language you don't understand. Consider money as your employee which will give birth to kids which will further work to produce more kids unless you have a big army such that in-Toto they become river of gold for the rest of your life. Money kept idle is a wasted ammunition and as we all know idle money looses its value faster than we know.

Fickle Fate, as many people claim, is the name of the game in earning money but whosoever has fallen into the clutches of this goddess has seldom lived to tell the story. Opportunity my friends is a gorgeous goddess who pays visit to all but the problem is she is impatient and doesn't like to waste her time for those who are unprepared. The time has come to ask oneself- "Do we have the soul of a slave or of a free-man?" at the end of the day we are nothing but the choices that we have made:)

ربما سمعنا كثيرا عن بابل وعن تقدمها العلمي والمادي من الروايات وكتب التاريخ رغم أنها في الحقيقة كانت تقع في مكان أجدب لا يوجد حوله أي نوع من الموارد ،إلا أن شعبها كان يمتلك حكمة وعلما وفنا في المجالات المختلفة وخاصة التجارة التي أعطت المدينة شأنا عظيما .. ومن الجدير بالذكر أن الناس في بابل كان إما فاحش الثراء أو شديد الفقر ،ولما رأى الملك ذلك في حال الناس أرسل في طلب أغنى رجل في بابل (أركاد)ليعلم الفقراء كيفية تكوين الثروة ،فكانت نصائحه في سبعة أيام تباعا على النحو التالي:
1.ابدأ في ملء محفظتك
2.تحكم في نفقاتك
3. اعمل على إنماء ثروتك
4.حافظ على ثروتك من الضياع
5.اجعل منزلك استثمارا مربحا
6.اضمن دخلا ثابتا في المستقبل
7.زد من قدرتك على الكسب
وقد ذكر الكتاب قصصا مختلفة أخرى مثلا لدور الحظ في تكوين الثروة وحكاية عبد فقير يباع من سيد لآخر وتحوله إلى رجل حر ذو شأن بين العوام..
إن الحظ السعيد يأتي فقط لمن يعملون بنشاط لاستغلال الفرصة التي تتاح لهم..♡♡

Wisdom for wealth

Simple and well known wisdom, narrated in the best manner.
Liked the delivery style and arrangement of ideas.
This book has been written in the early 19th century. So the options said can be related to that age.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Genre:
Nonfiction + Business

I picked up this one because I heard many good things about it. I might be a bit late because I feel the majority of the points and lessons discussed in this book are very familiar to me. I found it very interesting to see this book reads more like fiction. I feel this is good for someone who wants to read and know about all the basics in finance and economics in a simple easy way. One of the main tips that the author insisted on is saving 10% of whatever you earn, and then making that saved amount earn further by investing it wisely in something you are aware of. Don't invest your money in something you have no knowledge about or give it to someone to invest it in something he has not enough knowledge about.

“Advice is one thing that is freely given away, but watch that you only take what is worth having.”

Another piece of advice the author gives is to control the expenditure in different ways. One way is to own your own home instead of living in a rented property and paying the rent. Then there is an important tip of building yourself and your abilities because the more educated and experienced you are the higher will be the chance that you will earn more in the future.

The book is old, written a long time ago. Most of the lessons and advice are still very much valid until this day. But all this is definitely not enough to cover the complex economics of today. You will not find it covering everything that relates to our times. Do I recommend it? Well, yes but not alone. You need to read more books about finance and investments because basics alone are not enough for you to gain the knowledge and expertise that you aim for. I give The Richest Man In Babylon 3.0 stars out of 5.0.

“THE FIVE LAWS OF GOLD I. 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. II. Gold labor the diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field. III. Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling. IV. Gold slippeth 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. V. 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.”