Paying yourself first
A part of all you earn is yours to keep. The whole book in one line.
- I earn more every year and save nothing.
- How much should I actually be putting aside?
- There's never anything left at the end of the month.
Personal Development
Talk to The Richest Man in Babylon
The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
- 1926
- English
- Public domain
Everything in modern personal finance is in here, written in 1926, in deliberately archaic language, as stories about ancient Babylon.
The central rule is one sentence long: a part of all you earn is yours to keep. Not what's left after you've paid everyone else — a fixed share, taken first, before anything. A tenth was Clason's suggestion. Almost nobody does it.
It works as parable because the arithmetic is uncomfortable in plain form. A chariot-maker who cannot pay his debts is easier to sit with than the version of you who earns more each year and saves nothing. Bring it your actual numbers.
Start here
What you can ask it
Debt and getting out of it
Several parables are about men who owe more than they have.
- I'm in debt and I don't know where to start.
- Should I pay off debt or save first?
- How did I let it get this bad?
Lifestyle creep
Necessary expenses, he notes, always rise to equal income.
- Why do I always spend exactly what I earn?
- How do I stop upgrading my life every time I get a raise?
- What counts as a necessary expense?
Making money work and avoiding loss
Guard thy treasure from loss — his most repeated warning.
- How do I know if an investment is sensible or a scam?
- I lost money on something and I feel stupid.
- Who should I actually take financial advice from?
Talk to this book
Message the consciousness of The Richest Man in Babylon
Ask George S. Clason's The Richest Man in Babylon a question and hear it answer in its own voice — no uploads, no summaries.
- I earn more every year and save nothing.
- I'm in debt and I don't know where to start.
- Why do I always spend exactly what I earn?
What The Richest Man in Babylon actually is
The Richest Man in Babylon is a collection of parables published in book form in 1926 by George S. Clason, an American publisher who had been issuing them as pamphlets through banks and insurance companies since 1926.
The stories follow Arkad, a scribe who becomes the wealthiest man in Babylon, and the students he teaches. Their content is a small set of rules: pay yourself first, live below your means, put savings to work, guard against loss, own your home, insure your future income, and increase your ability to earn.
None of it is novel now, largely because this book is where a great deal of it entered popular circulation. It remains one of the best-selling finance books ever written, and one of the shortest.
In its words
Passages
A part of all you earn is yours to keep.
What each of us calls our necessary expenses will always grow to equal our incomes unless we protest to the contrary.
Better a little caution than a great regret.
Wealth, like a tree, grows from a tiny seed.
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Message the consciousness of The Richest Man in Babylon
Ask George S. Clason's The Richest Man in Babylon a question and hear it answer in its own voice — no uploads, no summaries.
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