Financial Wisdom from “The Richest Man in Babylon”
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As I scrolled down to find the next non-fiction book to read from the recommendation-TBR list, I stumbled upon this title: “The Richest Man in Babylon”. Intrigued by the title, I downloaded the book on my Ipad. After finishing the synopsis for around 15 minutes, I just decided to continue read this! — Is it Interesting? — Well, for me, I have always found books on personal finance exceptionally boring, yet this book is different, it gives me classic — ancient wisdom — and very entertaining since the stories takes place in Babylon millennia era.
In my opinion, the author, George Clanson, makes the books simple and relevant. It conveys the base concepts of handling money, and puts them in a short stories format. The story revolves around a man who wants to acquire gold and work hard for it, learn from his faults and eventfully become the richest man in Babylon.
Personally, this book is kinda relatable for me who (sometimes) struggled on managing my money and was unable to feel enough of it. With every chapter, the concepts about money is simple and practical: on how to start building wealth, how to keep it and how to multiply it. It’s extremely easy to understand (at least as compared to the overblown rationale behind the other financial books) — hehe.
The concepts are easily recalled and can be applied by any person at any time. The learning concepts from the books that I noticed are:
- Pay yourself first (Save at least 10% of your paycheck)
- Don’t trust a bricklayer to buy jewels (Don’t get caught up in other people’s excitement. Go see the experts instead)
- Don’t put all of your eggs in a single basket (Diversify your portfolio)
- Control thy expenses. (Even the richest man has a time constraint on his life. Do what you enjoy, but don’t overdo it)
- Enhance your ability to earn (That one is self-explanatory)
- Ensure your future (Use our youth to build wealth that will serve us in the future as well)
Even though the language is biblical and sometimes redundant, it’s still an excellent read for me. Here’s I quoted the best saying of the book to close this review.
“Our acts can be no wiser than our thoughts, Our thinking can be no wiser than our understanding.”
- George S. Clason, The Richest Man In Babylon
