"The most important book you will ever read," I read, as I looked at the reviews for George S. Clason's The Richest Man in Babylon. I wasn't sure. How many times can you be told the same thing about saving money, cutting your expenses, getting into the 'frugal' habit. I didn't want to be frugal, I wanted to make money, be wealthy. A book of 144 pages is hardly going to stack up against some of the other monsters in the 'teach yourself wealth' category on Amazon, is it. What on Earth were those other blogs on about, "most important book you will ever read"?
If it wasn't for the price of £5.95 including delivery, I may have given it a miss. Thank goodness I didn't. This book will be the most important book you will ever read. It will be the most important book you ever re-read. In fact it might be the most important book you ever re-purchase if like me you lend your first copy to your brother and it doesn't find it's way back!
The Richest Man in Babylon is a guide to personal wealth. No that is unfair, it is the framework for personal wealth. That sounds more accurate. And it is written simply. George Clason was in no way attempting to produce a novel that would keep you busy for weeks whilst you sit on a sun lounger on a beach somewhere nice. This is a framework, a set of rules, that at 144 pages you will read in an evening. A mantra that at 144 pages is short enough to re-read, repeat to yourself, even digest piecemeal whilst you have a few minutes spare in the water closet.
Babylon it seems was a place of great wealth, wealth that had flowed from a desire of individuals to be wealthy, and willingness to learn the trade. I picked up this book with that burning desire, and the same willingness, and what I found was reassurance, that I was not obsessed but merely following some kind of historical journey, much like those in the book who seek the wisdom of Arkad, one of the richest men in Babylon.
What I like about this book is how quickly you become engaged with the short stories, but also how quickly and succinctly those short stories deliver you to a stone tablet of knowledge. In fact in the space of a single chapter you will come away with seven "cures" for lean purse, including not least the equivalent of budgeting as discussed in my previous blog post . In another chapter you learn quickly of the five rules of gold and the simple, realistic, goals that flow from them, allowing you to walk away from the Richest Man in Babylon and take action.
The books lays to waste certain fallacies regarding luck, rapid massive wealth, and the "I can't possible become wealthy" viewpoint. Instead it provides you with direction for how you can make small changes to your finances to steer your family towards a better financial standing. Take, for instance, the logic of "pay yourself first". Savings and investments for me were things to aim for at the end of the month, with the money I had left. Actually, what sense does this make? Why should I pay myself last with leftovers. I earned that money, it is going to me first! Immediately I put the Richest Man in Babylon down and looked at what I was saving at the end of each month. I added 10% and said I would pay into savings the new figure at the start of every month. Do you know what, it wasn't a problem at all, so the next month I added another 10%. Eventually I found a point where I did start to struggle to make it to the end of the month, so backed off the savings a little, but was still saving, at the start of every month, a darn sight more than I was when I was saving at the end of the month. Simple changes make a big difference.
This book will not give you detailed step by step approaches to setting up a business, making ebay work for you, how to find a good bank account, how to invest in stocks or property. It is at a higher level than that. If you can go with the story of Babylon, imagine stone tablets engraved with short lessons or rules for wealth, and that is what you get. It really does give you that framework, the feeling that if you follow the rules you can sleep easy your wealth will grow. Take time to establish a baseline before you move onto specific routes for wealth. The Richest Man in Babylon will certainly give you this.
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