The Richest Man in Babylon

By: George S. Clason

Narrated by: Richard Ferrone

Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

With more than two million copies sold, this classic guide to accumulating wealth has profoundly affected the world. Author George S. Clason uses simple and inspiring parables to illustrate how easily people can change their fiscal habits to enjoy a comfortable level of financial independence.

Unlike most financial self-help books, The Richest Man in Babylon does not present the latest fashionable idea for fattening bank accounts. Instead, it offers time-tested techniques, wittily illuminated through amusing fables, that clearly and concisely illustrate the path toward establishing a stabler budget and building greater savings.

If you are combatting debt, struggling to secure your retirement, or fighting to stretch every dollar you earn, you need look no further than the common sense ideas of this indispensable volume.

©1955 George S. Clason (P)2005 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic Reviews

"What can a book written in the 1920s tell modern investors about their finances? A whole lot if it's George Clason's delightful set of parables that explain the basics of money." (Los Angeles Times)

Book is perfect to learn the value of money etc...

This book is perfect if you learn by reading the experiences of others. The entire book is
told in a story-like format, so it often goes down much like reading a collection of short
stories. The language is a bit strange, as the author attempts to sound like this is an
authentic tale from the ancient days, but the messages are as clear as sunlight.

Seven Cures for a Lean Purse
Since The Richest Man in Babylon is divided up into several short stories of varying
degrees of quality, I thought I would review in great detail the one story that I found the
most compelling.
The tale “Seven Cures for a Lean Purse” relates a story about Arkad, the titular richest
man in Babylon. He is requested by the king to teach a class to anyone who wishes to
attend on the methods he used to build his wealth. He divides this class across seven
days, with each day focusing on a particular method for saving money. Here are the
seven methods.

Start thy purse to fattening Take one-tenth of what you bring in and save it for the
future. The book uses a coin analogy: for every nine coins you spend, take one and put it
away for yourself. This is very sensible; a goal all of us should have.

Control thy expenditures Don’t buy frivolous things even if you have enough money to
pay for them. Instead, make sure that you can continue to save one-tenth of what you
bring in. For this reason, I write about frugality on The Simple Dollar.

Make thy gold multiply Once you start to build up some savings, invest that money so
that it will make more money for you. Another pretty clear point; if you start saving
money, it shouldn’t just sit in a mattress. Even a high-yield savings account is much
better than that, and it can double your principal in about fifteen years.

Guard thy treasure from loss This one is interesting: you should only invest in things
where the principal is safe. In other words, the book seems to discourage stock investing.
I found this to be particularly interesting given that it was written in 1927, right in the
midst of the first big American stock market boom. Of course, 1929 proved the author
right.

Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment One should own their own home rather
than renting because then money can be invested in the home or invested in other things
rather than handed over to the landlord. Something tells me that this lesson applied better
before people were looking at homes that were three or four times their annual income.

Insure a future income In other words, invest for retirement and your family’s well
being after your passing. You should be dropping some Hamiltons right into your
retirement account if you can possibly afford it.

Increase thy ability to earn Work hard, look for opportunities, and educate yourself.
Today, a college education is one of the best investments you can make; I’m not saying
that it’s a requirement to be successful, but it opens the door to greater possibilities.
The Five Laws of Gold
Another story central to The Richest Man in Babylon is the tale of the five laws of gold, a
five-point philosophy handed down to later generations by Arkad, the titular richest man
in Babylon. Here are the five laws, with discussion of what they mean in a modern
context.

1. 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. In other words, a person should put away 10% of his or her income for the future
as a bare minimum. This rule is so incredibly fundamental, yet only a small minority
even bother to follow it.

2. Gold laboreth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it
profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field. If you invest your
money well, your money will simply make more money. Again, a very simple and
obvious rule, but one that many people never get to because they didn’t follow the first
rule.

3. Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the
advice of men wise in its handling. This rule encourages cautious investing, or at least
encourages the investor to at least be informed. In today’s era, one can turn to the internet
for plenty of investing information.

4. 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 who are skilled in its
keep. This goes hand in hand with the third rule: if you invest in stuff you don’t
understand, you’re likely to lose money. Don’t buy the latest hot stock from your
stockbroker; investigate and invest where you want.

5. 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. The worst option is to invest in anything that
promises absurdly good returns, or anything that you’re heavily pressured into buying.
These investments are scams and won’t stand up to serious research.
The five rules really are all you need to know: save some money, do some research, and
only invest in the fruits of that research. Anything else is a sure way to fall behind.

Other Parts
The remainder of the book is loaded with similar tales, teaching basic principles of
personal finance using stories from Old Babylon. Here are some of the other teachings
found in the book:

A Part Of All You Earn Is Yours To Keep This is a hard lesson for many of us to
learn, as most of us are ardent consumerists who are trained to spend from earliest
childhood. The truth is that we need to learn to always pay ourselves before we pay our
debtors – once we do that, we’ll be on the road to financial success.
Men Of Action Are Favored By The Goddess Of Good Luck I found this principle to
be quite interesting, but also quite accurate. At first, you might take it to think that people
who gamble sometimes end up big winners, but that’s not what this is all about. What the
rule is saying is that people who succeed are the ones that do something. Even the most
conservative of investments will pay better than cash stuffed in a mattress for a rainy day.
If you do something, something will happen.

Better A Little Caution Than A Great Regret On the other hand, if you push too hard,
you can get burnt. Highly speculative investments can turn around and bite you hard,
leaving you as if you had never invested at all. Respect your principal and it will respect
you by earning well; toss it to the wolves and you may get nothing back.

We Cannot Afford To Be Without Adequate Protection Retirement savings and
insurance are both vital to ensuring that major accidents don’t derail everything that we
do. If you don’t have these tools, a disaster can befall you, leaving you completely
helpless.

Where The Determination Is, The Way Can Be Found Don’t give up on investing just
because the road is bumpy. If you keep at it, eventually you will find a path to success.
This is true no matter what you’re doing – persistence pays off time and time again
Enjoy

15 of 15 people found this review helpful

One of my favorites

It seems like there are a few books that stand out as favorites that I invariably end up reading over and again. When in comes to managing money and personal finance this is my hands down favorite. Not only is it easy and fun to read, but the simple lessons taught in this short book really work.

The book is a compilation of several somewhat interwoven short stories that use the ancient city of Babylon as the backdrop. It begins with two friends lamenting their financial problems. They decide to seek out the advice of their old friend (now the richest man in Babylon). Each story teaches an important common sense lesson on wealth and happiness.

I doubt that anyone will learn anything they don’t already know by reading this book (i.e. working hard can be beneficial, save your money, don’t make risky investments, etc.), but who can’t benefit from a reminder of these rules every once in a while? One of my favorite parts involves a father who gives his son a sum of money and a list of recommendations about how it should be handled. Predictably the son disregards the advice and learns some hard lessons. Yet in the end, he learns to follow the advice and earn back all he lost and more.

In my work as an estate attorney, I have met lots of individuals who have accumulated amazing sums of wealth. To my knowledge, few of them became and stayed wealthy through get rich quick schemes. Most of them became wealthy using basically the principles taught in this book.

The first time I read this book I felt somewhat embarrassed because I had made so many (errr, all) of the mistakes as the characters in the book. Unlike some recent books on wealth management, this book doesn’t make you feel too guilty, and it actually offers easy to follow common sense ways to immediately improve your financial situation. By the way, this is also a great book to give to teenagers. I would not hesitate to recommend it to someone as young as 12 or 13.

13 of 13 people found this review helpful

Worth "Reading" Again and Again

I first read this book about 20 years ago and have continued to re-read it on an almost annual basis to keep me on track. It's lessons are simple but definately worth repeating. I'm thrilled that it's available on Audible as my paper copy is quite tattered.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Solid Stuff

This is probably the most usable, realistic, common sense approach to wealth. Its not one of those be good to the universe nonsense and the universe will shower you with great riches foolishness and just think good thoughts stuff. This is information that anyone can put to work.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

A literary masterpiece of personal finance

Wow! what other all-encompassing word can be used to describe George S. Clason's masterpiece, The Richest Man in Babylon. It touches upon every aspect of personal finance in a series of loosely related, riveting tales.

The book's fresh perspective drives home themes from overcoming debt to the wisdom of saving to the path to freedom from the "rat race" and more. The setting in ancient Babylon, in addition to providing romantic flavor and literary style, removes the work from the modern age and Western Civilization, rendering its principles both timeless and universal.

A small critique of grammar: the use of antiquated second person forms (you, thee, ye, and their variants) is inconsistent and incorrect. The powerful content and excellent narration, however, more than compensate for this linguistic flaw.

Highly Recommended

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Simple instructions for everyone

I think that everybody ought to listen (or read) to this book. It talks about a topic that you don't hear much about these days: WISDOM. The way wise men become wealthy. You don't have to have an advanced degree or be a genius. Just follow this books advise and you will become well-off (but it does take discipline). I've seen it in my personal life a number of times. My grandmother, my best friend in High School and I, all used this book's method over our lifetimes and it has make us very well to do. Too bad we basically had to figure it out ourselves. It is hard to believe that It was written down thousands of year ago.

Don't buy this book thinking you are going to hear some ancient secret on how to get rich. But you should buy this book if you want to hear how simple techniques like saving, living within a budget, being prepared for business opportunities can change your financial life. It's all told to you using great stories and the play with words are entertaining. And I think the Narrator did a great job. I'll have to look for more of his work.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

I wish I had this book 20 years ago

This is the best book on personal finances I ever listen to. Very entertaining and informative. This book will help you create the success, we all desire.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Richest Man in Babylon

Though this book may have been written in the 1950 era, it still has valuable information for anyone who is interested in the basics of financial management.

I guarantee anyone who utilizes the fundamental principles taught in this book will never be in debt, and never be short of money.

WRT

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

Great financial advice in story form.

A great story and a very inspiring way to apply the financial advice our parents have been giving us for years.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great Wisdom!

I've listened to the story at least 4 times and every time I hear it, I'm learning something new, what valuable information and lessons there are in the story!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful