Richest Man in Babylon Summary
The richest man in Babylon is one of my favorite book in financial literacy and investment subject. This book teaches us small but effective money management habits.
My first introduction with ‘Richest man in Babylon’ was during my graduation years. While travelling, I noticed this small book at Railway station Book stall and as I liked title, I purchased it.
In the journey, I read some pages of this book. Due to Author’s good writing style, I read this complete book in one day.
The book is written in very good language and the reader travels in ancient Babylon while reading every page. After reading all chapters from this book, I realized its power in personal finance field.
Following is the Richest man in Babylon summary.
Financial literacy and investing are related to each other. If someone want better returns on his investment, he must work on financial literacy too. Many new investors often invest money somewhere with limited or no financial literacy. ‘Richest man in Babylon’ is best book to teach financial literacy through a nice story of ‘ARKAD’ and his friends from Babylon city.
Every chapter of this book is dedicated to various money management habits by interesting stories from ancient Babylon..
The rich man ‘ARKAD’ has told some money management-related stories to his poor friends. By these stories, ARKAD has told the secret of wealth to his friends. These secrets are revealed in this book. Chapter 1 and 2 describe the discussion between ARKAD (A rich person in Babylon) and his poor friends.
The book has following chapters:
- The Man Who Desired Gold
- The Richest Man in Babylon
- Seven Cures for a Lean Purse
- Meet the Goddess of Good Luck
- The Five Laws of Gold
- The Gold Lender of Babylon
- The Walls of Babylon
- The Camel Trader of Babylon
- The Clay Tablets from Babylon
- The Luckiest Man in Babylon
Lets see the seven cures for empty purse from chapter 3.
Seven rules of maintaining money in pocket
- By saving 10 % of your monthly income, your purse will be filled with more money.
- For controlling your expenses, you have to understand the difference between necessary expenditures and nonessential expenses.
- Your saving must work for you. Your money will bring more money for you. This is known as leveraging.
- Secure your investments from threats. Avoid investing in the things that you don’t know.
- Buy your house. It will give satisfaction to you.
- Ensure future income by doing some work in the present.
- Increase your earning potential. By learning new skills you will be able to get more money for investing.
In the fourth chapter, “Meet The Goddess Of Good Luck” ARKAD discussed good luck. He told that luck comes knocking on the door but people cant notice it. By accepting opportunities, one can attract luck. You need to be ready for an opportunity before the opportunity comes.
In the fifth chapter “The five laws of money” stories move around the discussion of Old Kalabab with his group of men. He asked, if they were offered a bag of gold and one clay plate with written wisdom on it; what they will choose? All men said, they will choose gold bag. After this question, He explains ‘Laws of Gold” by which one can earn a lot of wealth.
His some laws are:
- Money happily works for those owners who use it wisely.
- Money comes in increasing quantity to any man who saves 10% of income for his future and family.
The chapter “The Gold Lender of Babylon” explains how a lender gives a loan to other persons by taking some guarantee of repayment from them. ‘Rodan’ the spear maker had some gold with him and his some relatives were asking for this gold for their new business. ‘Rodan’ asked to Gold lender ‘Mathon’ “Should I give this gold to my relative?” In the answer to this question, the gold lender told ‘Better a little caution than a great regret”. If any person is not capable of doing business, there is no guarantee that he will repay any loan.
Other chapters of this book also told money management-related stories with effective lessons. ‘The Richest Man in Babylon’ book gives a good insight into investing and saving to the readers.
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