"The Richest Man in Babylon" is one of the best books of all time. It is one of the best self-help books to read, written by Late Author Mr. George Samuel Clason back in 1926. This famous book helps you to help yourself to attain wealth by allocating parts of your income in a pre-decided ratios and plan. It has been a good read for me and can be considered as one of the best books ever.
Central Idea of Book :
"The Richest Man in Babylon" teaches how to become rich. There was a man in Babylon who was the richest man there. He became the richest man by following few spending and investment practices. Author talked about those practices through this must-read book. If a person follows those practices rigorously, he/she is likely to attain riches. There was a person named Bansir who was suffering from indebtedness. He was unable to find any way to repay his debts. He was asked to follow few practices which were advised by Arkad - The Richest Man in Babylon. Here is the plan of Arkad:
- Ensure to save 10% of your income each month without fail.
- Control your expenses; ensure not to spend anything more than what has been decided to spend.
- Invest your savings to make it multiply.
- Ensure to invest only where you know that your money will remain safe. You can seek expert advice too, before investing your money.
- Try to have an own accommodation, so that your dwelling would also increase its value.
- Put some money in insurance and pension plan, to ensure a future income.
- Don't forget to invest in yourself; investing in yourself means adding new skills in you because your skills will help you to earn more.
Bansir followed these practices and invested 10% of his income. He also decided to use 20% of his income to pay debts and used rest of his income for survival. He soon paid his debts and stepped ahead on the way of riches.
There are few more such stories in this book which will tell you how different people followed above mentioned practices and overcame indebtedness, consequently attained riches.
Key Learnings:
The key learnings from this classic book are:
- Always save and invest 10% of your income.
- Try to pay your debts as early as possible.
- Always invest in supervision of wise brain.
- Don't invest in a business you don't understand.
- Don't invest your money in a business that promises you to give impossible returns.
My takeaway:
Though I have been saving, investing and paying my debts on time but I have been failing to put anything in saving and investment since I lost my job during COVID-19 pandemic because I no longer earn as much as I was investing earlier. Once I read this great book, I realized that it is not important to invest a particular amount each month but it is important to invest a particular percentage of amount each month and therefore I begin investing 10% of my income irrespective of the amount I earned.
Why should you read this book:
The Richest Man in Babylon is written by a foreseeing author. This classic book is written so well that it'll motivate you to be rich. This self-improvement book contains several stories and one or the other would cover the plan for your financial need. I knew and followed all the practices mentioned in this great book already but I learned to follow them in an even better manner after reading this famous book. Therefore, this self-help book gets a place in the list of my book recommendations. So, if you want to be rich, buy this book and read it, and believe me, this book will not disappoint you.
