I love the book, The Richest Man in Babylon, written by George S. Clason, so much that I'll always recommend it to anyone who's beginning to learn how money works.
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The principles in this book around money haven't changed even when Babylon existed many years ago. And it has three starting points that traverse throughout the book and these are;
• To acquire money
• To keep money, and;
• To make the surpluses make more money
The book has the tendency to help one grow his bank account and also attain greater financial success. This book is my favorite book of all time because it thought me how and why I needed to keep income for the future and how I can amass a lot of it if I follow the principle that governs its acquisition right from the time of old.
There is one thing the characters the author used in the story pointed out. And that's the fact that a man's wealth isn't in the purse that he carries. Instead, it's having a means through which the purse is constantly refilled. In this day and age, we call that passive income. Or mostly building businesses so that we will be constantly rewarded for the value we bring to the table and in exchange, we get money to fill our purses.
My favorite book also pointed out that anyone who hasn't been able to acquire more money except enough for bare necessities had probably not learned the laws of wealth well or kept themselves away from observing those laws. And for everyone who desires wealth so they can afford the good things in life, all they need is time and study.
We all have time in abundance but we might be abusing it which is why wealth is far from us. The time we put into earning money is often wasted when we do not pay ourselves first. We will find that we constantly go to work, make the money, pay other people first by buying their goods and services, and often forget to pay ourselves.
In this book, I learned the basic rule of wealth building, "Paying myself first", and this is mostly about keeping one-tenth of all that I earn. And this one-tenth is supposed to work for me. So that once it has accumulated enough, I'll be able to stay in contentment and eat the fruits of my labor.
Most importantly, I learned to not eat the children of my children. This meant not running off to buy the finest garments or richest food with the earnings my one-tenth had planted.. instead, I have to put it back up, and allow it to grow, working harder for my prosperity. With this, I'll have an army of golden slaves working for me, and I can buy anything without feeling bad.
In summary, if you find the time to read this book, you'll learn, to live upon less than you earn, take advice from the right people, and make your money work for you.
This is my entry to the queer community weekly contest. You can read more here