This is probably one of the most commonly used books by those who are looking to create wealth. It first came onto the scene in 1926, and shot to fame during the Great Depression as the desperate populace looked for a way out of poverty. While this book does raise many good points and offers a lot of good advice for standard money management, it is important to consider the time in which it was written.
It's set up as a bunch of fables that all teach a lesson. While this is helpful for some readers, it can be pretty frustrating if you're just looking for some hard hitting facts. Unfortunately, the morals in the stories are pretty much already well known. Don't spend what you don't have, put money aside for your future, and make smart investments. Most of us learned this before we even hit high school.
The central problem, at least as how I see it, centers around the fact that the fables all involve people who already have at least some money in their purse. After all, you've got to have money to make money. What it doesn't cover is what to do if that purse is already stretched to the limit with normal living expenses. No matter how hard some people try, there just isn't enough at the end of the month to sock away. Are these people then doomed to a life of living paycheck to paycheck?
The process of leveraging debt to secure your financial future is really nothing new. People have been doing it for thousands of years. Whether it's as simple as getting an investment to start a new company or getting a loan from a friend to invest in a hot stock, leveraging debt is still one of the best ways to start making more money right now. And for those of us with moths living in our purses, it is the only chance at creating alternative streams of income.
That said, this is still a good book and there are some important lessons that can be gleaned from it. However, it is best suited as a primer for those who need guidance for personal management of their funds or for teenagers that are just getting started in the financial world. If you're looking for a book that's going to tell you how to fill up that empty purse, your answers will not be found inside its covers.
There is nothing wrong with this book per se, but it did fail to cover techniques that are already proven to help people make money. While you can easily follow the advice and have a safe and steady income over time, for those looking to dramatically increase their wealth in a short period of time, the book is a bit of a disappointment. Buy it, read it, and put it aside to give to your children when it comes time to learn about managing their checkbook and saving for their futures.
Originally posted 2008-12-05 23:57:13. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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3 comments ↓
Great review. I will definitely be purchasing The Richest Man in Babylon because this review is so interesting and wonderful.
The richest man in babylon is an excellent book. It was required reading in one of my finance courses.
This is an excellent book – the message it conveys is so simple yet so powerful – I alway recommend it to friends and family.
It’s not just informative, but also a very enjoyable read – I could not put mine down when I first bought it!
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