读书笔记 - The Richest Man in Babylon

"The Richest Man in Babylon" 一书是上世纪20年George S. Clason写的关于金钱和理财的畅销书。他用一些古巴比伦的故事阐述了理财的一些基本原则。全书不到200页，分为以下章节。

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
An Historical Sketch of Babylon

Success means accomplishments as the result of our own efforts and abilities.
Proper preparation is the key to our success.
Our acts can be no wiser than our thoughts.
Our thinking can be no wiser than our understanding.

Babylon citizens practiced sound financial principles in acquiring money, keeping money and making their money earn more money. The provided incomes for the future.

In old Babylon, there once lived a certain very rich man named Arkad. Far and wide he was famed for this great wealth. "I found the road to wealth when I decided that a part of all I earned was mine to keep. And so will you."

A PART OF ALL YOU EARN IS YOURS TO KEEP.

Seven Cures:

1. Start your purse to fattening. For each ten coins I put in, to spend but nine.
2. Control your expenditures. Budget your expenses that you many have coins to pay for your necessities, to pay for your enjoyments and to gratify your worthwhile desires without spending more than nine-tenths of your earnings.
3. Make your gold multiply. To put each coin to laboring that it may reproduce its kind even as the flocks of the field and help bring to you income, a stream of wealth that shall flow constantly into your purse.
4. Guard your treasures from loss. Invest only where your principle is safe, where it may be reclaimed if desirable and where you will not fail to collect a fair rental. Consult with wise mean. Secure the advice of those experienced in the profitable handling of gold. Let their wisdom protect your treasure from unsafe investments.
5. Make of your dwelling a profitable investment.  Own your own home.
6. Insure a future income. Provide in advance for the needs of your growing age and the protection of your family. 
7. Increase your ability to earn. The last but not least remedy for a lean purse is to cultivate your own powers, to study and become wiser, to become more skillful, to so act as to respect yourself.

"If a man be lucky, there is no foretelling the possible extent of his good fortune. Pitch him into the Euphrates and like as not he will swim out with a pearl in his hand." - Babylonian proverb

Is there a way to attract good luck?
Good luck waits to come to that man who accepts opportunity. To attract good luck to oneself, it is necessary to take advantage of opportunities.

MEN OF ACTION ARE FAVORED BY THE GODDESS OF GOOD LUCK.

A bag heavy with gold or a clay tablet carved with words of wisdom, if you have your choice, which wold you choose?

The Five Laws of Gold

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 this future and that of his family.
2. Gold laboreth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field. 
3. Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling.
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 skilled in its keep.
5. Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who follow the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.

It applies equally to the borrower and the lender.

BETTER A LITTLE CAUTION THAN A GREAT REGRET.

WE CANNOT AFFORD TO BE WITHOUT ADEQUATE PROTECTION.

Dabasir, the camel trader of old Babylon, found his own soul when he realized a great truth, a truth that had been known and used by wise men long before his time.

WHERE THE DETERMINATION IS, THE WAY CAN BE FOUND.

The Clay tablets disclosed the problem of a person named Dabasir to pay off his debts. The debts are your enemies. Do not spend more than you earn.

1. one-tenth of all I earn shall be set aside as my own to keep.
2. seven-tenth of all I earn shall be used to provide a home, clothes to wear, and food to eat, with a bit extra to spend that our lives be not lacking in pleasure and enjoyment.
3. two-tenths of all I earn shall be for paying the debts.

 Work is the best friend I've even known. I have willingness to work. Understanding, thinking and working will bring luck to me.