The Seven Cures for a Lean Purse: A Full Review

The Seven Cures of a Lean Purse
An excerpt from: The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

This article is written by Annie, a good friend, and a fellow finance advocate. This series was first published on her Steemit blog. You can follow Annie on her Facebook page: Gritty Filipina

What Are The Seven Cures for a Lean Purse?

Have you ever wondered why there are successful people and not successful people? Or why there are people who are rich and not? Cause I did wonder. And in my quest to finding the answer, I came across the idea that I am sure it’s no accident.

It’s no accident to become successful and it’s no accident to become rich. I am not talking about shaky success and shaky riches, I am talking about that steady and well-built wealth.

You see, I realized that at some point, life is not unfair. Life will just give us in proportion to what we have given. We just need to know how to have what we wanted.

How to be successful? How to be rich or wealthy? Or even, how to attract money?

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Babylon: The Richest City in History

In the pages of our history, Babylon is the most glamorous city. The name itself conjures a vision of wealth and splendor.

But do you know what made Babylon as mentioned?

It’s not about the resources it possessed. It may have possessed fertile soil and water in the river, but it is the people who made Babylon the richest in the world.

The question is how?

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Arkad: The Richest Man in Babylon

But let me clarify, he may be the richest man in Babylon but he was not born with a silver spoon, all the way from being a scribe in the hall of records, he learned the ways on how to accumulate gold and became rich and prosperous.

He labored for it. He sought every remedy for a lean purse and found seven. And in the later sections, I’ll explain each of the seven cures for a lean purse.

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First Cure: Start Thy Purse to Fattening

For every ten coins thou placest within thy purse, take out for use but nine.

This is where the idea of Pay Yourself First came from. Before paying others, like the bills which we are responsible of, we have to pay ourselves first.

It can also mean the 10% that would go to either our savings/investments.

Let us fatten our purse, and once it will start to fatten, it will feel good and bring satisfaction to our soul. It may be hard in the beginning. But in the long run, if we’d take it seriously… we can benefit from it in the future.

This article first appeared in Annie’s Steemit blog: “The Seven Cures for a Lean Purse” – Part 1 of 7

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Second Cure: Control Thy Expenditures

Budget thy expenses that thou mayest have coins to pay for thy necessities, to pay for thy enjoyments and to gratify thy worthwhile desires without spending more than nine-tenths of thy earnings.

This second cure is to support the first cure. In order to continue to fatten our purse, we must be diligent in controlling our spending. So as to really retain the one-tenth of our earnings.

It is always important to budget our money. This is the time where sacrifice and discipline play. I, myself had a hard time budgeting and following the budget, too.

But the good thing about practice is that it can train us until we would be used to it. In budgeting, we have to weigh between needs and wants.

May we not confuse the necessary expenses with our desires. May we also remember that it is never wrong to reward ourselves, we just have to set limitations.

Take note, no one is in charge of budgeting our money aside from ourselves. It is relative to our respective goals. Let us keep working on our budget and let us keep adjusting it as the need arises.

This article first appeared in Annie’s Steemit blog: “The Seven Cures for a Lean Purse” – Part 2 of 7

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Third Cure: Make Thy Gold Multiply

Put each coin to laboring that it may reproduce its kind even as the flocks of the field and help bring to thee income, a stream of wealth that shall flow constantly into thy purse.

This is where investing comes in. If we have already accumulated funds from constantly keeping a portion of our earnings, then we’ll have the money to start investing with. It doesn’t have to be a big investment to start.

Gold (money) is an honest and diligent servant. It can increase infinitely if put in a profitable investment because of compound interest.

Investments come in different kinds. The choice to which will you invest is yours to decide.

But the most profitable investment you could ever invest is to invest in yourself. And invest your time.

This article first appeared in Annie’s Steemit blog: “The Seven Cures for a Lean Purse” – Part 3 of 7

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Fourth Cure: Guard Thy Treasures From Loss

Guard thy treasure from loss by investing only where thy principal is safe, where it may be reclaimed if desirable, and where thou will not fail to collect a fair rental.

Consult with wise men. Secure the advice of those experienced in the profitable handling of gold. Let their wisdom protect thy treasure from unsafe investments.

This is the challenging part for most of us. In aiming to have large sums of ROI or quick returns, we tend to invest our money right away without knowing more about the investment itself.

This implies the importance of educating ourselves first before investing. It is education that would lessen the risk. If we know where we are investing our money into and understood how it works, it will give us the confidence to invest.

Now, you might think that Arkad is so amazing that he didn’t have pitfalls in his investments, but let me divulge to you that his first investment was a tragedy.

He entrusted his gold to a brick maker to buy jewels. He lost his one year savings because of the unwise decision.

You see, experience is a great teacher. It allows us to taste the bitterness of failures for us to appreciate the sweetness of success. And the most important part, we can use it as a great stepping stone to advance and correct whatever mistake we have done in the past.

With this, if we know someone who had credible experience in investing, let us ask for guidance. If we know none, well, let us resort to books.

Also, the good thing about nowadays is that the resources needed for a certain topic of interest are now readily available from the internet, all we have to do is research and read or search for videos and watch.

Podcasts are also available for us to listen to. If we are not fond of reading, let us try to search for seminars or public talks.

Let us not mind if it takes too much of our time to learn. We just have to remember that we are growing roots. And when the times for us to face challenges, we would be ready for it.

This article first appeared in Annie’s Steemit blog: “The Seven Cures for a Lean Purse” – Part 4 of 7

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Fifth Cure: Make of Thy Dwelling A Profitable Investment

Own thy home.

As for me, I am living under the roof of my parents and I could really feel the freedom of living in our own place. So, I also include it in my goals to have my own as well.

However, Arkad didn’t mean that alone. He further emphasized to make our dwelling a profitable investment. In owning our home, we have control of the number of activities that we could allow. We can make our home a place of development.

We have the authority to make it a profitable investment, from selling ice (except if you do not have a refrigerator 😂) to sharing our spare rooms for others to rent– all up to us.

This article first appeared in Annie’s Steemit blog: “The Seven Cures for a Lean Purse” – Part 5 of 7

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Sixth Cure: Insure A Future Income

Provide in advance for the needs of thy growing age and the protection of thy own family

In this stage, Arkad considers that we have already started to build our assets and investments. According to his cures, it is just right to prepare for the days in the future that we may no longer able to learn and earn.

Why?

We do not know what the future holds. If we won’t prepare for the possible events that may happen, aside from the loneliness that we may bring to our family, we could also give them stress on how are they going to continue the moment they lose you.

During Arkad’s time, the way to ensure a future income is to lend money to money lenders and get the money rental after many years with interest. Nowadays, we can insure future income through life insurance.

Basically, life insurance is something that you pay ahead and when an unforeseen event that may happen to you, the beneficiaries that you listed will get an amount of money for them to continue without you.

If you’re that person who has established a lot of assets, the money that your beneficiaries receive would be used to pay the estate taxes according to the number of assets you own.

Whilst we are so busy acquiring assets and investments, may we consider the unexpected things that may happen and prepare for it.

This article first appeared in Annie’s Steemit blog: “The Seven Cures for a Lean Purse” – Part 6 of 7

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Seventh Cure: Increase Thy Ability To Earn

Cultivate thy own powers, to study and become wiser, to become more skillful, to so act as to respect thyself.

If you’re wondering why others have the ability to earn twice or thrice than you do, it doesn’t have to do with the time they spent on doing it. It is because of the value they bring.

The more value you bring, the more you’re paid or the more you earn.

In your process of development, please be patient with yourself. Always remember that the best things are not created overnight. It takes a lot of commitment, consistency, and persistence. So, press on! 💪

Let us always strive to improve ourselves so we could bring more value to the market. Let us invest in ourselves so we could gain wisdom.

Let us be in the front rank of progress and not stand still nor settle for less, else we will be left behind. Let us be responsible for our development because we are in control of the development that we desire, who else would be in charge if not us?

Let us acquire the confidence to achieve the dreams and goals that we set.

Always remember, that even from the era of Babylon…

The more wisdom we know, the more we may earn.

… There is more gold, than thou dreamest of. There is abundance for all.

This article first appeared in Annie’s Steemit blog: “The Seven Cures for a Lean Purse” – Part 7 of 7

Thank you so much for your patience in reading this until the end! We may not have the same understanding of how things should be, at least I have shared with you how my perspective changed because of this book. I hope you learned a lot.

Looking forward to your success,

Annie

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About The Guest Author

She sometimes writes to share valuable things/ideas and practices that she learned along in her pursuit of being the best version of herself.

She is an Electronics Engineer but chose to venture the path of being an Application Developer in an IT company. While being a full-time employee, she is also an active financial consultant.

She advocates the importance of planning ahead and preparing for the uncertainties in life because she believes that it is a major step in building a foundation towards financial freedom.

You can reach her for FREE financial consultations through the following contact details: