Rich PillockThe Richest Man in Babylon: the 7 rules, all broken
The Richest Man in Babylon, by George S. Clason, was first published in 1926 and sets out seven rules it calls cures for a lean purse. The first is to keep one coin in every ten: in the book's own words, “A part of all you earn is yours to keep.”
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This book is a hundred years old, and it has seven rules for getting rich. I broke every one of them, and lost fourteen million pounds.
What are the seven rules in The Richest Man in Babylon?
The book calls them the seven cures for a lean purse. Lean purse is old money for skint. Each row gives the rule's title and one line from the book, both in its own 1926 words, then what the book means by it, then my record.
| The rule, in the book's words | A line from the book | What the book means | How I broke it | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | “Start thy purse to fattening” | “A part of all you earn is yours to keep” | A tenth of what comes in is kept. | I followed this rule to the letter. Of every ten coins, keep one. So I kept one. Out of fourteen million. |
| 2 | “Control thy expenditures” | “what each of us calls our ’necessary expenses’ will always grow to equal our incomes unless we protest to the contrary” | Spending rises to meet income unless it is stopped. | A life coach charged me two hundred quid to tell me my problem was spending money on things I don't need. Cracking session. I've booked him again for Thursday. |
| 3 | “Make thy gold multiply” | “to put each coin to laboring that it may reproduce its kind” | Savings are put to work so they earn more. | My coins never had children. They never stayed in long enough to meet anyone. |
| 4 | “Guard thy treasures from loss” | “why trust the knowledge of a brickmaker about jewels” | Money is trusted only to people who know the trade. | I handed my savings to a man in the pub who said he was in property. He was. He rented the box room. |
| 5 | “Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment” | “every man own the roof that sheltereth him” | The home that is lived in is owned. | I moved back in with my mother and went halves on the telly. |
| 6 | “Insure a future income” | “Provide in advance for the needs of thy growing age and the protection of thy family” | Old age and the family are provided for in advance. | My old-age plan is sorted. M is seventy-five and fifty months, and she does a lovely roast. |
| 7 | “Increase thy ability to earn” | “The more of wisdom we know, the more we may earn” | Skill at paid work is improved. | For advice on this, I went to my nephew. He's got four side hustles. Dropshipping, crypto, a podcast, and he walks a dog. The dog's the only one that pays. |
Download the seven rules and the five laws (CSV).
Source: George S. Clason, The Richest Man in Babylon, full text at the Internet Archive. Period: first published 1926. Last updated: . Quotations are kept short. They are the book's rules, reported as history. They are not instructions from this page.
Who wrote it and when?
George S. Clason, an American, first published it in 1926. It began as pamphlets on thrift, “distributed in large quantities by banks and insurance companies”. The stories are set in ancient Babylon and open like this: “In old Babylon there once lived a certain very rich man named Arkad.” Arkad starts as a poor scribe. The rest of the book is other people asking him how he did it.
Now, I've read every book on getting rich. They've all got one thing in common. The bloke got rich writing the book.
What does “pay yourself first” mean in the book?
It is rule one. The book puts it as “A part of all you earn is yours to keep”, and a few lines later, “Pay yourself first.” As the first cure it reads: “For each ten coins I put in, to spend but nine.” A tenth is kept before anything else is spent, and the rest is lived on. There is a page on that rule alone: pay yourself first, the rule I ignored every payday.
What are the five laws of gold?
Later in the book the seven cures are boiled down to five laws, said to be written on a clay tablet. The key phrase of each, in the book's words:
| The book says gold… | |
|---|---|
| 1 | “put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings” |
| 2 | “laboreth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment” |
| 3 | “clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling” |
| 4 | “slippeth away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with which he is not familiar” |
| 5 | “flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers” |
I'm pleased to say I've got two out of five. Four and five.
Is it still read today?
One way to count: how many people open the book's page on English Wikipedia. Over the last twelve complete months that averaged 9,438 readers a month, for a book that is a hundred years old.
It is a rough measure. It counts curiosity, not sales. But it is a real count, and most hundred-year-old money books would be glad of it.
Source: Wikimedia pageviews API, English Wikipedia, human readers only (CC0). Period: October 2025 to September 2026. Last updated: .
Which rule did Rich break first?
Rule one, on the first payday I ever had, and every payday after. The other six fell in order. I have never been so organised since.
And of everyone I know, only one person follows every single rule in that book. She charges me rent.
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What are the 7 rules of The Richest Man in Babylon?
In the book's words: Start thy purse to fattening; Control thy expenditures; Make thy gold multiply; Guard thy treasures from loss; Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment; Insure a future income; Increase thy ability to earn.
Who wrote The Richest Man in Babylon?
George S. Clason. It was first published in 1926 and grew out of pamphlets handed out by banks and insurance companies.
Is The Richest Man in Babylon a true story?
No. It is a book of stories set in ancient Babylon. Arkad, the richest man, is a character.
What is the 10% rule in The Richest Man in Babylon?
The first cure: “For each ten coins I put in, to spend but nine.” The first law of gold speaks of a man who will “put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings”.
Sources
- George S. Clason: The Richest Man in Babylon (full text, Internet Archive): every rule and quotation on this page, each found in the text by code
- Wikimedia pageviews API: monthly readers of the book's English Wikipedia article
- Wikipedia: The Richest Man in Babylon: the article whose readers are counted