About 100 years ago, George S. Clason, a printer in Denver, Colorado, began writing pamphlets about personal financial planning. He printed the pamphlets and sold them to banks and insurance companies that gave them to their customers.
His advice was written in the form of parables set in ancient Babylon about 5000 BC. His stories included characters with names like Bansir, Kobbi, Arkad and Algamish – and were written in a quasi-archaic dialect that included phrases such as “Fillith thy purse with gold.”
In 1926, Clawson’s pamphlets were collected in book form. The first pamphlet in the collection provided the book with its title: The Richest Man in Babylon. The book is still in print and has even inspired modern reinterpretations such as a new version by Charles Conrad in which the story is retold "in clear, simple language for today's readers."
The stories are simplistic and the plots are minimal – but the principles conveyed in The Richest Man in Babylon have made this slim volume a well remembered addition to the libraries of people involved with personal finance for generations.
Following, excerpted from Wikipedia, is a description of the title pamphlet in the book:
Bansir and Kobbi meet with Arkad, asking him why fate has favored him so much that Arkad has grown rich while they remain poor, even though they've worked harder than Arkad has. Arkad replies that he was once a hard working scribe who made a deal with a very rich man, Algamish, for the secret to wealth in return for a much needed copy of a law immediately scribed into clay. The rich man agreed and the next day, when Arkad delivered the carving, the rich man delivered in return the secret of wealth. "I found the road to wealth," he said, "When I decided that a part of all I earned was mine to keep. And so will you." (emphasis in the original) Arkad then relates that he asked the same question that is undoubtedly on Bansir and Kobbi's minds, "Isn't all that I make mine to keep?" Algamish then said no, that a man had to pay for his clothes, for his food, etc., but that if he regularly saved at least a tenth of his income (and as much more as he could afford to save) and put that money to work earning interest, he would become wealthy.
Our book – The Richest Man in New Babylon – re-imagines and updates the scenario. New Babylon is a second or third tier city somewhere in the United States. Our protagonist – rather than being a chariot maker – is a young man who has just been released from prison. We wanted to update the plot and setting in order to take the wisdom contained in “the rules” and put it into a context that would be relevant and meaningful to our target audience.
For all of its corniness, The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason contains an exceptional amount of sound fundamental information about personal financial planning. Our mission has been to update some of these principles as necessitated by today's financial system, consumer-driven economy and communications technology -- and place them in a readable, believable text.