BY: ANDREW STEWART
Thank you for continuing to read part two of Seven Timeless Lessons to Cure a Lean Bank Account. Inspired by George S. Clason’s bestselling book “The Richest Man In Babylon.” I hope reading the first four lessons outlined had you thinking about how you can improve your own financial situation and have taken action into implementing some of the lessons and strategies. A quick recap of the first four lessons:
- Start thy purse to fattening – Keep a minimum of 1/10 of all you earn
- Control thy expenditures – Budget your expenses
- Make thy gold multiply – Consider means to put your earned treasure to labour and to increase
- Guard thy treasures against loss – Investing only where thy principal is safe
Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment
If you are living off 90% of your earning and if any part can be turned into a profitable investment, so much faster will your treasures grow. No man’s family can fully enjoy life unless they have a plot of ground they own wherein children can play and the wife may take care of her family. In simpler words, it means to own your own home. There is a difference between living in a house and living in a home. One should strive to own their own home rather than renting because the money spent to live there will be returned back plus interest upon either the sale of the property or accessing the equity built up in the property. Compared to today, this lesson may have been easier to accomplish before people were looking at homes that were seven or fifteen times their annual income.
Ensure a Future Income
It behooves a man to make preparations for a suitable income in the days to come when he is no longer young. To make preparations for his family should he be no longer with them to comfort and support them. He should plan certain investments that may endure safely for many years, yet will be available when the time arrives which he has anticipated. Surely small regular payments made into a savings accounts with regularity produces profitable results. A man may buy houses or land for this purpose, if wisely chosen as to their usefulness and value in the future they are permanent. No man can afford not to ensure a treasure for his old age and the protection of his family, no matter how prosperous his business and investment. In other words, invest for retirement and your family’s well-being after your passing. You should be dropping some Sir Robert Borden’s right into your retirement account if you can possibly afford it. As Sir Winston Churchill once mentioned, “If I had it my way, I would write the word ‘Insurance‘ upon the door of every cottage and upon the blotting book of every public man, because I am convinced, for sacrifices so small, families and estates can be protected against catastrophes that would otherwise smash them up forever.”
Increase Thy Ability to Earn
Cultivate thy own powers to study and become wiser and to become more skillful. Preceding accomplishments must be desire. Thy desires must be strong and definite. General desires are but weak longings. Wealth is accumulated first in small sums, then in larger ones as a man learns and becomes more capable. As a man improves himself in his calling even doth his ability to earn increases. More interest in your work, move concentration upon the task, more persistence in the effort. The more wisdom we know, the more we may earn. There are two logical ways to become wealthier. The first would be to spend less, and the second would be to earn more. By increasing your ability to earn, you deserve to be paid more. A way to upgrade yourself would be by reading books that help in your profession. As the saying goes ‘He who learns, earns; and He who reads, leads’, it is important to hone your skills consistently so as not to lag behind your peers.
