Episode 45: Dad thinks about the chariot builder’s friend

BEN: The Richest Man in Babylon is a great book. It’s a quick read that’s told through the story of band seer and Kobe in the lessons they learned from their friend, arcade, their childhood friend who became wealthy. Have you ever thought about others in your life who seemed to have started where you did, but did a little better financially? I think it’s natural as long as you don’t obsess about it. But it’s time to take control if you haven’t done that already. Because it may be as simple as applying the lessons from this book. Were you thinking about these lessons this week?

Remember, keep them top of mind, start the purse to fatten. That means pay yourself first, control your expenditures, make the gold multiply, guard the treasures from loss, make the dwelling a profitable investment, insure your wealth and future income. And lastly, increase your ability to earn. If this is your first time hearing about the lessons in a personal finance book, you’ll be amazed how similar the lessons are. However, sometimes it takes a particular way of telling the story that clicks with you. My wife, Christie, had credit card debt before we were married. I wasn’t the kindest person about it. And I apologize often. But she told me, Hey, stop putting me down and help me figure out the right things to do. So I gave her a couple books. And this was one. Needless to say she got motivated, made changes, and in two months was out of credit card debt and doing a great job saving, it just took the right message at the right time. Now my mom’s favorite piece of advice was to pay yourself first.

You can’t become wealthy if you don’t save anything. That’s the golden rule to me, and not the one who has the gold rules. So control those expenditures. And after you save a few dollars, set your plan in motion and get those dollars working for you. Money begets money baby. It’s a step by step process. Next, work on your knowledge of investing, we’ll find out that people who are wealthy consistently work on their investments. But honestly, it’s a very small portion of their time, isn’t it worth it, I’ll give you a step or two from one of the next books we cover, you’ll be shocked. So try to read a little each week and watch your investments. You can even work with an expert, that’s okay, just make sure you do it. I know things are changing. And there are some who think home ownership may not be worth it. However, if you have a home that goes up in value at a good rate, ownership at low interest rates still makes a lot of sense, as long as you don’t constantly pay for major repairs.

Now remember, remodeling is your own choice. So make those decisions very, very carefully. When we get to insurance, it’s not really very sexy. It goes in the same bucket as making a will. You may not want to think about bad things that might happen. For instance, life insurance, hey, Christie would be in great shape if something happened to me. Don’t give her any ideas. But if you love your family, make sure you work on it, you’ve worked way too hard to lose it because you are being cheap. Lastly, there are several ways to increase your ability to earn. There has been an old saying that you keep your job from nine to five, but you earn your promotions after hours and on weekends. Now, time is a precious precious commodity. You definitely have interests in your life, whether it be family, fishing, drinking sports, movies, or whatever hobby you love. But learning doesn’t stop when you leave school.

So keep adding skills and make yourself valuable. This is another great book, some fun things to really think about. Hopefully, you’ll hear my voice in your mind. You’ll make a great decision, and you’ll be thankful you did. And seriously that would make me so incredibly happy as Snoop Dogg has said, my mind on my money and my money on my mind. There’s lots of M’s in that one. But keep it top of mind and you’ll definitely make progress. Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you again next week for more Money With Mak And G.