3 Aspects of Ensuring Self-Respect
3 Aspects of Ensuring Self-Respect
Following the lessons on the 7 cures for a lean purse, Akad, the Richest Man in Babylon offers three further things that a person must do to ensure self-respect.
The 3 essential aspects of ensuring self-respect are:
3 Aspects for Ensuring Self-Respect
1. Pay Debts Promptly.
“ he must pay his debts with all the promptness within his power, not purchasing that for which he is unable to pay ”
Spend less than you earn. Practice delayed gratification. Do not spend with money that you don’t have, otherwise you will get into a debt situation. With easy availability of credit cards, we tend to overspend with money we don’t have.
Do not pile up debts on your credit cards unless you pay off the balance in full each month. Most people will end up paying the minimum monthly repayment because that’s what they can afford to do so, and in the process they end up with more debts and sink further and further into the mine of debt.
When you are stuck in the hole of debt, the only solution is to stop digging, and make attempts to pay your debts. Seek advice from experts that provide counsel and help on how you can restructure your debts and ways to pay your debts promptly.
2. Make a Will
“ he must make a will of record that, in case the gods call him, proper and honourable division of his property be accomplished ”
It is important to make a will, as a will allows you to decide on the people who will benefit from your estate and the proportions you want them to receive in the event of your untimely demise.
Otherwise, in the event of your death. if there is no will, your estate will be distributed according to provisions in the law and certain people who are dependent on you may not receive anything.
You wouldn’t want the laws or someone else to decide for you, how your assets that you have accumulated over the years to be distributed, or would you ? If not, have your will written. Hence, making a will ensures that your loved ones are taken care of in future.
For peace of mind, it is important that you have your wills written by lawyers or professional will writers.
The Five Laws of Gold – The Richest Man in Babylon
The Five Laws of Gold
Continuing with my series on personal financial education from The Richest Man in Babylon, another story is the tale of the five laws of gold, a five-point philosophy on the handling of wealth and money and what they mean to us in our own daily handling of our own personal wealth and money.
The Five Laws Of Gold 
1. Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family.
Pay Yourself First. This first rule is very simple to implement regardless of your income. Its not about how much you earn but how much you save. If we habitually “ pay ourselves first ” and we put aside 10% of our earnings or income for our savings and invest for our future estate or retirement funding, or for our children’s education funding as a bare minimum, our wealth will continue to grow in value and amount.
Pay yourself first, before all your bills and expenses, before your toys and before your living expenses. ALWAYS SET ASIDE 10%.
Remember, ITS MORE IMPORTANT WITH WHAT YOU DO WITH WHAT YOU GET THAN IT IS WITH WHAT YOU GET !
2. Gold laboreth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field.
Invest to Build More Wealth. Everything you save should earn. If you invest your money well, your money will simply work hard for you and make you more money. This is a very simple and obvious rule, but one that many people never get to because they didn’t follow the first rule and never allow their money to multiply through compounding. Because they don’t have the money in the first place to invest. They did not build their seed capital through savings.
Also, putting your money under the mattress isn’t going to do much good. Money is energy and needs to be circulated and put to good use.
In order for wealth to truly accumulate, you need to put into an interest bearing account. The interest it earns will, in turn be added to the principal, so that you earn more interest, and so on. This is call compounding. YOUR MONEY SHOULD ALWAYS WORK HARD FOR YOU AND EARN INTEREST OR RETURNS.
The Richest Man In Babylon
The Richest Man In Babylon
– Practical Applications – Do and Act.
” Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.”
Mahatma Gandhi
The Richest Man in Babylon - 7 cures for a lean purse
In my earlier posts, I have shared in summary and in details, the 7 main laws of accumulating wealth based on the principles from The Richest Man in Babylon. If you missed them, please refer to them again as it is important that you fully understand the concept and principles therein.
Now, you realize that to fully benefit and gain from acquiring this new knowledge, you need to apply it, don’t you? Knowledge without applying and taking action is of no value. The secret to succeeding, is taking ACTION! You must Do and Act on your new knowledge and understanding.
If you are not getting the results and success that you are desiring, you will have to change what you are presently doing and believing. Because, if you keep doing the same things that you are doing now, you will continue getting the same results as in the past. If you don’t like your current results, then you must start thinking and acting and doing things differently so that you will get different results – the results that you desire. Success and Financial Wealth.
The amount of your wealth and success you have now is strongly tied to your beliefs system and knowledge you are having and applying now in your life. Keep reading and you will see what you have been missing and if you are able to apply yourself differently, then you are on the road to financial success.
The Richest Man In Babylon – Practical Applications – Do and Act.
Here is the summary and practical applications of the main laws from The Richest Man in Babylon of accumulating wealth:
1. A part of all you earn is yours to keep. What you earn, a part of it is yours to keep. If you give away ( spend, buy stuff or toys, pay taxes, and others ) everything that you earn and are left with nothing, obviously you will have no savings and will not accumulate anything. So, no matter what happens, you must ensure for yourself, that a part of all that you earn is yours to keep. And this part of it will be your savings of at least 10% of all you earn, not to be spend on bills, purchases, taxes or anything else that doesn’t earn you more money. Ensure you Pay Yourself first.
There is a saying. “ Rich people save first and spend the rest, whilst poor people, spend first and save what’s left.” The difference is not in the amount, but in the philosophy of what they do with their money.
2. After setting aside 10% for savings, which leads us to the next point. Control your expenses so that you are able to keep at least 10% or more, of all that you earn and you are able to live without running out of money, which is the financial blood of any financial system. Here, we are talking about your own personal financial system. The only way, you can do this, is that you must know what your money is doing, where it comes from, and where it goes and that you are able to account for the cashflows.
Is your money buying assets or spending liabilities? Buying assets will grow your wealth, whilst spending on liabilities and thinking it’s an asset will take cash away from you. You must start keeping records, specifically a budget, an income and expense statement, a cash flow statement and your Net Worth statement. You need to know where you are now financially. If you don’t know your net worth today, then how are you to plan where you want to be financially one year , 5 years or even 10 years from now.
3. Once you have started and form the habit of saving at least 10% of all that you earn, you must make it multiply, you must make your money work hard for you. Make your money to bear children, grow and work for you to make more money. This is where you begin to multiply your money through compounding growth, understanding the rule of 72 and wise investments. You let your money bear more of its own kind – more money and more money. Isn’t this exciting?
In other words, invest it well and accumulate assets and it will make you more money than you can possibly do yourself. When your investments and assets bear fruit, don’t consume all the fruits! Re-invest most of your investment gains back again to build more assets – this way, your assets and wealth will grow in leaps and bounds until you amass a massive capital that becomes your financial golden goose that will provide continuous monthly cash flow incomes to support your desired lifestyle.
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