Skills / Personal-finance

The Richest Man in Babylon

A part of all I earn is mine to keep.

George S. Clason's century-old framework — The Seven Cures for a Lean Purse and The Five Laws of Gold — delivers one of the most prescriptive personal finance systems ever written. Using ancient Babylonian parables, this skill applies Arkad's numbered disciplines (save 10% first, invest wisely, guard against loss) and Dabasir's 70/20/10 budget to your actual income, debts, and financial decisions. Whether you're paycheck-to-paycheck, buried in consumer debt, or evaluating a risky investment opportunity, Babylon's laws are specific enough to generate a real, actionable plan today.

By George S. Clason  ·  Free

Use this skill See it in action

Specimen 01 · Live diagnosisThe Richest Man in Babylon

Input

“Honestly, none. I make around $4,200 a month and I'm usually broke by the 25th. I have about $8,000 in credit card debt on two cards and I just pay…”

Diagnosis

Arkad — the richest man in Babylon — was once asked how he became wealthy while others who earned as much remained poor.

Full transcript ↓

Calibrated referenceagent-skills.ai

The gap

Save a tenth of all you earn — Babylon's Seven Cures for a lasting fortune

Clason's system rests on two interlocking, numbered frameworks delivered through character-driven parables. The Seven Cures for a Lean Purse are sequential disciplines taught by Arkad, Babylon's richest man: (1) Pay Yourself First — save a minimum 10% of all earnings before any other spending; (2) Control Thy Expenditures — budget every dollar, distinguishing necessities from desires; (3) Make Thy Gold Multiply — invest savings so money earns compound returns; (4) Guard Thy Treasures from Loss — preserve capital, investing only in what you understand and with expert counsel; (5) Make of Thy Dwelling a Profitable Investment — own rather than rent; (6) Ensure a Future Income — plan for retirement and protect dependents; and (7) Increase Thy Ability to Earn — invest in education and skills. The Five Laws of Gold reinforce these with positive prescriptions and explicit cautionary warnings against unfamiliar ventures and impossible returns — Laws Four and Five illustrated by Nomasir's costly failures. A third concrete template from the Dabasir parable provides the 70/20/10 budget rule: 70% to living expenses, 20% to proportional debt repayment across all creditors, and 10% to savings — a complete, immediately deployable system for any income level.

The problem

Most people earn a reasonable income but keep none of it — their purse remains lean not because they earn too little, but because no system separates 'mine to keep' from 'mine to spend.' Without the Seven Cures' sequenced disciplines, earners watch every raise get absorbed by expanded desires, debts compound on minimum payments, and tricksters' promises of impossible returns drain whatever accumulates. The problem is not income — it is the absence of a prescribed, ordered system with specific thresholds.

The solution

Apply Arkad's two frameworks — the Seven Cures and the Five Laws of Gold — to your actual income and debts, and leave with a personalized 70/20/10 budget, a creditor-by-creditor debt repayment schedule, and a precise diagnosis of which cures you are violating and how to correct each one starting today.

You bring

Your monthly income and a rough breakdown of where it currently goes
A list of all debts — balances, interest rates, and current monthly payments
Any investment or business opportunity you are considering or being pitched
Your current savings rate and retirement contributions, if any

You get

A Seven Cures Scorecard showing exactly which of the 7 disciplines you are following vs. violating — with a prioritized prescription for each gap
A Dabasir Budget Plan allocating your actual monthly income across 70/20/10 with specific dollar amounts for living, debt, and savings
A Debt Liberation Schedule listing your payment per creditor, projected payoff date for each debt, and your debt-free month
A Five Laws Investment Screen rating any specific opportunity against Babylon's gold criteria and red flags — with a clear verdict

In action

Watch the methodology work.

Three specimens from a single real session: the same situation, before and after, the full transcript, and the skill answering live in the channel where the work happens.

Fig.01  —  The same situation, two ways

Specimens A · B

Specimen ABefore

Without the skill

You earn $3,900 a month, have $11,000 in credit card debt across three cards, and carry $0 in savings. You pay minimums on the cards and wonder why the balances never shrink. A coworker pitches you on a crypto trading fund promising to double your money — you have no framework to evaluate it and no clear sense of where your money even goes each month.

×The situation as it arrives — before the methodology is applied.

Specimen BAfter

With The Richest Man in Babylon

You transfer $390 to savings on payday — before rent, before minimum payments, before groceries. Your Dabasir Budget allocates $780 to proportional debt repayment across all three creditors, with a 16-month debt-free date on your schedule. When the crypto pitch arrives, you run it through the Five Laws in 60 seconds, identify a Law Four and Law Five violation, and decline without hesitation. You own your financial life by deliberate plan — not by whatever happens to be left over.

◦The same situation once the methodology holds.

Fig.02  —  A real session, unedited

In-app · assistant

The Richest Man in BabylonClaude

The Richest Man in Babylon

Arkad — the richest man in Babylon — was once asked how he became wealthy while others who earned as much remained poor. He said: 'I found the road to wealth when I decided that a part of all I earn is mine to keep. And so will you.' Before we apply his Seven Cures to your situation, tell me: of every ten coins that pass through your hands each month, how many do you actually keep?

Honestly, none. I make around $4,200 a month and I'm usually broke by the 25th. I have about $8,000 in credit card debt on two cards and I just pay the minimums. It feels like I'm running in place.

Then Cure the First applies immediately: Start Thy Purse to Fattening. Arkad's law is non-negotiable — pay yourself a minimum of one-tenth of all you earn, before rent, before the credit cards, before a single other obligation. On $4,200, that is $420 transferred to savings the moment your paycheck arrives. But with existing debt, we also invoke Dabasir the Camel Trader's template: the 70/20/10 rule — 70% for living expenses, 20% distributed proportionally across all creditors, 10% kept as savings. Tell me about those two cards: what are the balances and interest rates?

One is $5,500 at 22% APR and the other is $2,500 at 19%. I've been paying maybe $180 total and wondering why the balances barely move.

Because minimums are designed to keep you in bondage — Dabasir recognized this pattern. Here is your Debt Liberation Plan on $4,200 per month:

Savings (10%) — $420 — transferred first, untouched by any other obligation.

Debt Repayment Pool (20%) — $840 — distributed proportionally by balance:• Card 1 ($5,500 = 69% of your $8,000 total): $580/month• Card 2 ($2,500 = 31%): $260/month

Living Expenses (70%) — $2,940 — governed by Cure the Second: every dollar spent by deliberate plan, not impulse.

At $580 on the 22% card, you clear it in roughly 11 months. The second card is gone at month 13. You will be entirely debt-free in 13 months — while saving $420 every single month. Compared to $180 in minimums, how does that land?

That's actually shocking. I've been treating the minimum as the real payment. But one more thing — a coworker is pitching me his crypto trading group. He says he doubles people's money every few months.

Law the Fifth of the Five Laws of Gold addresses this precisely: 'Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers.' Doubling capital every few months implies annual returns of 300–1,200%. No legitimate, sustained investment achieves this. Arkad would call it a trickster's scheme without hesitation. Your Five Laws screen on this opportunity: Law Four violated (your coworker is not a domain expert in trading), Law Five violated (the returns promised are impossible). Verdict: Decline. Your $420 monthly savings belongs in a high-yield savings account first, and in time, in broadly diversified instruments under a fee-only fiduciary advisor — never in a promise of impossible returns. Shall we close with a Cure Seven Skills Audit? On $4,200 today, investing in your own earning power is the fastest way to accelerate every number we just built.

Yes — and honestly, just having the framework laid out makes the decision obvious. I always thought I didn't earn enough to save. Apparently I was just spending all of it first.

Arkad's first student said the same thing. He said: 'How can I save a tenth when I barely have enough as it is?' Arkad's answer: 'What each of us calls our necessary expenses will always grow to equal our incomes — unless we protest to the contrary.' The tenth is not what remains after expenses. It is what you pay yourself before expenses exist. That insight — practiced as a system — is how Babylon's richest man began with a clay tablet and a stylus, and ended with gold beyond counting. Your Seven Cures Scorecard, Dabasir Budget Plan, and Debt Liberation Schedule are ready. The road to wealth is the same road it has always been.

Reply to The Richest Man in Babylon…

What the skill is doing

01Seven Cures Diagnostic

0270/20/10 Budget Builder

03Dabasir Debt Liberation Plan

Fig.03  —  The same skill, in the channel you already use

WhatsApp · live

9:41

TRThe Richest Man in Babylontyping…

Messages are end-to-end encrypted. No one outside of this chat can read them.

Today

Honestly, none. I make around $4,200 a month and I'm usually broke by the 25th. I have about $8,000 in credit card debt on two cards and I just pay th…9:14✓✓

Arkad — the richest man in Babylon — was once asked how he became wealthy while others who earned as much remained poor.9:14

He said: 'I found the road to wealth when I decided that a part of all I earn is mine to keep.9:15

And so will you.' Before we apply his Seven Cures to your situation, tell me: of every ten coins that pass through your hands each…9:15

Message

The same skill, where the work happens.

No new app to learn. The methodology runs over the WhatsApp Business API, so the answer lands as a reply in the thread you’re already in — same rigour, zero context-switch.

◦Reads the situation, names the pattern, returns one concrete next move.

◦Delivered in seconds, inside a conversation that already exists.

Specimen · WhatsApp Business API · live

Capabilities

What it does, specifically.

Each capability is a distinct move drawn straight from the source methodology — not a generic assistant guessing.

CapabilityC-01

Seven Cures Diagnostic

Walk through all seven numbered disciplines in sequence, evaluating your current financial behavior against each cure. The skill identifies which cures you are already practicing, which are being violated, and the specific corrective action for each gap — ordered by the sequence Arkad prescribes.

◦ MethodBased on Arkad's seven-lecture curriculum delivered to Babylon's citizens by royal decree — each cure is a named, numbered discipline with a concrete behavioral threshold: 10% savings minimum, budget by deliberate plan, invest only under wise counsel.

CapabilityC-02

70/20/10 Budget Builder

Enter your monthly income, current expenses, and debts to receive a complete Dabasir-style budget: 70% for living costs allocated by category, 20% for debt repayment distributed proportionally across all creditors, and 10% transferred to savings before any expense is paid — with exact dollar amounts for each bucket.

◦ MethodBased on the Dabasir the Camel Trader parable, in which Dabasir escapes slavery and repays all creditors by applying this exact three-bucket allocation to every payment he receives — the original systematic debt-repayment template.

CapabilityC-03

Dabasir Debt Liberation Plan

Receive a creditor-by-creditor repayment table that distributes your 20% debt pool proportionally by outstanding balance, with a monthly payment amount for each creditor, a projected payoff date per debt, and the specific month you become entirely debt-free.

◦ MethodDerived from Dabasir's explicit methodology: total all debts, calculate each creditor's proportional share of the repayment pool, pay each consistently and in good faith, and track monthly progress — mirroring the letters Dabasir sent each creditor explaining his repayment commitment.

CapabilityC-04

Five Laws Investment Screen

Describe any investment opportunity — a trading group, a friend's business, a speculative venture, or a financial product — and receive a structured evaluation against all Five Laws of Gold, with focused scrutiny on Laws Four and Five (the cautionary laws). The screen distinguishes wise counsel from tricksters and familiar territory from dangerous speculation, and delivers a clear verdict.

◦ MethodBased on the parable of Nomasir, Arkad's son, who lost an entire bag of gold by violating Laws Four and Five (investing in an unfamiliar trade, trusting a trickster's promised returns) before rebuilding wealth by following all five laws rigorously.

CapabilityC-05

Cure 7 Skills Audit

Identify the skills, credentials, or knowledge gaps that would yield the highest increase in your earning power, and receive a prioritized list of educational investments — courses, certifications, apprenticeships, or practice hours — ranked by estimated ROI on your specific career path.

◦ MethodBased on Arkad's Seventh Cure: 'Cultivate thy own powers, to study and become wiser, to become more skillful.' The cure treats human capital as the highest-return investment available to someone who has not yet accumulated significant gold — the fastest lever for accelerating all other cures.

Tested

Graded before it shipped.

Every skill is scored against independent scenarios for methodology fidelity before it goes live — not vibes, a rubric.

What it produces

OutputD-01

Seven Cures Scorecard

A one-page diagnostic showing your status — Practicing, Violating, or Not Yet Applied — for each of Arkad's seven numbered cures, with a specific corrective action for each gap and the Arkad-prescribed sequence in which to address them.

OutputD-02

Dabasir Budget Plan

A personalized 70/20/10 budget built from your actual income: living expense categories totaling 70%, a debt repayment pool of 20% with the exact dollar amount allocated to each creditor by proportion, and your untouchable 10% savings deposit — transferred first, before any other outflow.

OutputD-03

Debt Liberation Schedule

A creditor-by-creditor repayment table listing each debt (balance, interest rate, monthly payment under the Dabasir method), projected payoff date per debt, and the month you will be entirely debt-free — modeled on the clay tablets Dabasir used to track his own liberation from bondage.

OutputD-04

Five Laws Investment Screen

A structured evaluation of a specific investment opportunity against all Five Laws of Gold — noting which laws it satisfies, which it violates, and a verdict (Proceed / Seek Further Counsel / Decline) with Arkad's reasoning for each flag raised.

The source

Grounded in the original work.

Every answer traces back to a real source and the practitioner who wrote it — not a secondhand summary. Here is the source of record.

Source authorA-01

George S. Clason

George S. Clason (1874–1957) was an American businessman who founded the Clason Map Company of Denver, Colorado. Beginning in 1926, he distributed his financial wisdom as a series of parables set in ancient Babylon — pamphlets given away by banks and insurance companies — before they were compiled into The Richest Man in Babylon in 1930. The book has sold over 2 million copies, has never gone out of print, is used in U.S. military financial literacy programs, and is cited by Dave Ramsey as a foundational personal finance text.

Status · Inspired by George S. Clason’s work — not yet claimed. Are you George S. Clason?

Primary sourceS-01

The Richest Man in Babylon

by George S. Clason

American businessman and author (1874–1957); The Richest Man in Babylon (1930) has never gone out of print, sold 2M+ copies, and is a foundational text in U.S. military financial readiness programs.

Read the original ↗

Citationen.wikipedia.org

In the build queue

Be first to run it.

The Richest Man in Babylon is being built right now. Leave your email and we’ll tell you the moment it goes live.

Notify meEmail

At launchI earn a decent income but I'm always broke before the month ends and I have debt I can't seem to shrink. Can we run a Seven Cures assessment to find out exactly which cures I'm violating?