First Rule of Wealth…

Pay Yourself First

A part of all I earn is mine to keep.

(and)

It should be not less than a tenth no matter how little you earn

from The Richest Man in Babylon

We see this advice time and again throughout all personal finance and wealth building books. Too many people unfortunately brush it off with annoyance because it’s “nothing new.”

Another part of The Richest Man in Babylon addresses this exact sentiment…

Remember this, the sun that shines today is the sun that shone when they father was born, and will still be shining when they last grandchild shall pass into the darkness.

There’s a reason this first rule is repeated so often throughout the years of history… it works.

So pay yourself first–at least …


Words of Wealth Changes for 2010

I’ve decided 2010 is the year for starting on the journey to wealth. This year will be spent studying more books about wealth, finding quotes to keep about becoming wealthy, and sharing the notes, process and adventure here.

In addition to the classic books about building wealth already available here, this year I’ll be adding a “Wealth Wisdom” section which will feature quotes about becoming rich, managing personal finances, and generating long term wealth.

I also plan to add a Book review section to spotlight books and publications on the same topics: personal finance, budgeting and building wealth.

Please feel free to bookmark this site and share it with friends, family and colleagues.


Great Fortunes: Charles Goodyear Part 13

“No inventor, probably, has ever been so harassed, so trampled upon, so plundered by that sordid and licentious class of infringers known in the parlance of the world, with no exaggeration of phrase, as ‘pirates.’ The spoliation of their incessant guerrilla warfare upon his defenseless rights have, unquestionably, amounted to millions.”

Failing to accomplish any thing in Europe, Mr. Goodyear returned to this country, and continued his labors. His health, never strong, gave way under the continued strain, and he died in New York in July, 1860, in the sixtieth year of his age, completely worn out. Notwithstanding his great invention—an invention which has made millions for those engaged in its manufacture—he died insolvent, and left his family heavily in debt. A few years after his …


Great Fortunes: Charles Goodyear Part 12

The prize for which he had labored so long and so heroically was secured at last, and in 1844, ten years after the commencement of his experiments, he was able to produce perfectly vulcanized India-rubber with expedition and economy, and, above all, with certainty. He had won a success which added a new material to art and commerce, and one which could be applied in a thousand different ways, and all of them useful to man. But great as his success was, he was not satisfied with it. To the end of his life his constant effort was to improve his invention, and apply it to new uses. He had an unlimited faith in its adaptability, believing that there was scarcely any article of general …


Great Fortunes: Charles Goodyear Part 11

“To New York, then, he directed his thoughts. Merely to get there cost him a severer and a longer effort than men in general are capable of making. First he walked to Boston, ten miles distant, where he hoped to borrow from an old acquaintance fifty dollars, with which to provide for his family and pay his fare to New York. He not only failed in this, but he was arrested for debt and thrown into prison. Even in prison, while his father was negotiating to procure his release, he labored to interest men of capital in his discovery, and made proposals for founding a factory in Boston. Having obtained his liberty, he went to a hotel, and spent a week in vain efforts to …