The Richest Man in Babylon — Why Every Young Canadian Should Read This Book
Introduction
I picked up The Richest Man in Babylon from Indigo for about $12. I wasn’t sure what to expect — the cover looks old, the title sounds like something your grandad would recommend, and the whole thing is written as a parable set in ancient Babylon.
I read it in a weekend. It changed how I think about money.
If you’ve heard me mention it before on this blog, this is why. And if you haven’t read it yet — this post is my attempt to convince you to spend $12 and a few hours on the most practical personal finance book I’ve ever come across.
What It Actually Is
The Richest Man in Babylon was written by George S. Clason in 1926. It’s a collection of parables — short stories set in ancient Babylon — that teach financial principles through characters and narrative rather than charts and jargon.
It sounds dry. It isn’t.
The genius of it is that because it’s a story, the lessons actually stick. You’re not reading bullet points about compound interest — you’re following a character who starts with nothing, learns a set of principles, and builds wealth over a lifetime. By the time you finish it you’ve absorbed the lessons without feeling like you’ve been lectured.
It’s also genuinely short. You can read the whole thing in a few hours. There’s no reason not to.
The Two Lessons That Stuck With Me
The book covers several principles but two of them completely changed how I approach money:
1. Pay Yourself First
Before you pay your rent, your bills, your groceries — you pay yourself. The book suggests keeping at least one tenth of everything you earn. That’s it. 10% off the top, every single time, before anything else gets touched.
This sounds simple. It is simple. But most people do it the other way around — they pay everything else first and hope there’s something left to save. There rarely is.
Have you ever felt that slight disappointment the moment you get paid? You see the number hit your account and before you’ve even had a chance to enjoy it, you know exactly where it’s all going. The mortgage. The bills. The insurance. The groceries. By the time everyone else has taken their share, there’s barely anything left that feels like yours.
Paying yourself first fixed that feeling for me. It meant that before the bills got a look in, I had already kept something for myself. I wasn’t just working to hand my paycheque over to everyone else — I was actually building something. It didn’t solve every money problem overnight, but it changed my relationship with payday entirely. Even after all the obligations were covered, I knew something had already been set aside that was genuinely mine. That shift in mindset was worth as much as the money itself.
I applied this directly to my own life. At least 10% of every paycheque goes into my investments before I think about anything else. Some pays that’s $180. Some pays it’s a bit more. The amount is less important than the habit — and the habit only works if you do it first.
2. Make Your Money Work For You
The second lesson that hit me hardest was the idea of putting your money to work so that it earns while you sleep. Every dollar you invest is essentially a worker you’ve hired. The more workers you have, the more they earn — and over time those earnings hire more workers of their own.
That’s compounding. The book doesn’t call it that — it tells it through a story about gold coins multiplying — but the principle is identical. Start early, be consistent, and let time do the heavy lifting.
I started investing at 18 with $100 a pay because of this principle. I had to empty the account when life got expensive, and I started again. But the idea never left me — and it’s the foundation of everything I do with money now.
Who It’s For
Everyone. Genuinely.
But especially if you’re in your 20s, feel like you don’t earn enough to invest, or find most personal finance content either overwhelming or condescending — this book was written for you. It meets you where you are and explains things in a way that actually makes sense.
It’s also worth noting: the principles in this book are over 100 years old and they still work. Not because finance hasn’t changed, but because human behaviour hasn’t. We still overspend. We still tell ourselves we’ll save when we earn more. We still find ways to rationalise not starting. The book addresses all of it, gently and without judgement.
Where to Get It
You can pick it up at Indigo for around $12 — that’s what I paid for my physical copy and it’s worth every penny. It’s also available digitally and as an audiobook if that’s more your style.
It’s one of the few things I’d recommend to anyone regardless of where they are financially. Whether you’re just starting out or already investing consistently, there’s something in it for you.
The Bottom Line
I’ve referenced this book in multiple posts on this blog because it’s genuinely shaped how I think about and handle money. The pay yourself first principle and the power of compounding are two ideas that sound obvious once you hear them — but most people never actually apply them.
$12 and a weekend. That’s all it takes. Go read it.
Cheers for reading, and enjoy!
Alex.
If the pay yourself first principle resonated, read how I apply it in practice in my TFSA post and our household budgeting post.
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