The Richest Man in
By
George S. Clason
Signet
New American Library
Penguin
Group (
ISBN
0-451-20536-7
St.
Swithin's College
Professor Franklin
Cauldwell
Care of: British Scientific
Expedition,
Hillah,
My dear professor,
If, in your further digging into those ruins of
You will possibly remember my writing a year ago that Mrs.
Shrewsbury and myself intended to try his plan for getting out of debt and at
the same time having a little gold to jingle.
You may have guessed, even though we tried to keep it from our friends,
our desperate straits.
We were frightfully humiliated for years by a lot of old debts and
worried sick for fear some of the tradespeople might start a scandal that would
force me out of the college. We paid and paid -- every shilling we could squeeze
out of our income -- but it was hardly enough to hold things even. Besides, we were forced to do all our buying
where we could get further credit regardless of higher costs.
It developed into one of those vicious circles that grow
worse instead of better. Our struggles
were getting hopeless. We could not move
to less costly rooms because we owed the landlord. There did not appear to be anything we could
do to improve our situation.
Then, here comes your acquaintance, the old camel trader
from Babylon, with a plan to do just what we wished to accomplish. He jolly well stirred us up to follow his
system. We made a list of all of our
debts and took it around and showed every one we owed.
I explained how it was simply impossible for me to ever pay
them back the way things were going along.
They could readily see this for themselves from the figures. Then I explained that the only way I saw to
pay them in full was to set aside twenty percent of my income each month to be
divided pro rata, which would pay them in full in a little over two
years. That, in the mean time, we would
go on a cash basis and give them the further benefit of our cash purchases.
They were really quite decent. Our greengrocer, a wise old chap, put it in a
way that helped to bring around the rest.
"If you pay for all you buy and then pay some on what you owe, that
is better than you have done, for ye ain't paid down the account none in three
years."
Finally I secured all their names to an agreement binding
them not to molest us as long as the twenty percent income was paid
regularly. Then we began scheming on how
to live upon seventy percent. We were
determined to keep that extra ten percent to jingle. The thought of silver and possibly gold was
most alluring.
It was like having and adventure to make the change. We enjoyed figuring this way and that, to
live comfortably upon the remaining seventy percent. We started with rent and managed to secure a
fair reduction. Next we put our favorite
brands of tea and such under suspicion and were agreeably surprised how often
we could purchase superior qualities at less cost.
It is too long a story for a letter but anyhow it did not
prove difficult. We managed and right
cheerfully at that. What a relief it
proved to have our affairs in such a shape we were no longer persecuted by past
due accounts.
I must not neglect, however, to tell you about that extra
ten percent we were supposed to jingle. Well,
we did jingle it for some time. Now
don't laugh too soon. You see, that is
the sporty part. It is the real fun, to
start accumulating money that you do not want to spend. There is more pleasure in running up such a
surplus than there could be in spending it.
After we had jingled to our hearts' content, we found a
more profitable use for it. We took up
an investment upon which we could pay that ten percent each month. This is proving to be the most satisfying
part of our regeneration. It is the
first thing we pay out of my check.
There is a most gratifying sense of security to know our
investment is growing steadily. By the
time my teaching days are over it should be a snug sum, large enough so the
income will take care of us from then on.
All this out of the same check. Difficult to believe, yet absolutely
true. All our debts being gradually paid
and at the same time our investment increases.
Besides, we get along, financially, better than ever before. Who would believe there could be such a
difference in results between following a financial plan and just drifting
along?
At the end of next year, when all our old bills shall have
been paid, we will have more to pay upon our investment besides some extra for
travel. We are determined never again to
permit our living expenses exceed seventy percent of our income.
Now you can understand why we would like to extend our personal
thanks to that old chap whose plan saved us from our "Hell on Earth."
He knew. He had been
through it all. He wanted others to
benefit from his own bitter experiences.
That is why he spent those tedious hours carving his message upon the
clay.
He had a real message for fellow sufferers, a message so
important that after five thousand years it has risen out of the ruins of
Yours
sincerely,
Alfred
H. Shrewsbury,
Department
of Archaeology