December 31st 2017 A Short Review of The Way to Wealth By Benjamin Franklin
After my rant about New Year's Resolutions I think it's best to follow that post up with a post about finance. What better to review than a book that withstood the test of time. This is a short review but it is a short book, so let's dive in.
The Way to Wealth was written in 1758 and handed out as a pamphlet by Benjamin Franklin. The book starts off with a boy by the name of Poor Richard speaking out in front of other non wealthy people. Through his speech, Poor Richard uses proverbs to teach common sense to his peers. The saying are a bit weird to hear in today's society like this one "The cat in gloves catches no mice." That to me sounds weird because why would a cat be in gloves. To me it means, that a cat who covers up it's natural tools ie. it's claws can not catch a mouse. In other words we have to use the tools given to us in order to make a living. "'Get what you can, and what you get, hold, 'Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold." This saying is another one that resonates even today because not many people save anymore. If you ask many people if they have a rainy day fund they would at you like you are crazy. We all need to have some sort of safety net and that is what our savings is. We can not rely only on social security to pay for our retirements, we must put away money ourselves. Since most companies did away with traditional pensions, we are now tasked to save up for our own retirement. This book is basically 260 years old yet the power of holding on to what we make still applies to us today.
The book also has a nice excerpt in the beginning which discusses the idea of paying as you go. For those of you who don't know what pay as you go refers to credit. Paying for something on credit is nice an easy but in the end can end up costing more than if you paid for in cash. Going into the new year there are so many people who want to get out of credit card debt. This thus proves my point that this book is a must read for anyone in the world. It hits topics that are relevant today and will remain relevant for years to come. I highly recommend everyone read this book at least once every couple of years. I know that I am going to read this every year because that's how powerful this book is.
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