There are seven secrets in this series to accumulating gold. This is a recap of the first four secrets found in The Richest Man in Babylon a great little book written by George S. Clason in the early 1920’s. I highly recommend reading this book as there is a certain benefit from reading the stories and hearing the language. It's old, but timeless, and can help put things into a perspective that comes from a time past, where people were literal slaves, not just financial slaves like today.

The First Secret to Accumulating Gold

For those who have not read it, it is comprised of several stories set in ancient Babylon, with each story somehow linking to a man named Arkad, who was the richest man in Babylon. Each story tells the secrets of the accumulation of gold.

A Part of All You Earn is Yours to Keep

There is one statement that is as profound as it is simple and that’s the real topic of this post. The statement is “A part of all you earn is yours to keep.” A part of all you earn is yours to keep. Sounds pretty straightforward, yet fewer than 4 of 10 American adults even have an emergency fund, and Americans only save an average of $392 per year.

The key is, people have to choose to keep a part of all they earn. People don’t believe they can and they don’t pay attention to where their money goes. Instead, they choose to give their money to the cable company, trade it for a daily Latte, eat it in restaurants, put it in their closets to wear only occasionally or even not at all, trade it to have a bigger better home theater system, automobile or even home than they can’t afford.

For those of you who think Steem will be your answer, make sure you know what that means. If you substitute Steem for the currency of your country but don't change you habits, nothing will be different for you. This series is about changing your habits so you can keep what you earn.

This is a great video showing in jest if commercials were honest:

Credit is making you a slave. A part of all you earn is yours to keep, if you choose, otherwise you become bound by that which promises a better life, but delivers only slavery. The average American with a credit file is responsible for $16,635 in debt, excluding mortgages, according to Experian. (Source: U.S. News and World Report, "The End of Credit Card Consumerism," August 2008) It's now 2017, bet that number is higher than it was in 2008.

A part of all you earn is yours to keep. Decide to keep it. Decide to keep 10% of your earnings. It’s the first step, you can save more later, you can get your savings to earn for you later, if you haven’t been saving, just start. Start paying attention to where your money goes and adjust accordingly.

The Second Secret to Accumulating Gold

If you thought the first secret to accumulating gold was going to be difficult for you to do, the second secret will not seem any easier, but it will help you with the first. Kudos to you for making the choice to take this step.

Have and Adhere to a Budget

Ugh, I know, but aren't you worth it? Out of your total income, keep for yourself ten percent and allow yourself seventy percent to live on. This leaves twenty percent, according to the author, for debt retirement. Ultimately, if you don’t have debt that percentage is for saving for larger purchases to avoid having debt. Bottom line is you live on seventy percent of your earnings.

The challenge in this step is determining what your necessary expenses are. The more you make the more you spend, so you may well spend monies on things that you would think are a necessity, but really aren’t. Cable or Satellite TV is not a necessity. Going to the movies is not a necessity. These should be obvious, but if you’ve really become accustom to them, it could be difficult.

Truthfully, not everyone will have to cut really deep to achieve their ten percent, but if you’re in a fair amount of debt, even if you can save your ten percent with some ease, it would be good to make some additional cuts in order to eliminate the debt more quickly. After that you can decide to reinstate some of the cuts, or if you find you like living without them that choice is yours.

The amount of cutting will be different for everyone, and for some it will be really difficult. The only thing I can say to you right now if it is really hard for you, is that if you can find the way to make it work, it will be worth it for you. Hopefully you can catch the vision for yourself to make it through the hard times.

If your debt is too high or your income too low, so that even with making minimum payments you can’t save ten percent for yourself, then you really need to do what you can to change it. Sell some things to reduce the debt and/or take a second job or start a business on the side to increase the income.

Realize that unless you do something different, something to change what you’re doing, things will stay the same for you, or get worse. Realize too that it is not permanent. You’re making these sacrifices now for a better future, and with a better future you can go to the movies and have cable or whatever else you had to cut, but within the seventy percent, not above it. You don’t want to go back to where you started.

No matter how hard it may seem to you right now, if you don’t start now then when? Yes, I know the economy is not great, but be assured there will be many people who will see opportunity during this time and become wealthy. Every opportunity that someone has seized upon was someone else’s obstacle. You have to decide for yourself what you see. Don’t look at how you can’t, find a way you can. You won’t regret it.

Aside from going out less and cutting tv expenses as mentioned, you can shop your insurance rates and may be able to make some cuts that way. Insurance companies will give discounts if you have multiple items insured through them like cars and homes. It may be possible that you could find a few friends open to shopping for insurance, and let the insurance companies know that they will get bulk business, like a co-op, for the lowest bid or no business if they’re too high. (I don’t know that it will work, but it’s an idea that might work even if only due to the economy. Companies may be more willing to “think outside the box” if it means more business.)

If you want things to change, you have to change. Sit down now and write out your budget. Track your spending for the next 30 days to see where your leaks are so you can plug them. Know what you need to do and plan how you're going to do it. If you feel overwhelmed, go read this post I made 3 weeks ago https://steemit.com/life/@aboutyourbiz/if-you-want-to-succeed-keep-doing-what-it-takes-until-2017713t113617322z and if you need to read it again.

The Third Secret to Accumulating Gold

The third secret to accumulating gold is not as challenging to your habits as the first two secrets are, but to be successful you will need to do your due diligence. Once you have accumulated some savings and adjusted your budget, the next step is to begin to invest the monies you have saved.

Put Your Money to Work

When you are ready to begin investing, you will need to look for assets. An asset puts money in your pocket. Speculation may or may not. Your home is not an asset, it is a liability, it takes money out of your pocket through the loan payments and repairs. A rental property is an asset, if your rent covers the loan payment, a reserve amount for repairs and still puts money in your pocket. When you buy an asset, you make money on the buy, not the sell.

Owning rental properties, starting a business, and loaning or investing capital in a business or project are some examples of investing. Starting a blog and posting on Steemit could be an asset. Buying and holding cryptocurrencies may pay off, but is still speculation, so you want to keep that in mind in your strategy. Buying crypto low and selling high, puts money in your pocket. Yes, you may need to be more creative and/or open minded to possibilities, but many opportunities will be available to those who are ready and looking for them. There are and will be opportunities that would never be available in a thriving economic climate.

The point of the third secret is to turn you money into your employee. Your money should be working for you and producing more income for you. This is the essence and simplicity of “financial freedom”.

Once you have reduced you spending by budgeting, and the money you have saved makes money for you, then when you reach the point where the income your money makes will pay for all your needs, (not wants) you’ve reached the point of freedom.

This is not to say that you are wealthy, but you are free from the fear of job loss, or illness, or anything that would keep you from working for an income. In reality you are on the road to wealth if you continue to live on seventy percent, and if you add to and invest your savings.

What investment opportunities might be available now or soon available based on the current environment? Are you in a position to take advantage of them? If not, what are you going to do to get in position?

The Fourth Secret to Accumulating Gold

The fourth secret to accumulating gold builds upon the third secret, of investing. You need to minimize your risk or exposure to loss.

Protect your principal from loss.

Never make an investment where your principal sum is at risk. As mentioned briefly in the third article, an asset puts money in your pocket, anything else is speculation, and you can lose big in speculation. This is not to say that there is never a place for speculation, it's just not the place for your principal investment amount.

Crypto currencies are speculation, although Bitcoin may be an exception, but that remains to bee seen. The stock market is speculation. They can pay off big, but they can also suck you in and cause you to use monies you should not in an effort to make it big quick. The fourth secret, protect your principal from loss, is to keep your hard earned monies in your pocket and make it work for you. Use a portion of the earnings from this investment if you want to speculate, just make sure it's money you can afford to lose.

Consult with those who have experience.

Carefully study any opportunity you are looking at for investment. A part of studying an investment is to seek the counsel of those with experience in what you want to invest in. It doesn't make sense to partner with someone, who is a mechanic by trade, in an investment where they will be buying jewelry for resale. They have knowledge about cars, not fine jewelry. Partner with them to buy and flip cars, but not something they are not experienced in just because you think you can make a profit.

Careful research of every opportunity will keep you from acting spontaneously and potentially losing your seed money. It will help you to determine what partner you may have, if you need someone who has expertise that you don't have. Being disciplined in this will keep you from loaning to the wrong person and/or family/friends influencing you in a way that could cause you to lose your seed money.

I did this recap because I haven't posted in a month and life got in the way of this series. I will post the fifth secret to accumulating gold next Sunday.

Do you have debt you want to pay off? I have an idea for a project to start a debt elimination support posting/group, but I need to know if there is interest. Please let me know in the comments if you would like to participate in something that could help you get out of debt. It would be structured in such a way that you would not be putting up your personal details, but using percentages instead. I want people to be able to track their progress publicly and set goals and have accountability, but not be exposed in a personal way. Comment if you are interested!