Cure for a Lean Purse
There is no doubt about it any more. Times are hard for everyone in this world of ours. Especially honest persons. Like journalists in our simple country called Kenya.
Background
There is no doubt about it anymore. Times are hard for everyone in this world of ours.
Especially honest persons. Like journalists in our simple country called Kenya.
In its wider interpretation, journalism is going through one of its most momentous challenges in peaceful times. I have watched journalists close shop and newspapers, even famous ones, fold up or beg well-wishers to support them with small donations of even $1.
And I have wondered: What is the future of journalism in this era of fake news, twitters, hogwash, freebies, etc.? If you can get instant news on your phone, why do you need a newspaper, radio or TV? People living in 2050 will be asking questions like: What is a newspaper? Or a TV? Or radio? I have an expensive radio/cassette player by my bedside which I have not opened since that awful period in Kenya in 2008 when we were on the verge of a civil war of unimaginable proportions. A miracle we survived as a country. And even an old gramophone player dating back to the 1950s (what is that?). Truly archaic...
But for how much longer? I ask
The Richest Man in Babylon
A few years ago, I came across a book with the curious title: The Richest Man in Babylon. In case you are wondering where Babylon is, it was the old name of the capital of present day country known as Iraq made infamous by a sad man called Saddam Hussein. The capital city is now called Baghdad and the ruins of the ancient city called Babylon are located a few miles away.
Babylon was famous for being the capital of an empire named after it. It covered the area now occupied by Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and parts of Turkey. It was famous for its brutality and capture of people from distant places to become slaves. In a curious sort of way, it was both the origin and a curse for a tribe known as Israel - Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, originated from there in a place called Ur of the Chaldeans and his fellow Jewish tribesmen were taken into exile there as slaves many years later when an overzealous emperor called Nebuchadnezzar invaded the country. Remember the old biblical songs about the rivers of Babylon?
According to this book, written by George Clason and published in 1926, it tells the story of one of the richest men in Babylon and of his tribulations as he tried to get rich and the troubles he faced before he finally discovered the “cure for a lean purse” , i.e., of being broke. A story worth reading for today’s entrepreneurs and youth in general.
Modern Day Relevance
For today’s readers, especially the young and impatient ones, there are valuable tips on how to make things go your way. Not easy because, in the world of making money, there are no guarantees and certainly no shortcuts.
In summary, there are seven cures for a lean purse:
1.“Start thy purse to fattening” - by saving at least 10% of your annual income. This is hard even by today’s liberal standards when even making ends meet is a major challenge.
2.“Control thy expenditures” - by avoiding “luxury” expendi- tures or keeping them to a minimum. How do you control basic expenditures like rent, food, school fees and even your favourite tipple to help maintain your sanity?
3.“Make thy gold multiply” - in other words, invest your money in areas that have a guaranteed compound growth. Did I hear you right? Gold? How do you spell the word? Where do you find the funny stuff? Last time I was in Johannesburg, I went down two miles into the mines used for getting the stuff and I swore: Over my dead body! There has to be an “easier” way - your way.
4.“Guard thy treasures from loss” - in short, make sure you take an insurance cover in case of a catastrophe that you could not foresee. But, where do you find a “sure-fire” Insurance company? Lehman Brothers? Come on...
5.“Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment” - do not live in rented property but, if you must, rent out your home and live in a cheaper place. What for? Am I going to live for ever? I might as well enjoy my life to the full: While I still have it.
6.“Insure a future income” - make sure you invest only in businesses that have a guaranteed future income. For the ordinary human being talking about business is madness. What is business? Have you tried walking to the Industrial Area from Kibra at 5.00 am?
7.“Increase thy ability to earn” - in short, keep on learning new ways to make more money as time goes by. The old model will surely run out. Do you have a new way out? For yourself?
When you pause to think about these cures, they make a lot of sense. But how many of us have the patience or the audacity to follow them? However, in all seriousness, women seem to have a built-in mechanism to follow the advice but men tend to be quite careless. By the time men realise about the wisdom, it is already too late to do a thing about it. No wonder most men die before their wives!
There is a saying that it is never too late to learn. If they could do it in ancient Babylonia, why not us in the 21st century? As for journalists, aren’t they humans like the rest of us. Perhaps more reckless because journalism is not a business.
With hindsight, maybe I was being too harsh on our journalists. And, of course, there was never such a man in Babylon because the story is really a 20th Century fable advising people on how to survive the depression of the 1920s after the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange.
Economic collapses happen all the time these days with predictable monotony. Big question becomes: Do you have to wait for a calamity to strike before you can do a thing about it? Secondly, can you really insulate yourself against all adversities some of which are natural calamities like the wild-fires of California and Australia? Or the coronavirus?
Finally, and even more controversially, why sacrifice current happiness for future comfort? Who tells you that you will live to enjoy it? Is it possible to carry happiness forward? Or, as some wit said once: Let every generation carry its own bur- den.
Food for thought.