The Richest Man in Babylon

Ancient-Babylon parables dressed around first-principles financial advice: pay yourself first, control expenses, make gold work for you, guard against loss.

The whole book fits in a long flight, and the lessons are older than every personal-finance influencer combined. The story form makes the rules stick. That's the entire point of why people still read it a hundred years later.

1. 01Pay yourself first. A tenth of every coin you earn is yours to keep before anything else gets a vote.
2. 02A budget isn't a punishment. It's a way to make your desires fight each other for limited resources.
3. 03Investments live or die on the competence of the person you trust with them. Verify before you trust.
4. 04Luck favors the prepared. Opportunity is wasted on the man who can't act on it.