A Fool and His Money: The Richest Man in Babylon, Retold for 2026 (Part 4)

This is Part 4 of a 7-part series where I'm retelling the money lessons from The Richest Man in Babylon as a story set in 2026. New here? Start with Part 1: The Freedom Account, then Part 2: Step Over the Dimes and Part 3: Savers Are Losers.

Quick catch-up: Marcus and Jess are paying themselves first, they've plugged the big leaks, and their freedom account is finally earning something. Jim, the neighbor at the end of the road, has given them three rules so far.

Rule one: pay yourself first.

Rule two: spend less than you earn. Step over the dimes and go pick up the dollars.

Rule three: make your money multiply by learning to spot value and add value.

Then, on the way out of Jim's garage, Marcus mentioned a guy at work with an investment that was "guaranteed."

Jim pointed back at the stool.

Marcus sat back down. Jess stayed by the door with the keys in her hand.

"Okay," Jim said. "Tell me about it."

"There's a guy on the night crew. He's in some trading program. He puts money in, and it trades for him automatically. He showed me his phone. Money lands in his account every week. He says it's guaranteed."

"Has he ever told you how it makes the money?"

Marcus opened his mouth, then closed it. "Not really. Something with currencies."

"Then let me tell you two stories."

"You've heard the old saying. A fool and his money are soon parted."

"Here's the part nobody tells you. We can all be fools. Doesn't matter how smart you are."

"The fourth rule in the old book is guard thy treasures from loss. In plain English: once you've got some money, protect it. The most common way people lose the money they worked hard to save isn't bad luck. It's the shortcut."

"Greed wants a faster return. And mental laziness talks us into what I call pay and pray. You hand your money to somebody else and hope they know what they're doing, and that they'll manage it well."

"Years ago, a friend of mine who'd done some trading in the Forex market reached out to me. That's the currency market. He'd found a bot that was making automatic trades for him, and he couldn't stop talking about how exciting it was to watch money land in his bank account on autopilot."

"I resisted for a while. But he kept at it, and he was so excited, that I finally bought the bot and put a little money in."

"Sure enough, it started making me money too."

"I'll tell you, it was intoxicating. Money showing up in your account with no mental effort and no time. You check your phone in the morning and you're up again."

"So I told a few friends. They got excited too. They bought the bot and started pouring money in. This went on for several weeks, maybe a little over a month. The returns were so good that some of them kept putting in more. And more. One of them ended up putting in almost all of his life savings."

"I kept telling them to be careful. To give it more time."

"Then one night I went to sleep, and I woke up to messages of terror from my friends. All of the money was gone."

"I checked my account. The few thousand dollars I had in there was down to zero."

"Losing my own money stung. But I got sick to my stomach thinking about my friends. Some of them had put in far more than I had."

Jess set the keys down on the workbench.

"It reminded me, right in my gut, of a rule I'd read years before. Only invest in what you know and understand. I didn't understand that bot. I understood that it was paying me. Those aren't the same thing."

"A few years later, I found out a guy I knew from a former business had been trading Forex full time. Not a bot. A real person, with a multi-year track record. Someone I trusted."

"I asked him if I could give him some money to manage. He told me he'd just decided to open a hedge fund, because his in-laws wanted him to do the same thing for them."

"So I gave him $20,000."

"And it started multiplying. I remember thinking, this time is different. It's not some bot. I've got an expert at the controls."

"I told a close family member about it, and they put in a sizable chunk too. Things went well for months and months. The money kept growing."

"Then Russia went to war with Ukraine."

"The market did something my friend had never run into before. The losses started pouring in. First the profits disappeared. Then it started eating the principal."

"By the time I finally pulled out, $10,000 of my $20,000 was gone."

Marcus let out a low whistle.

"Put those two together, and I learned it for good. Only invest in what you know and understand. And nobody will take care of your money like you will."

"Nobody will protect it like you will. Nobody will manage it like you will. You are the best steward of your own money, as long as you're educated and diligent."

"So where do you put it?" Jess asked.

"I'll give you the best rule of thumb I ever got," Jim said.

"I'd bought a little house as a rental, and I had a friend over to see it. He was a very successful contractor and real estate investor. We're standing in the living room talking, and he says, 'You know, Jim, I only invest in things I can kick with my foot.'"

"Then he looked down at his boot and kicked the baseboard."

Jim tapped the leg of the workbench with his own boot.

"Think about it. If you can kick it, it's hard to lose all of it. A house, a truck, a piece of land doesn't evaporate into thin air the way paper assets can."

"And here's the second layer. Buy something that produces cash flow, like a rental that pays you rent every month. Even if its value drops for a while, it's still putting money in your pocket. That's another layer protecting you."

"My goal is to own real estate. Income-producing assets. I'd put that ahead of the stock market. That's my opinion, not financial advice, but it's the direction I'd point you."

"Now, back to your buddy at work."

"I've spent a couple of decades in the home business world. I've watched Ponzi scheme after Ponzi scheme pop up, and I've watched people get sucked into them again and again."

"So here's my rule. Anytime someone comes along and says 'guaranteed returns,' run for the hills with your money clutched in your fists as fast as you can."

Marcus laughed. Jim didn't.

"Remember what I told you last week? Investments aren't risky. Investors are. A guaranteed deal is built for the risky investor. The one who doesn't know enough to ask where the money is really coming from."

"If you're in a hurry to invest your money, your money will be in a hurry to run away from you."

That night, Marcus pulled up the text thread with his coworker and typed out three questions. Where does the money actually come from? Who's holding it? What happens if you want it all back tomorrow?

He didn't send them. He couldn't answer a single one himself, and that was his answer.

Jess was already on the couch with a copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad.

The freedom account stayed right where it was, quietly earning its interest.

"Slow," Marcus said.

"Slow," Jess said. "We're not in a hurry."

Okay, back to you and me.

Part 1 was about saving. Part 2 was about plugging the leaks. Part 3 was about putting your money to work. This one is about not losing it, because one bad shortcut can wipe out years of the first three.

Here's your homework:

1. If you haven't opened an X Money account yet, do it. Let your freedom account keep growing at around 4% to 6% while you learn (rates change, so check the current one).

2. Start reading Robert Kiyosaki. Begin with Rich Dad Poor Dad, then Cashflow Quadrant. You're educating your mind, so the next person who pitches you can't outtalk you.

3. Keep watching the market. Look at deals that fit the money you've saved so far. You're training your eye to spot deals, not rushing to buy one.

4. Run every deal past two questions. Do I know and understand exactly how this makes money? Can I kick it with my foot? And if anyone says the word "guaranteed," you already know what to do.

When it comes to investing, patience is the name of the game. It's more of a marathon than a sprint. Time spent with a wise and watchful eye will pay far more than rushing into the investment game.

A few weeks later, Jess finally asked the question they'd been avoiding since Part 2.

"So... are we ever going to buy a house?"

Jim smiled. "Yes. Just not the way most people do it."

In Part 5, we get to the fifth lesson from the old book: make your home a profitable investment.

Until then, tell me in the comments: have you ever been burned by a shortcut? What did it teach you?

Thanks for reading and whatever you do, always go for your dreams!