Savers Are Losers: The Richest Man in Babylon, Retold for 2026 (Part 3)

This is Part 3 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 and Part 2: Step Over the Dimes.

Quick catch-up: Marcus and Jess both work, both make decent money, and until recently were broke by Wednesday every week. Jim, the neighbor at the end of the road, has given them two rules so far.

Rule one: a part of all you earn is yours to keep. Pay yourself first, into a freedom account.

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

So they listed the SUV for sale, put the house hunt on hold, and watched the freedom account grow for the first time in their marriage.

Which is exactly what made Jess nervous.

That Saturday, Jim had the garage door rolled up. His son Kyson was flat on his back on the concrete under a green Coleman trail bike, sockets spread across the floor, while Jim leaned on the workbench and watched.

Jess didn't wait for small talk. "Okay. Last week you said savers are losers. We just spent two weeks learning how to save. Are we losers?"

Jim laughed. "Fair question. That line is from Robert Kiyosaki, the guy who wrote Rich Dad Poor Dad. He doesn't mean don't save. You need money before you can do anything with money. Saving is step one."

"But if all you ever do is save, you lose. Slowly, and without noticing."

"Because of inflation," Marcus said.

"Because of inflation. The government keeps printing money, and every new dollar makes the dollars you already have worth a little less. So prices keep climbing. Groceries, gas, rent, trucks. It's a hidden tax on everybody's wealth. You never get a bill for it, so most people don't even realize it's happening.  But it is."

"Remember that credit union paying 0.15%? Inflation runs way ahead of that. So the money sitting in your account is shrinking every year, even while the number on the screen goes up."

"The old book has a rule for beating this. Make thy gold multiply. In plain English: once you've saved some money, put it to work so it earns more than inflation takes."

"Save first. Then get to step two as fast as you can."

"How?" Marcus asked. "We've got a couple grand. That's not exactly Wall Street money."

"That's about all we had too," Jim said. "A few thousand bucks. So we had to figure out how to make a few thousand bucks work for us."

"We started buying used cars, fixing them up, and selling them."

"One day a financial advisor came to visit us in the trailer. He sat on our couch and tried to talk us into investing our money for a 12% annual return."

"I said, 'Why would I want to invest at 12% a year when I can make 50 or 100% every two or three months?'"

"He asked me how I was doing that. I told him. Used cars."

"He couldn't believe it. As far as he knew, used cars always go down in value and you can't make money on them."

"For most people, he's right. It just isn't true for somebody who knows what a car is really worth."

Jim pulled the calculator out of the drawer again. Marcus groaned. Last time that calculator talked them out of a house.

"Say you've got $1,000. At 12% a year, you've got $1,120 at the end of the year. Not bad."

"Now say you make 50% every three months and roll it into the next deal each time."

He punched it in. $1,500. $2,250. $3,375. About $5,063.

"Same thousand bucks. Same year. Five times the amount after 12 months.

Jess leaned in. "And at 100%?"

"Double it four times. $16,000."

"Now, I'm not promising you those numbers," Jim said. "I'm telling you what happened when we got good at it. The point is, 12% isn't the ceiling. It's what people settle for when they don't know how to find value themselves."

About then, Kyson slid out from under the bike, wiped his hands on his jeans, and got it running. He was grinning ear to ear.

"Tell them what you paid for that one, bud," Jim said.

"Two hundred."

"Same bike is $800 new at Cal Ranch," Jim told Marcus. "The first one he ever bought, he got to know inside and out. Last week he picked up two of them for $500. Yesterday, this one for $200."

"As we were driving home from his latest purchase, I looked over at him from the drivers seat of the pickup truck and said - you just walk around picking up $100 bills. every where you go, don't you son..."

Kyson shrugged like it was no big deal. For him, it wasn't.

"He's got two skills most grown-ups never build," Jim said. "First, he can spot value. He knows what a bike is worth, so he knows a good deal the second he sees one. Second, he can add value. He's learned to work on small engines. He gets them running and makes them better, and a better bike sells for more."

"My job is the easy part. I help him hunt down the deals, cheer him on, and pull up a stool to watch. The wrenching is all him."

"That's the whole lesson. It's so easy a kid can do it. In fact, a kid is doing it."

"Here's the biggest mistake people make when they try to multiply their money," Jim said. "They're looking for something for nothing. Get rich quick."

"That's how people end up in Ponzi schemes. Somebody promises to easily multiply your money for you, and nobody asks where the money is actually coming from."

"Real money multiplies one way: value multiplication. The deciding factor in your ability to multiply money is your ability to identify and multiply value."

"You can play it two ways. Buy things that are undervalued. Or buy things you can add value to, then ask a higher price when you sell. Kyson does both."

"My wife and Kyson are on Facebook Marketplace all the time, scanning for deals. They've both developed an eye for value. They can spot a good deal the minute it shows up. That eye is what every investor needs."

Jess crossed her arms. "This all sounds great. But honestly? It scares me. What if we lose it?"

"Kiyosaki has another line for that," Jim said. "Investments aren't risky. Investors are."

"If you're scared to invest, it's probably because right now you'd be a risky investor. Not because you're not smart. Because you haven't built up the knowledge yet."

"So build it. Increase your knowledge and you'll have more courage. Start with books. Then, as soon as you can, get into action, even if it's small. Every deal teaches you something. Your confidence goes up, your fear goes down, and the cycle continues in your favor."

Marcus watched Kyson take the bike for a lap around the yard. "When did all this click for you?"

Jim thought about it. "Reading Rich Dad Poor Dad. It hit me that wealthy people earn money differently than poor and middle-class people do."

"I got this picture in my head of a pipeline. You build a pipeline from the marketplace straight to your bank account. Once it's built, the money keeps flowing in."

"Kiyosaki calls it working on the right side of the quadrant. You own a business, and you become an investor."

"Business income is the active part. That's how you multiply your money at first, like the cars. Then, once you've saved enough from that, you put it into assets that pay you residual income."

"It's the goose that lays the golden eggs. And here's the best part. You can buy as many geese as you want."

That night, Jess opened Facebook Marketplace just to look.

Marcus leaned over her shoulder, and something funny happened. He'd run the service desk at a truck dealership for years. Every truck she scrolled past, he could tell her what was probably wrong with it, what it would cost to fix, and what it would sell for afterward.

"Wait," Jess said. "You know this stuff."

He did. He'd known it for years. He'd just never thought of it as money.

They didn't buy anything that night. First they moved part of the freedom account somewhere it would actually earn interest while they learned.

Jim told them they could get 4 to 6% returns on their freedom account, plus 3% cash back on purchased with X money so that's where they started.

Then Marcus saved a search for trucks under $5,000 within 30 miles.

Step one: Save the money and get it working.

Step two: train your eye for value.

Okay, back to you and me.

Part 1 was about paying yourself first. Part 2 was about plugging the big leaks. This one is about putting that money to work, because money that just sits there gets eaten by inflation.

Here's your homework:

1. Make sure you've got a chunk of money set aside to invest.  If you don't have one yet, go back a step: cut expenses, save money, and build it. Parts 1 and 2 show you how.

2. Put it somewhere it earns something. Start small. I like X Money on x.com, which pays around 4% on your money, and even 6% in some cases (rates change, so check the current one). It gives you a taste of what it feels like when your money makes you money, instead of you making all of it.

3. While that grows, ask yourself: how can I beat these passive returns? Pick one thing that interests you and become a value expert in it. Cars, motorcycles, lawnmowers, trailer houses, camp trailers, homes. Anything people commonly buy and sell.

4. Start watching the marketplace. Scroll Facebook Marketplace like Jim's wife and Kyson do. You're not buying yet. You're training your eye. Pretty soon you'll start spotting the $100 bills other people walk right past.

You don't need a lot of money to start. You need a little money and a lot of attention.

As Marcus and Jess got up to leave, Marcus turned back around.

"One of the guys at work is in some investment thing. Says it's guaranteed. Can't lose. Should we..."

Jim pointed back at the stool. "Sit back down. That's rule number four."

In Part 4, Jim shows Marcus and Jess how to protect the money they're building, and what to do the next time somebody hands them a "guaranteed" deal.

Until then, tell me in the comments: if you had to become a value expert in one thing, what would it be?

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