Why it was said

George Clason's Arkad, the richest man in Babylon, gives this as the first of his seven cures for a lean purse. The book is a set of parables written in the 1920s and still in print because the rule has not changed.

What it actually means

Everything you earn is spoken for before it arrives, by rent, by bills, by the people who sell things; the sentence claims a share for the earner before any of them. Arkad's number is a tenth, taken first, and the rest is arranged around what remains. It is the oldest form of pay-yourself-first, and the Money road's first practical move is this one with a bank transfer on payday.

How to use it

1. 1Move a tenth of your income to a separate account on the day it arrives, before anything else is paid.
2. 2Arrange the rest of the month around the nine-tenths and let the tenth become invisible.