Quote
“What each of us calls our necessary expenses will always grow to equal our incomes unless we protest to the contrary.”
— George S. Clason, in The Richest Man in Babylon (1926) · The Richest Man in Babylon →
Why it was said
George S. Clason puts this in the mouth of Arkad, the richest man in Babylon, as part of the second of his seven cures for a lean purse: control your expenditures. It follows the first cure, keeping a part of all you earn, and explains why that part so often disappears.
What it actually means
The line describes something almost everyone has lived: a raise arrives, and within months it is fully absorbed by things that now feel necessary. Clason's point is that "necessary" is elastic. Wants quietly relabel themselves as needs, and spending expands to fill whatever income is available. The cure is not a higher income, since that only moves the ceiling. It is to protest to the contrary: decide in advance what your real necessities are, budget for them, and refuse to let the rest grow on its own. Saving has to be protected from spending, because left alone, spending always wins.
How to use it
- 1List last month's "necessary" expenses and mark the ones that did not exist two years ago.
- 2The next time your income rises, decide on paper where the increase goes before it reaches your account.
- 3Set a fixed amount for flexible spending and treat it as a ceiling, not a target.