Ben Franklin’s Guide to Wealth: Being a 21st Century Treatise on What It Takes to Live a Rich Life

Ben Franklin’s Guide to Wealth is the modern version of the treatise The Way of Wealth by Richard Saunders, one of Ben Franklin’s many pseudonyms. Franklin practiced what he preached in the treatise, and it made him rich enough to have a full life, travel extensively, and follow his intellectual musings, which in turn led him to become an accomplished scientist, inventor, political activist, diplomat, and writer. Franklin wasn’t born rich. He built his legacy using his intelligence, curiosity, natural good sense, and proclivity for thrift and hard work. When he died, he left a fortune. Barrett and Mingo bring practicing what Franklin preached up to date for today’s busy lifestyles. It’s time to get back to financial basics. It’s time to think about what ＂rich＂ really means. It might mean not hiring someone to do lawn work, saving some money, and sharing time spent together as a family. It’s time to look for guidance from America’s original financial guru, Ben Franklin.

Ben Franklin’s Guide to Wealth shows readers how to apply Franklin’s financial wisdom to their own lives. Quotes from the original treatise such as ＂If you have something to do tomorrow, do it today＂ and ＂Leisure is time for doing something useful,＂ are followed by the authors’ downtoearth commentary. Barrett and Mingo--history and trivia buffs--offer their own sage advice on a range of financial basics, including debt, thrift, the value of work and business, developing financial responsibility, money and time, and preparing for the future. As the authors attest in the Introduction, we should listen to the way of Ben Franklin because ＂it works.＂ A clever, wise, and fun book, the financial advice in Ben Franklin’s Guide to Wealth works as well today as it did 250 years ago.

Erin Barrett and Jack Mingo have authored 20 books, including How the Cadillac Got Its Fins, The Couch Potato Guide to Life and the bestselling Just Curious Jeeves. They have written articles for many major periodicals including The New York Times, Salon, Reader’s Digest, and The Washington Post and have generated more than 30,000 questions for trivia games and game shows such as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. Their website, which lists their ＂This Day in History＂ nationallysyndicated column.

Along with Erin Barrett, Jack Mingo published over 20 books, including Random Kinds of Factness (Conari, 2005, over 20,000 copies). He is a fulltime writer specializing in somewhat offbeat trivia books. In his spare time, Jack keeps six hives and half a million bees in his Alameda (Bay Area) backyard and sells their honey at local farmers markets. His bees produce 650 pounds of honey per year (59 gallons, 472 pint jars).