Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Recently I have searched for some principles on money in Buddhism.
I'm into Buddhism for years and I also have a small book about it, which shows some guidelines.

Here is an website, which shows the same principles about handling money in Buddhism
https://essenceofbuddhism.wordpress.com ... our-money/

Gathering wealth as bees do honey and heaping it up like an ant hill. Once wealth is accumulated, family and household life may follow.

By dividing wealth into four parts, True friendships are bound;
One part should be enjoyed;
Two parts invested in business;
And the fourth set aside Against future misfortunes.

So, the Buddha said – divide your pay into 4 parts:

• 25% – 1 Part to be enjoyed and used however you want

• 50% – 2 Parts to be invested in business

• 25% – 1 Part to be saved for emergencies

That makes a Savings Rate of about 75% aligned to Buddha's principles.

When I first saw it, I had to smile, due to the good compatibility of ERE and FI principles.

How do you think about and interprate (those) money principles of Buddhism?

I too am a big fan of the Buddha's wisdom on money. If you have not read them, in two of the earliest jatakas, tales of the Buddha's previous lives, the Buddha narrates at least two stories of his early lives a merchant where he makes a ton of money and then, as some translations put it, puts aside his business life and meditates the rest of his life.
Here's a link:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... tml#jat001

Note: the meditates the rest of his life part is not in these translations, but I am pretty sure I have seen it elsewhere.

Well, there's a reason why these ancient philosophies and religions still have some staying power/relevance.

From the article, it seems that the 25% that covered emergencies was intended as form of self-insurance that could be covered in part by actual insurance in the modern world.

I was also curious as to how "business" would have actually been translated from the original texts. Most people at that time would have been involved in agriculture and there certainly were few businesses or investments in the modern sense.

I'd translate emergencies into cash and businesses into stocks, so 1/3 cash/tbills/bonds and 2/3 diversified stocks. And 75% savings rate. Sounds like a decent plan

This is a fantastic tidbit to know MDFIRE - thanks for posting!