Law VI

Insure a future income.

The version of you that exists at 65 is not a stranger. She is you, after time has done its work. The Sixth Law makes sure she is provided for.

The Law

Where it comes from. What it really means.

The Sixth Law of Gold from The Richest Man in Babylon: Insure a future income.

In the Babylon of 4,000 years ago, this law was about old age. Most people did not live to see 70, and the few who did were dependent on their families or their accumulated treasures. The law instructed people to save while they were strong, so that when they were old they would not be a burden.

The principle has not changed. The math has. Today, women in developed countries live, on average, into their mid-80s. Many will live into their 90s. A 35-year-old woman starting her financial journey today is not planning for 30 years of retirement — she may be planning for 35, 40, 45 years where her income comes entirely from what she has built. This is one of the most overlooked facts in personal finance, and one of the most dangerous when ignored.

You are not saving for retirement. You are saving for the longest stretch of life that no longer comes with a paycheck.

The Sixth Law also operates at a deeper level. It asks you to take the future self seriously — the woman who will exist in 30 or 40 years. Most of us treat her as theoretical. We make decisions today as if she will not arrive. The Babylon woman recognises that she will arrive, and that the decisions made today are what will determine whether she has dignity, options, and freedom — or whether she has dependence and fear.

Insuring a future income is not a financial product. It is a relationship with the woman you will become.

The Feature

The Future Self Portrait

The Future Self Portrait is the SheGrows feature that brings Law VI to life. It is the tool that turns the abstract future into a concrete picture you can examine, adjust, and plan for.

The Portrait projects three versions of your future self across multiple ages: 45, 55, 65, 75, 85.

The current path. If you change nothing about your current trajectory. If your Tithe stays where it is, your investment allocation stays where it is, your career stays where it is. The Portrait shows you what your finances look like at each future age and what kind of life that supports.

The partial path. If you apply some of the Babylon laws but not all. A 7 percent Tithe instead of 10. A balanced fund but no engagement with the Earning Power Index. The numbers shift. The Portrait shows the difference.

The full Babylon path. If you apply all 7 laws consistently. If your Tithe scales with your income, your investments compound, your earning power grows, your dwelling becomes profitable. The numbers shift again. The Portrait shows what becomes possible.

At each age across each path, the Portrait shows you not just numbers but reality. What kind of housing situation does that wealth support? What kind of healthcare? What kind of options if you want to stop working, or work less, or change direction? The Portrait turns abstract sums into concrete lives.

The Portrait updates continuously. Every Tithe contribution, every investment return, every salary change shifts the projections in real time. You see your future self adjust as your present self moves.

The Portrait does not predict the future. It models it. The numbers are based on conservative long-term assumptions about market returns, inflation, and lifespan. Reality will differ — sometimes more favourably, sometimes less. The Portrait is a planning instrument, not a guarantee.

The Behavior Change

What the law asks of you.

Law VI asks you to take a relationship seriously that most people avoid. The relationship with your future self.

Three things shift when you internalise this law.

You stop discounting the future. Behavioral economists have a term for what most people do: hyperbolic discounting— treating a euro today as worth dramatically more than a euro in 30 years, even when it is not. The Babylon woman recalibrates. She knows that 100 EUR contributed at age 35 becomes roughly 575 EUR at age 65 at modest returns. The future euro is not smaller. It is larger.

You stop relying on what you cannot count on. State pensions. Inheritance. A future partner who will provide. None of these are reliable. The Babylon woman builds her future on what she can actually control: her own savings, her own investments, her own earning capacity.

You make decisions today that your future self will thank you for. The 50 EUR you redirect from a forgotten subscription to your Tithe is not just savings. It is a gift to the 65-year-old version of you who has more options because of it. The Portrait makes this gift visible.

The behavior, in three concrete steps:

One. Open the Portrait monthly.

Even briefly. The point is not analysis. The point is contact — a regular reminder that the future self exists, that she is becoming more provided for, that today's habits are her foundation.

Two. Pick one age and look at her closely.

Most women find one age that resonates more than others. For some it is 65, for some 75, for some 85. Pick the one that matters most to you. Look at her under all three paths. Decide which one you owe her.

Three. Increase your Tithe by 1 percent every year, automatically.

The platform offers an automated annual escalator. Each year on the same date, your Tithe increases by 1 percentage point until it reaches your target. You will not feel the increases — they will land at the same time as small raises. The cumulative effect on the Portrait is enormous.

These three habits transform retirement from an abstract worry into a concrete relationship. Your future self stops being a stranger.

A Real Example

What this looks like in practice.

You are 35. You earn 4,000 EUR per month. You have been with SheGrows for one year. Your portfolio is at 4,800 EUR. The Future Self Portrait activates.

You select the age that matters most to you: 65.

Current path— if you continue exactly as you are: at 65, your portfolio is at approximately 145,000 EUR. Combined with your state pension, you have roughly 2,200 EUR per month. You can live, modestly. You will not have many options.

Partial path— if you apply some of the laws: at 65, your portfolio is at approximately 280,000 EUR. Combined with your state pension, you have roughly 3,000 EUR per month. You are comfortable. You have some options.

Full Babylon path— if you apply all 7 laws consistently: at 65, your portfolio is at approximately 510,000 EUR. Combined with your state pension and a paid-off home, you have roughly 4,200 EUR per month plus housing security. You have real options. You can choose to stop working, or to keep working because you want to. You can travel. You can help your children. You are sovereign.

The difference between the current path and the full Babylon path is approximately 365,000 EUR over 30 years. Roughly 1,000 EUR per month of additional contribution and disciplined investing turns into more than triple that wealth at 65, due to compounding.

You look at the woman in each version of the Portrait. The first one is constrained. The second one is comfortable. The third one is free. You decide who you owe.

The decision is not about the money. The decision is about the woman.

What Comes Next

From the Sixth Law to the Seventh.

Six laws take you from financial fear to financial sovereignty. They cover what to do with your money once you have it. The Seventh Law does something different. It asks how much money you have in the first place.

The Seventh Law is Increase your ability to earn. The SheGrows feature that brings it to life is The Earning Power Index— a tool that treats your income not as fixed but as your most important variable, and helps you grow it deliberately.

Ready to begin?

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you will become.

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