Albert Barnes Commentary Proverbs 13:11

"Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished; But he that gathereth by labor shall have increase." — Proverbs 13:11 (ASV)

By vanity - literally, “by a breath,” that is, by a windfall, or sudden stroke of fortune, not by honest labor. The general meaning seems to be that the mere possession of riches is as nothing; they come and go, but the power to gain by skill of hand (“labor”) is everything.