Wealthy Habits

Becoming wealthy is very easy, especially with motivational speakers sharing their sugar-laced experiences. But have you ever wondered why only about one percent of the world’s population remains wealthy despite the number of books on financial success and wealth creation? You might have even taken some finance classes and still wander in the darkroom of confusion.

It is common to think that certain people became wealthy by providence or sheer luck. This is not completely true, though a little luck helps sometimes. Apart from those who inherited family wealth, wealth is made with a great deal of commitment, hard work, and consistency. Beyond these qualities, there are certain sets of habits that are specific to wealthy people, especially those that built their wealth from scratch. These habits work like a magic wand in generating wealth. 

Early Risers

You may be wondering how waking up early can contribute to success. Well, you may have to examine the lives of Larry Schultz, Tim Cook, and Richard Branson, for instance. There is a difference between waking up early to rush out for work and waking up at least three hours before work to have enough time for reflection. 

Wealthy people wake up early to meditate or write in a journal, read educational content, or get a head start on an important project. Some get good exercise or have a healthy breakfast. The goal is the same: to be proactive in setting the tone for the day. Note that wealthy people do not make email checking their top priority in the morning. They rather leave it for later in the day.

Specific Goals

Wealthy people are goal-driven. Rather than make a wish, wealthy people only set goals for themselves. In fact, poor people set the goal to become wealthy but the major challenge – unknown to them – is the “how.” Wealthy people set specific goals and know what they need to do to achieve them. 

Such goals might include accumulating a certain monetary worth within a certain number of years, partnering with a particular company, or even selling their company for a specified amount. Whatever goal they set helps to guide their actions, prioritize their activities, as well as streamline their decisions. A clear vision of one’s goal is enough motivator that can drive one to success.

Daily To-Do List

It becomes almost impossible to become wealthy if you do not know what needs to be done and be committed to doing them. According to Thomas Corley, a goal is a broader term and needs to be broken down into a list of tasks that can be completed daily. This is a common habit among wealthy people. 

Research indicates that a significant percentage of wealthy people write a detailed to-do list as well as follow it through. Irrespective of the cost involved, they don’t procrastinate. In fact, they continue to mutter “Do it now!” in their minds, especially when the thought of putting off sets in. They don’t stop until the task gets done or completed. Notwithstanding, they may be unable to complete all their to-do lists every day. Nevertheless, they complete a minimum of 70% of their daily tasks.

Daily Exercise

The most common excuse by the common people is that they have no time to work out. This is not the same with wealthy people. Despite the fact that they have the least amount of free time, they understand the importance of staying healthy and fit. Even with a whole lot of wealth, they are aware that their health has no price tag. To them, daily exercise is a regular habit. With that, they get the vitality to handle whatever challenges life throws at them. According to a study report by Author Thomas Corley, 76% of wealthy folks do aerobic exercise on a minimum of four days every week.

Healthy Diet

Feeding your moneymaking brain with fad diets and Twinkies will only leave it in low gear. It is common knowledge that a large portion of less-affluent people are less concerned about their diet and overall health. This may be a result of income and geography. Notwithstanding, the cost of having a healthy diet is not as expensive as portrayed. 

Wealthy people treat food like the fuel it is – they consume the right foods, avoid junk food and snacks as much as possible, and spend more on healthy foods. Their meals are structured so that they take a count of their calorie intake. They eat a healthy diet to live longer, thus giving them more opportunities to earn more.

Read Daily for Self-Improvement

A popular quote by Joseph Addison states thus: “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” Just like exercise, poor people do not take book reading seriously. The great number of books in the world today leaves a wealth of knowledge untapped, if unread. Wealthy people understand this and are willing to nourish their minds with enough information that can help them improve their skills and knowledge. Even if on transit and cannot read, they do not hesitate to listen to audiobooks.

Value Time

Generally, wealthy people regard time as money and time misspent as money lost. In other words, wealthy people see time as highly valuable and wouldn’t waste a bit of it, especially on unproductive activities, such as reading celebrities’ posts on social media or watching TV. Yeah, you saw that – watching TV! Wealthy people do not get relief in shutting off their brains in front of the TV. 

Elon Musk, for instance, spends a whopping 80-100 hours every week on productive activities such as exercising, reading, or learning something new. Rather than waste their time on nonproductive activities, they rather engage in things about which they are passionate, such as hobbies. Asking yourself how much money you would lose by engaging in activities that don’t produce money will help redirect your focus on productive tasks.

Build Relationships

Wealthy people understand the value of building relationships, especially the ones that revolve around their businesses. That is one of the reasons wealthy people will always be friends with one another. They build relationships with those who share similar minds or ideas with them. It is commonsensical that the relationship they build will impact their success-achievement goal. This kind of relationship can be built in many ways – at a conference, online webinar, or just over coffee. They may not necessarily be wealthy; however, they should possess the potential and drive to become wealthy. 

One other reason why wealthy people build relationships is to help them overcome the fear of speaking in public – a common fear among humans, irrespective of their social or financial status. They thus meet and engage someone new every day to build the confidence they need to address larger groups.

They Have Mentors

Many wealthy people have attributed their success to their mentors. It is not the case that their mentors have a direct impact on their wealth accumulation story. Rather, mentors keep them accountable and help them accelerate their speed of success achievement. Usually, mentors are people that have accumulated enough insights and experiences that can help their mentees cut learning time in half.

Key Takeaways

It is common to think that certain people became wealthy by providence or sheer luck. This is not completely true, though a little luck helps sometimes. There are many things that go into creating that ideal lifestyle and becoming wealthy. Incorporating growth tactics and throwing out the unproductive habits that currently keep you shackled to your not-so-ideal lifestyle will be a game changer for sure.

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Financial Discipline

The Reason for Financial Problems

The primary reason for financial problems in life is lack of self discipline, self mastery, and self control. It is the inability to delay gratification in the short term. It is the tendency for people to spend everything they earn. Today, the savings rate in America is too low to achieve financial independence. After a lifetime of work, the average American family has a 200 net worth of only about $8,000. People continue to spend and borrow as if theres no tomorrow.

The lack of self discipline and the inability to delay gratification is a weakness in character. This is prevalent among the majority of adults in society today. It goes back to early childhood and the fact that when you were a child and you received money, the first thing you thought of doing was to spend that money on candy or something you wanted. Did you have anyone telling you a better idea was to save it?

Spending Makes You Happy

As you grew older, you developed what psychologists call a “conditioned response” to receiving money from any source. When you receive money, you mentally salivate at the thought of spending this money on something that makes you happy, at least temporarily. When you become an adult and you earn or receive money, this automatic reaction continues. It is very common for many people, when they are feeling unhappy or frustrated for any reason, to go shopping whether online or in a store. People unconsciously associate buying something with being happy. I used to do this very thing to generate temporary pleasure.

Rewire Your Way of Thinking

Shift your thinking from, spending equals happiness to happiness is saving and investing. This is changing your money mindset and creating the starting point for eliminating your financial problems and making room for financial freedom. Self discipline is a must when saving for your future and trying to reach financial independence. When you begin thinking this way, something amazing starts to happen. You start to feel happy about the idea of having money in the bank. I used to hate looking at my bank account but now I am excited to check it every day.

Money being in your bank account is emotionalized by your own thoughts and feelings. It sets up a force field of energy that begins to attract more money into it. It takes money to make money. As you begin to save and accumulate money, the universe begins to direct more and more money towards you, to save and accumulate.

Here are a few ways to stay disciplined in the new year:

  • Set some financial goals
  • Use automation for your bills
  • Give yourself a challenge
  • Change your money habits
  • Get an accountability partner or financial coach

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It’s All About Balance

Many of us have struggled to juggle our financial commitments and goals at some point. It’s all about how you adapt and balance it all. Balance is so important within your finances. You have to have a happy medium between spending and saving you money.

Goal Setting

Goal setting is one of my favorite things to do because I am a very goal driven person. Setting goals means discipline. You have to stick with your budget in order to meet your goals on time. Saving money tends to be easier when you have a certain purpose in mind. To develop a clear plan, these goals must have both a time frame and a dollar amount. Once you have listed and quantified your goals, you need to prioritize them. You may find, for example, that saving for a new home is more important than buying a new car. Be specific with your goals.

Pay Yourself

Save and invest 5-10% of your gross annual income. Of course, this can be much harder than it sounds. If you’re currently living from paycheck to paycheck, begin by creating a solid budget after tracking all monthly expenses. Once you figure out how you can control your discretionary spending, you can then redirect the money into a savings account. For many people, a good way to start saving regularly is to have a small amount transferred automatically from their paycheck to a savings account or mutual fund. The idea: If you don’t see it, you don’t miss it.

Have An Emergency Fund

Before you commit your savings to investments, make sure you have at least three to six months’ worth of expenses saved in an emergency fund to see yourself through difficult times. Keeping it liquid will ensure that you don’t have to sell investments when their prices are down, and guarantee that you can always get to your money quickly. If you have trouble deciding how much you need to keep on hand, begin by considering the standard expenses you have in a month, and then estimate all the expenses you might have in the future (possible insurance deductibles and other emergencies).

Generally, if you spend a larger portion of your income on irregular expenses that you could cut easily in a financial crisis, the less money you need to keep on hand in your emergency account. If you have dependents, you’d want to keep more money in your emergency fund to offset the greater risk.

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Have a Debt Repayment Plan

If you’re trying to save while carrying a large credit card balance at, say, 19.8%, realize that paying off the debt is a guaranteed return of nearly 20%. Once you pay off your credit cards, use them only for convenience, and pay off the balance each month. If you tend to run up credit card charges, get rid of the plastic and go back to using cash. Don’t buy it unless you can pay with cash. You never want to increase your bad debt unless absolutely necessary. It’s easiest to create this plan after you have figured out your monthly expenses and how much you can potentially put towards your debt each month.

Utilize Tax-Deferred Investments

If your employer has a tax-deferred investment plan like a 401(k) or 403(b), use it. Often, employers will match your investment. Even if they don’t, no taxes are due on your contributions or earnings until you retire and begin withdrawing the funds. Tax-deferred savings means that your investments can grow much faster than they would otherwise.

The same is true of IRAs, although the maximum amount you can invest annually in an IRA is substantially less than what you can put in a 401(k) or 403(b). You should also consider diversifying your investments. All investments involve some trade-off between risk and return. Diversification reduces unnecessary risk by spreading your money among a variety of investments. Aside from diversification, the single most effective strategy is to invest continuously over time, with a long-term perspective.

Create a Will

The simplest way to ensure that your funds, property and personal effects will be distributed according to your wishes is to prepare a will. A will is a legal document that ensures that your assets will be given to family members or other beneficiaries you designate. Having a will is especially important if you have young children because it gives you the opportunity to designate a guardian for them in the event of your death. Although wills are simple to create, about half of all Americans die without a will. With no will to indicate your wishes, the court steps in and distributes your property according to the laws of your state. If you have no children and die without a will, it’s even possible that the state may claim your estate.

To begin, take an inventory of your assets, outline your objectives and determine to which friends and family you wish to distribute your belongings. Then, when drafting a will, be sure to include the following: name a guardian for your children, name an executor, specify an alternate beneficiary and use a residuary clause which typically reads “I give the remainder of my estate to …” Once your will is drafted, you won’t have to think about it again unless your wishes or your financial situation change substantially. I intend on re-evaluating my will every ten years.

Free Gift

Check out the FREE video series on my 3 Keys to Unlocking Your Financial Freedom! This video series touches on Budgets, Tackling Debt, and Ways to Increase Income TODAY! I created this series for those of you who have been hit hard by COVID-19. I want you to know there is nothing you can’t accomplish and creating a plan of action is always a great starting point.