Slide 1Overview Our habits tend to define who we are. If you make it a point to drive recklessly every day, nobody will be surprised when you eventually get into a traffic accident. This seems obvious to us. Yet the financial equivalent of this principle, tolerating bad monetary habits on a regular basis until you're driven into poverty, seems less obvious. For the most part, the richest people in the world didn't get to their position overnight. They didn't stumble into money, and it wasn't given to them as a gift. They accumulated it, and continue to maintain it, as a direct result of their daily habits and their underlying philosophies. These are seven things you'll never catch the world's richest people doing Never stay at the same level If you want to be rich, you cannot be content with the status quo. You need to keep aiming high. Most of us didn’t get into business to peak and stay there.We got into business to embrace the perpetual climb. You make a million. You want ten million. You make ten million. You want a billion. It’s just in our entrepreneurial personality. We’re always pushing for more. Never act stingy Rich people should celebrate their successes, but they also spread the wealth. J.K. Rowling, the first billionaire author, was happy to do just that. She gave $160 million to charity (16 percent of her net wealth) in 2011 because she understood what it felt like to live in poverty. Being stingy might save you a few bucks in the short run, but certainly won’t help you feel good about your fortune long term. Never go without a mentor Yes, millionaires are the successful ones because they had a good idea or are cunning business people. But rarely do all the achievements rely solely on one person. There’s often a team or guide behind the wealthy individual that helped him get there. In fact, 93 percent of rich people said a mentor had contributed to their success Never focus love It can be a slippery slope from being ambitious to greedy. Focusing on the money might help you become richer, but it doesn’t mean you’ll feel good about your fortune. Why do you think almost 70 percent of lottery winners end up broke in seven years? The key to true success is doing what you love.”How sad to see a father with money and no joy. Never hate their job There’s a reason rich people do what they love. It makes them richer! 86 percent of people who liked their jobs had a net worth around $3.6 million. The 7 percent who said they loved their jobs were worth almost double that and it only took them 12 years to accumulate that wealth versus 32 years. Playing the lottery The lottery comes with a bold promise: a chance to win more money than you'd ever know what to do with. But the odds of winning are astronomically low, and logically, you have a far better chance of creating your own wealth than getting lucky and winning someone else's. The world's wealthiest people had no interest in taking chances; instead, they chose to forge their own paths, and as a result, they worked harder, and saw more tangible results. Hoping for better outcomes There's nothing inherently wrong with hope; it's a positive emotion that leads us to more optimistic lives. But for the world's richest people, hope isn't nearly enough. Hope doesn't solve problems. It doesn't create opportunities. It doesn't change anything. If you want to move past a certain chapter of your life, or achieve a certain outcome, you have to move beyond hoping and start taking action. Abandoning their goals Goals are crucial for success; they keep you focused, they help you prioritize, and they lead you to bigger, better things. By some estimates, 80 percent of the world's richest people make and follow goals regularly. Compare that to only 12 percent of the poor. But it isn't enough to merely create goals--it's the process of sticking with them, no matter what, that separates the strong-willed from the weak-willed. Never watch too much TV Money isn’t going to come pouring in if you just binge-watch Netflix shows. That’s why 67 percent of wealthy individuals say they watch less than an hour a day. Instead of wasting time on the couch, they are learning as much as possible about an area of interest and becoming experts. list Getting distracted is a surefire way to not get the money you want in the bank. You have to stay task-oriented if you want to be rich, which is why wealthy people always make a to-do list and stick to it. It helps to keep them on track and get the most value out of every minute of their day. Never resist setting goals Wealthy people might have their to-do lists to help keep them on track, but they also have long-term objectives to stay motivated. According to success.com, 70 percent percent of wealthy people follow at least one major goal a year. Without the big vision, everything would fall apart, and that equals less cash coming in. Never let fear take over Any motivational speaker will say that fear is the enemy to us all. It prevents us from living our best and happiest life. It also stops you from getting rich. The thing that wealth buys you. with the flow You might be jealous of those Instagram-famous travel bloggers who seem to simply follow their intuition. But that attitude won’t make you rich.To become a high net- worth individual, it’s all about forming productive habits. The author has been known to hang out with society’s wealthiest, so he knows what he’s talking about. Never eat junk food You are what you eat, right? So, if you eat food that makes you feel lethargic and slows your digestive system, you won’t have the energy or brain power to come up with million-dollar ideas. Never skip the gym Yes, exercise has been proven to boost brain function, but working out can also help you get rich—and it’s scientifically proven. Being physically active positively influenced 15-year income, with physically active males making 14 to 17 percent more than less active males. Never forget about creativity Many rich people are inherently big thinkers, but they also work at it. Both Bill Gates and Richard Branson are known to block out times of their days to create and focus on self-improvement. Creativity isn’t always natural. You have to set time aside to come up with those big (money-making) ideas. Never neglect reading If you don’t keep up with the latest reading, you won’t have as good of an understanding of the world. It’s this knowledge that sparks ideas and solutions that could equal big bucks for you. Why else do you think the average millionaire reads one nonfiction book per month. Never sleep in Rarely have good ideas come from a moment when you’ve stayed out until 3 a.m. (That’s usually when bad decisions are made.) Rather, it seems like the mornings, before anyone can bother you, are the most productive.What the wealthy do by getting up three hours before work. You can read, exercise, focus, and write down your goals all leading to a more successful day. Never isolate themselves It’s hard to make things happen (and make money) if you’re going at it entirely alone. Wealthy, successful people are very particular about who they associate with.Their goal is to develop relationships with other success-minded individuals. When they stumble onto someone who fits the bill, they then devote an enormous amount of their time and energy into building a strong relationship. Never spend money they don’t have It might be tempting to go out and buy top-of-line everything when you have the cash sitting in the bank. But it’s better only to purchase what you need rather than what you can afford. Living frugally and watching cash flow is just as important when you’re making an average income as it is when you’re rolling in the big bucks. Spend less money than you make. Living above their means When most people fall into debt or find themselves unable to pay the bills, it comes down to one critical mistake; living a lifestyle that requires a greater income than you're actually receiving. Imagine for a moment you make $2,500 a month, and you pay $1,500 in rent and about $950 in other regular expenses. That only leaves you $50 leftover--if rent goes up or you have an emergency, you'll immediately start accumulating debt, which becomes more and more difficult to pay off. Letting their money sit idle Last but not least, you'll never catch one of the world's wealthiest people keeping money in an idle bank account. You need to make your money work for you by investing it in something--it could be stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, or anything with a proven track record of success. Investing lets your money earn you passive income, which if reinvested creates a powerful system of compounding interest. Eliminate these bad habits and reckless decisions from your daily life, and eventually, you'll find yourself in a much better financial position. Again, there are no shortcuts, so understanding these concepts won't help you get rich overnight, but they will help you set a long-term course for a much brighter future.
