There are five ways to become rich:
- Live Below Your Means – Spend less than earn and save or invest the difference
- Expand Your Means – Increase your income via education, starting a business or a side hustle.
- Do Both
- Inherit Your Wealth
- Getting Lucky – Win the lottery
Becoming rich is hard. It requires daily, consistent effort. You must invest time in becoming exceptional in one thing. You have to improve and grow every day. Success requires that you continuously increase and perfect your knowledge and skills. You have to push yourself day after day. You must also force yourself outside of your comfort zone by doing things that are uncomfortable. That’s how you grow, through discomfort, learning, taking risks.
And it’s hard work.
A 2008 study, published in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, found that poor people play the lottery more often than the non-poor because lotteries leveled the playing field between the poor and the non-poor – the odds of winning are the same, whether you were rich or poor.
Lotteries are a form of taxation on the poor. And this tax is increasing. In 2014, lotteries contributed $21.3 billion to state budgets, up from $18.2 billion in 2008, according to the Census Bureau.
Many people who are poor have a Poverty Mindset. They believe they have no control over their financial circumstances. They do not believe they can become rich through hard work and initiative. Consequently, they embrace the idea of becoming rich without the effort. That’s why lotteries are so successful. Most would rather take the short cut in becoming rich. They do not want to make the effort because they do not believe they can become rich through hard work, growth or taking risks.
About Thomas C. Corley
Speak Your Mind