Unlike the wealthy, most have little to no safety net to weather events in life that could take the legs out from underneath you, sending you spiraling into financial ruin. In my Rich Habits research, I studied the habits of 128 individuals living in poverty. Some of those poor individuals were driven into poverty unnecessarily due to certain life events that they were completely unprepared for. Life sometimes has a way of throwing us into the abyss. Below are four of the most common life catastrophes and the strategies I uncovered in my research that act like a ladder, helping you climb out of your abyss, in tact financially. [Read more…]

Rich Kids – How to Raise Our Children to be Happy and Successful in Life has received the prestigious Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Award in the How-To/Inspirational category. Writer’s Digest is the industry trade magazine for writers and is considered the bible among professional writers. It is, therefore, among the most prestigious book awards an author can receive in the book publishing industry. Below is the official announcement from Writer’s Digest: [Read more…]

Financial success takes a long time. In my Rich Habits Study it took the average self-made millionaire 32 years to become “rich”. When I began my study I wanted to know the answer to one question: why are some people rich and other people poor? Five years, and 51,984 questions later I learned the answer – your daily habits. Habits dictate your circumstances in life. This is a truly groundbreaking discovery. Habits affect just about every aspect of your life. And there are many shades of habits. We have money habits, eating habits, drinking habits, exercise habits, sleeping habits, downtime habits, work-time habits, reading habits, relationship habits, happiness habits and thinking habits. We have morning habits, afternoon habits and nighttime habits. According to a 2006 Duke study, [Read more…]

What secrets about managing money do the rich know that the average person doesn’t? I spent five years trying to answer that question. I asked 233 millionaires 144 questions and discovered the rich have certain very specific money habits that were instrumental in helping them accumulate their wealth. [Read more…]

I spent five years studying the daily activities of wealthy individuals. I learned so many things that I’ve spent the better part of seven years sharing that information to help those who were struggling financially pull themselves out of the abyss that is poverty. One of the many things I learned is that self-made millionaires have a very different understanding about money than everyone else. I’d like to share some of the myth’s about money I uncovered in my research. [Read more…]

Financial success takes a long time. In my Rich Habits Study it took the average self-made millionaire 32 years to become “rich”. When I began my study I wanted to know the answer to one question: why are some people rich and other people poor? Five years, and over 350 interviews later, I finished my research. It wasn’t an easy thing to do. I had grouped 144 questions into 20 categories, and asked over 350 millionaires and poor people these questions. It took me five years because this wasn’t just a survey I mailed out. Surveys have very limited value. I either met with these people or spoke with them over the phone. As a result, I was able to gather far more data. If you do the math, I asked 51,984 questions of the rich and the poor. That’s a lot of questions! But also, a lot of answers. One of the most valuable things I learned from this research is that there are really only two ways to become rich: [Read more…]

One of the hallmarks of the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study was their generosity. They gave both their time and money primarily to local community-based non-profit organizations. But what if I told you that even if you don’t have a lot of money, you could be charitable, and it wouldn’t cost you any time or money?

Have you ever found money? Do you remember what you did with the last change you found in a parking lot, on the street of on a sidewalk? If you’re like most, you probably put it in your pocket and it eventually made its way into some container you have at home for change.

Well, let me tell you what I just started doing with my found money. I put a cup in my car. I call it the Found Money Charity Cup. I now put all of my found money in the cup. When the cup is full, I intend on bringing it to one of the non-profits in my town and giving them the money. It might take a year to fill that cup but, so what. The few dollars I accumulate will come to some good use.

What’s interesting, is that the moment I put this Found Money Charity Cup in my car, I began looking for money everywhere. And because of this little treasure hunt I’ve been on, I am finding money almost on a daily basis. And my cup is really starting to fill up. I began to think, what if everyone started to do the same thing? What if offices, warehouses, manufacturing facilities, schools, bars, auto repair shops, hair salons, car rentals, airports, parking garages, ferries, train stations, etc. around the world put out a Found Money Charity Cup? Can you imagine how much of the world’s found money would make its way into a worthwhile charity? Something to think about.