According to my Rich Habits study, one of the reasons the wealthy accumulated so much wealth was due to the fact that they worked more hours than those who were not rich, or who were poor. Here’s some of the data:

• 44% of the wealthy worked 11 hours more each week than the poor.
• 86% of the wealthy who had full time jobs worked 50 hours or more each week, whereas 57% of the poor who had full-time jobs worked less than 50 hours each week.
• 88% of the wealthy took fewer sick days than the poor.
• 79% of the wealthy, on top of their robust work hours, networked 5 or more hours each month. 55% of this networking was done during their lunch hour.
• 65% of the wealthy were working so many hours, in part, because they had 3 sources of income to manage.
• 45% had 4 sources of income. Only 6% of the poor had more than one source of income.
• 67% of the wealthy watched less than an hour of T.V. a day, whereas 77% of the poor watched more than an hour of T.V. a day.
• 63% of the wealthy spent less than an hour a day on the Internet whereas 74% of the poor spent more than an hour a day on the Internet.

So, the rich are just harder working than everyone else?

Yes.

But not necessarily because they have a better work ethic. They just like what they do and, as a result, they devote more hours doing what they like to do.

Eighty six percent of the rich in my study liked what they did for a living. Seven percent loved what they did for a living.

Those who loved what they did for a living worked 58 hours a week on average vs. 51 hours a week for those who liked their jobs. That’s an average of 7 hours a week more. This works out to 336 more working hours a year for the job lovers.

I initially thought this disparity in work hours, between the rich and the poor, was in large part due to the fact that 91% of the wealthy in my study were decision makers, which carries with it more responsibility and, thus, more work hours. But that’s not the case.

According to the Census Bureau, the average wealthy household (defined by the IRS as the top 20% of income earners in the U.S.) worked five times as many hours as the average poor household. The cause of this, according to Census data, is due to:

• The high rate of single parent households among the poor – The poverty rate in single parent households is triple the rate of two parent households – 42% vs. 13%.
• Fewer workers in the household – 95% of poor households have only one worker. 75% of the wealthy households have two or more workers.
• Unemployment – 60% of poor households have no one working at all.

When politicians, bent on bashing the wealthy, tell us the poor work just as hard as the rich, they’re lying. And they know it because they have access to the same Census data as we do. When these same politicians pontificate that the only way to fix the wealth gap is through higher taxes on the wealthy, wealth redistribution policies, increasing the minimum wage or outright government assistance, they are missing the elephant in the room.

The genesis of much of the poverty in our country has nothing to do with policy or that evil 1%.

It has everything to do with the broken family unit.

We don’t have a wealth gap in this country, we have a parent gap. We don’t have income inequality, we have parent inequality.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Your habitual thoughts drive your daily activities.

Those with a positive outlook engage in activities that mirror their upbeat, optimistic, enthusiastic, open-minded, grateful thoughts:

• Pursue Knowledge – Those who succeed are open-minded. As a result, they are always in pursuit of new knowledge and new facts. They do not allow ideology to interfere with their search for knowledge.
• Practice Relentlessly – Those who succeed in skill-based professions, believe in themselves. Their strong belief that they can succeed drives them to engage in Deliberate and Analytical Practice for many hours a day.
• Pursue Dreams & Goals – Those who succeed are optimists. They believe they can accomplish anything they put their mind to.
• Fearless Investors – Those who succeed do their homework when it comes to investments. Doing your homework means learning everything about a potential investment. Because they do their homework, they actually reduce the risks associated with investing. This is known as Educated Risk.
• Forge Valuable Partnerships – The successful seek to partner with other individuals who possess a positive mental outlook.

If you think negative thoughts you will fail in life. Negative thoughts say to the world, “I am thinking this way because I want negative things in my life.”

Every successful person has failed or run up against one roadblock after another. If they accepted a negative, defeatist attitude they would have certainly quit. When you allow negative thoughts to dominate your thinking, success becomes impossible because negative thoughts act like stop signs – the stop you from pursuing dreams, goals, learning, practicing and moving forward in life.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

In order to get, you must first give. It is one of the universal laws of success that has never changed. You must first give value to others if you want to succeed in life.

It was no surprise that 79% of the self-made millionaires in my rich Habits Study volunteered for charities or non-profit groups on a regular basis. Many of the individuals who run non-profits or charities happen to be successful people. Does that surprise you? It shouldn’t. Birds of a feather like to flock together.

If you want to find out where many of the rich and successful congregate, join a community charity or non-profit. This is one of the avenues the rich use to develop relationships with other success-minded people. Those relationships often end up doing business together and helping one another thrive and succeed.

You won’t find many selfish individuals volunteering at charities or non-profits. It goes against their me first philosophy.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Financial success takes a long time.

In my Rich Habits Study that “long time” depended upon your chosen the path to wealth:

• Saver-Investor Path = 32 years to accumulate an average of $3,260,000
• Big Company Climber Path = 21 years to accumulate an average of $3,375,000
• Virtuoso Path = 20 years to accumulate an average of $3,980,000
• Dreamer-Entrepreneur Path = 12 years to accumulate an average of $7,450,000

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 are the cause, wealth or poverty, the effect. Habits, it turned out, had more to do with wealth and poverty than any of the many other factors I unearthed in my study.

Habits affect just about every aspect of your life and they do so at an unconscious or non-conscious level. Most are simply unaware that habits dictate your circumstances in life.

This is a truly groundbreaking discovery.

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, thinking habits eating habits, time-wasting habits, inner-circle habits, cultural habits, neighborhood habits, country habits. We also have morning habits, afternoon habits and nighttime habits.

According to many habit studies I’ve studied, 40% or more of your daily activities, thinking, emotions and decision-making are habits.

We pick up most of our habits from those in our inner circle: parents, teachers, family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, mentors, coaches, etc.

Those who you associate with frequently will infect you with their habits. For those who desire to become wealthy, it is therefore paramount to associate with individuals who are on the same path you are on.

Those on the Saver-Investor Path in my study surrounded themselves with other individuals who shared their smart money habits.

Those on the Corporate Climber Path in my study forged Power Relationships with senior executives within their company and/or their industry.

Those on the Virtuoso Path will in my study had close friends and colleagues who were also seeking to become the best at what they did to make money.

And those on the Dreamer-Entrepreneur Path in my study surrounded themselves only with individuals who helped mentor, encourage and support them during their journey.

The common thread among all of the different types of self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study was the intentional, conscious effort they made to associate with like-minded individuals.

In short – choose your path to wealth and then surround yourself with others who are on the same path.

They will infect you with the Rich Habits that are specific to the path you are on and this will dramatically increase your chances of succeeding in building the wealth you desire.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Roy Baumeister is a renown behavioral psychologist whose studies are revolutionizing our understanding of willpower. According to Baurmeiser, author of Willpower, the only sure fire way to stick to a new good habit is through tracking.

In one of his many experiments, Baumeister tracked individuals who were trying to lose weight. One group tracked their daily calories, either in a journal or using some software or app and also weighed themselves every day. The second group did not track their calories and weighed themselves once a week.

In the first group, twice as many individuals lost weight vs. the first group. The first group essentially doubled their success in losing weight by simply tracking calories every day and by stepping on the scale every day.

Tracking acts like an accountability partner. It forces you to confront, on a daily basis, the thing you are tracking. Tracking can be applied to any new good habit you are trying to forge.

For example, if you journal, or use some tracking system to detail your exercise activities (miles, reps, time spent, etc.), you double your chances of sticking to the exercise regimen.

Reading to learn every day, another Rich Habit, can be tracked by documenting how much time you spend reading each day.

You can even use the latest technology to track how much healthy food you eat each day, how many steps you take each day using Fitbit, or you can download apps to help you track any new habits you are trying to adopt.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

There are four paths to creating wealth:

1. Saver-Investor Path
2. Big Company Climber Path
3. Virtuoso Path
4. Dreamer-Entrepreneur Path

The Saver-Investor Rich Habits include the following:

• Frugal Spending – Frugal does not mean cheap. Frugal means spending your money on the lowest price, highest quality product or service available.
• Saving 20% or more of your income.
• Bucket System for Your Savings – Identifying specific savings priorities and devoting a percentage of your savings to each bucket: Wedding, First Home, Emergency Fund, College Savings, Building Wealth by Prudently Investing Your Savings, Retirement, etc.

There are many other Rich Habits for Saver-Investors. In my soon-to-be-released book, Effort-Less Wealth – Smart Money Habits For Every Stage of Your Life, I share all of the Rich Habits that virtually guarantee at a minimum, financial independence and possibly even make you wealthy.

Saver-Investors have a life plan that they follow which puts financial success on autopilot. Because they follow a plan, they are able to automatically build wealth. Their investments appreciate, dividend income accrues and interest income on those investments grows automatically. So, in a sense, their wealth is compounding and growing, even when the are asleep – making them eight hours richer every time they wake up.

For those who live beyond their means, the interest on their debt continues to grow while they are sleeping. So, in a sense, every time they wake up, they are eight hours poorer.

If you want to build wealth the easiest way possible, the Saver-Investor Path is the way to go. But it all starts in the same place for everyone – paying yourself first and living off what’s left. When you make a decision to save first, you force yourself to reduce your cost of living, allowing you to live below your means. Then you can put your savings to work by prudently and consistently investing your savings, so that it can grow – even when you are sleeping!

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

We’ve all heard about to-do lists. The best to-do lists incorporate daily activities that help move you forward in life towards accomplishing your goals and realizing your dreams.

But you probably never heard of a to-don’t list.

A to-don’t list is equally as important as a to-do list. A to-don’t  list includes things you should never do because they are either time wasters, bad habits or activities that throw a wrench along your path and which prevent you from moving forward in the pursuit of your dreams and goals.

A typical to-don’t list might include the following:

• Don’t watch more than 1 hour of TV today – Time-Wasting Habit.
• Don’t waste time today on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. – Time-Wasting Habit.
• Don’t envy anyone today – Envy Fosters a Negative Mindset – Negativity impairs: clear thinking, problem-solving, creativity and decision-making.
• Don’t make any impulse purchases today – Poor Money Habit.
• Don’t gossip today – Toxic Trait – Impairs relationships and destroys trust.
• Don’t gamble today – Poor Money Habit.
• Don’t drink in excess today – Poor Health Habit. Also impairs: clear thinking, problem-solving, creativity and decision-making.
• Don’t lose my temper today – Toxic Trait – Impairs relationships.
• Don’t ignore my family today – Misplaced Value-System – Family should be your #1 Priority. Your priorities = your true values.
• Don’t read negative news articles today – Fosters a Negative Mindset – Negativity impairs: clear thinking, problem-solving, creativity and decision-making.
• Don’t procrastinate today – Poor Habit – Damages business relationships.
• Don’t ridicule anyone today – Toxic Trait.
• Don’t hate anyone today – Toxic Trait.
• Don’t smoke a cigarette today – Poor Health Habit.
• Don’t be negative today – Negativity impairs: clear thinking, problem-solving, creativity and decision-making.

To-don’t lists are just as important as to-do lists. For those who have too many bad habits, they may be more important. To-don’t lists help keep you AWARE of the things you should not be doing. Awareness is critical to change.

To-do’s, while a great success tool, only get you half way towards being successful. To-don’ts take you the rest of the way.

What would be on your to-don’t list?

Take your life to the next level. Start a to-don’t list today.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Most are completely oblivious to their own behaviors, habits and thinking as well as conversations of others, actions of others and their surroundings. Study after study has been conducted regarding this and they even came up with a phrase to describe it – Inattentional Blindness.

The main cause of this Inattentional Blindness is the brain’s inability to multi-task – to consciously do two things once.

For the most part we are only able to focus on one thing at a time. Everything else simply fades away, ignored by our conscious mind. Our brain’s Reticular Activating System (RAS), together with the Insular, blocks all sensory input, other than that input needed to complete the task at hand. This RAS/Insular gatekeeper will only deviate from this filtering function when something unexpected or novel comes to its attention.

For example, you are in a crowded, noisy airport. Hundreds of voices merging into one long buzz. Suddenly, you hear someone call out your name. At once, your RAS comes to life and you find yourself instinctively training your focus in the direction of the sound of your name, above all the noise.

The power to focus and ignore almost everything outside our focus is why humanity has been able to send a man to the moon, build the Brooklyn Bridge, split the atom and achieve so much. The ability to focus so intently on one thing is one of our greatest strengths.

It is the reason why famous, successful people like James Cameron (director of Terminator movies, Titanic and Avatar) Jim Carrey (famous comedian/actor) and JK Rowling (Harry Potter author) were able to lift themselves out of extreme poverty and transform themselves into self-made millionaires.

All three, at one time, were so poor, their home was their car.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of individuals hold on to the belief that it is virtually impossible for a poor person to break free of poverty and become rich. This one limiting belief keeps millions stuck in poverty, generation after generation.

And that is unfortunate, because the power of focus is the poor person’s escape hatch. It can lift any individual out of the most dire of financial circumstances.

The power of focus is humanity’s great superpower.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Myth #1 Investing in the Stock Market is the Same as Gambling

Thirty-six percent of the self-made millionaires in my study were what I like to call Home Depot Investors. These individuals made most of their wealth by investing in stocks in individual publicly-held companies. Many believe that stock investing is no different than gambling.

My millionaires would disagree. You see, before these millionaires purchased any stock, they would pour over the financials of each potential investment, looking for strengths and weaknesses:

• Was the company over-leveraged (too much debt compared to assets) – this could negatively affect cash flow, hampering growth. Cash flow which must be used to pay off the debt and the interest, can’t be re-invested back into the company?
• Were company their profits increasing consistently over time – increasing profits is a good indicator of good management – management has control over costs.
• Are company sales growing? This is an indicator that the products or services offered are in demand and the company’s sales force is doing a good job.

Once Home Depot Investors complete their due diligence, or homework, that is when they would confer with their financial advisor for feedback regarding their financial assessment.

And their homework did not end after they purchased a stock. These millionaires continued to monitor the financials of each company they invested in. If the financials got better, they invested more money. If the financials got worse, they sold their stock.

Sounds a lot like Warren Buffet, doesn’t it? As far as my self-made millionaires were concerned, doing your homework takes the gambling out of investing.

Myth #2 All Debt is Bad

Fifty-one percent of the self-made millionaires in my study were entrepreneurs. They started up companies and then ran them as if their life depended on it. They took risks that would make most cower in fear.

And they did not shy away from debt. In fact, many took on enormous debt to start, grow or expand their businesses. They used debt to create a business asset that would eventually generate significant profits and make them rich.

That’s called good debt.

Bad debt is debt that is used to finance ongoing losses in a business long after the start-up period has ended. Losses mean you’re not running your business correctly or you’re in a business sector that is in decline, due to external factors, such as technological or innovations negatively affecting your industry.

Using debt to finance an unprofitable business is bad debt.

Myth #3 The Rich Are Just Lucky

There is a difference between random luck and Opportunity Luck. To the rich haters out there, random luck is why the rich are rich.

Not true.

Opportunity Luck is why the rich are rich. Opportunity Luck is a unique type of luck the rich create as a result of having good daily habits, proven processes, positive thinking and laser-like focus on their goals and dreams.

When you have these success traits, you they become a magnet opportunity luck.

Myth #4 Those Who Pursue Wealth Are Greedy

Ninety-three percent of the wealthy in my study either liked or loved what they did for a living, long before wealth and success came along.

It took the average millionaire in my study thirty-two years to accumulate their wealth. Ninety-seven percent of the wealthy in my study said greed was not a motivating factor in their pursuit of success and wealth. They did what they did because they liked or loved it, not because they were on some mission to become a millionaire.

Myth #5 A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned

A penny invested is ten pennies earned. The rich in my study invested their money in one or more of these three places: their own business, stock in other companies (see Myth #1 above), or real estate. If you really want to be rich, you must invest your money – you must make your money work for you.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

For those of you who are pursuing success and wealth by following the Dreamer/Entrepreneur Path or the Big Company Climber Path, you know all too well that success isn’t easy. Oftentimes, you feel more like a circus clown, juggling many balls.

But, while success has many moving parts, every foundation of success is built upon the same four pillars.In order to succeed, therefore, you must make sure you are building your foundation upon sound pillars. If even one of your pillars is weak or unsound, your foundation will be unsound, inviting failure.

According to my Rich Habits research, there are four pillars upon which every successful, self-made millionaire in my Rich Habits Study built their Foundation of Success:

#1 Success Habits

Success is a process and that process, good or bad, is defined by your habits. Those who forge good, success habits, follow processes that automate success. Those who forge bad habits, follow processes that result in failure. Be aware of your habits. Eliminate bad habits and forge good habits.

#2 Positive Thinking

According to the latest science, negativity causes tunnel vision, limiting creativity and inhibiting your ability to think clearly. When the lens through which you view the world is negative, you see nothing but problems and become blind to opportunities and solutions.

If you’re struggling financially, a negative mental outlook acts like gasoline, fueling the flames of negativity and perpetuating a life of financial struggle.

Conversely, a positive mental outlook enhances creative problem solving. It gives you the mental tools to lift yourself up in order to overcome your obstacles.

#3 Power Relationships

Power Relationships are the true currency of the wealthy. The most successful people in the world are part of a powerful network comprised of other successful people.

Building any relationship takes time. Often, many years. If you are pursuing success via the Dreamer/Entrepreneur Path or the Big Company Climber Path, you want to devote time, every day, to building relationships with centers of influence – individuals who are in a position of power.

People who are in a position of power are able to move mountains. With one phone call they can turn a dream start-up into a Facebook. They can open the door to bankers who will fund your business or idea. They can get you that senior executive promotion. They can remove barriers that stand in your way.

#4 Daily Growth

Successful people become successful because they grow into the people they need to be in order for success to visit them.

Each individual has a circle. Inside that circle are the things you are comfortable doing. Those things inside your circle represents your comfort zone. Most do everything humanly possible to stay within their comfort zone.

When you do things that are outside your comfort zone and outside that circle, it causes discomfort. But each time you engage in an activity that causes discomfort, you expand your circle; you grow as an individual. That discomfort is oftentimes painful. Growth is painful.

Stretching your circle by engaging in activities that cause discomfort is necessary if you want to grow into the person you need to be in order to succeed.

You can’t succeed in life by staying in your comfort zone. Successful individuals force themselves to stretch and improve every day through daily study (reading), daily practice and by seeking feedback from experts.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!