Archives for November 2017

Habits That Preserve and Grow Wealth

November 30, 2017 by 1 Comment

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Being wealthy requires two things:

  1. Accumulating Wealth and
  2. Keeping It.

It’s one thing to become wealthy. It’s another thing to keep and grow the wealth you’ve accumulated. Here are some of the most important Rich Habits that help you keep and grow your wealth:

  • Automate Saving – Making a habit of automating how much you save every month.
  • Invest Your Savings – Putting your savings to work requires that you invest your savings. This requires doing your homework for every investment and only investing in what you know.
  • Monitor Your Investments – This also requires doing your homework. You must monitor your investments regularly and make changes if your investments are not producing adequate returns.
  • Frugal Spending – Being frugal is about seeking high quality products or services first and then finding the lowest cost in acquiring those high quality products or services.
  • Avoid Want Spending – Want spending is spending your wealth on wants rather than needs. It is the habit of giving in to immediate gratification to satisfy some immediate impulse. Want Spenders create their own poverty. They are undisciplined with their money. They have been brainwashed by advertisers and a consumerist society into buying things they do not need.
  • Avoid Lifestyle Creep – Lifestyle Creep is increasing your spending to meet your increased income. No matter what financial good fortune visits you in life, do not change your standard of living. Don’t supersize your life by buying things you really do not need. Live a modest life, always.
  • Use Professionals – Use professionals to reduce your taxes. Use professionals to protect your wealth. Use professionals to help guide your investment and financial decisions.
Filed Under: Daily Success Tips

Sexual Harassment is a Habit Forged Over Many Years

November 29, 2017 by 1 Comment

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We all have habits. Some are good habits and some are bad habits.

One thing all habits have in common is that they take many years to form. Only through repetition, does any behavior become a habit.

Eventually, your habits will impact your life. How they impact your life, very much depends on whether they are Rich Habits or Poor Habits.

For example, saving 20% or more of your income every year and investing those savings prudently, is a Rich Habit. It takes, on average, thirty-two years for this savings and investment habit to pay off in the form of significant wealth accumulation.

Poor Habits also take many years before they impact your life.

For example, recently numerous celebrities, media personalities and politicians have been accused or admitted to sexually harassing women in the workplace. Sexual harassment is never a one-off, isolated incident of bad behavior. It is almost always a pattern of behavior. It is a pattern because it is a habit.

Eventually, like all bad habits, sexual harassment destroys the lives of those who have this Poor Habit.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Featured Articles

The Most Important Success Habits

November 29, 2017 by Leave a Comment

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I am often asked by the media what are the most important Rich Habits. In my opinion, these are the top ones:

#1 Experimentation – Experimenting with diverse activities that can be monetized, until you find one or more activities that reveal an innate talent or which make your heart sing with passion and enthusiasm.

#2 Dream-Setting – Creating a script of your ideal life. This helps you to define your dreams and the goals behind your dreams.

#3 Daily Self-Education – 30 minutes or more a day of reading to learn. You can substitute podcasts, videos or audio books for reading. The key is to summarize what you learn. I use a Fact Binder to capture new knowledge/facts.

#4 Living Below Your Means – Living off of 80% of your net pay and saving the difference.

#5 Daily Aerobic Exercise – 20 minutes or more of cardio, every day.

#6 Healthy Eating – Two out of three meals that do not include carbs or processed food or intermittent fasting with one healthy meal a day.

#7 Automate Savings – Automatically directing 20% or more of your net pay into a savings account.

#8 Prudent Investing – Investing your savings prudently. This requires that you do your homework. By homework I mean studying every potential investment until you feel you are confident you understand it very well. Homework also includes regularly monitoring every investment you do make.

Filed Under: Daily Success Tips

Enthusiasm is Vital to Success

November 28, 2017 by 2 Comments

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Apathy can only be overcome by enthusiasm and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal which takes the imagination by storm and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice. – Arnold Toynbee

Happiness is really enthusiasm. Eighty-five percent of the self-made millionaires in my study possessed it. They woke every morning, eager to begin a new day, plying their talents, skills, and knowledge to something they believed in and were obsessed by.

The key to enthusiasm is doing something you love or have an innate talent for. When you discover your main purpose in life, it fires you with enthusiasm. It makes your heart sing.

Your sole objective in life, should therefore be to find and engage in those activities which make your heart sing and then spend the rest of your life perfecting your knowledge and skills, doing that which keeps your heart singing.

The path to lifelong enthusiasm is experimentation – experimenting with diverse activities until you find one which arouses enthusiasm.

If you want to stop working and turn hours into minutes, you must experiment and then invest in activities that one day will enable you to earn money while doing what you love.

Filed Under: Daily Success Tips

Courage Grows Through Action

November 27, 2017 by Leave a Comment

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The two biggest enemies of success are fear and doubt. They hold most back from taking action.

The interesting thing about fear and doubt, however, is that they never go away, no matter how successful you become.

So, if fear and doubt exist for the successful, why don’t they hold them back from taking action?

The problem isn’t fear and doubt. The problem is habit. Successful people simply make a habit of taking action, despite the fear and doubt. They habitualize action.

Only by taking action do you gain the experiences of facing obstacles and overcoming them, facing mistakes and learning from them, taking risks and surviving failure.

Through action you gain life experiences that become a reservoir you can reach into during a time of need.

When you face obstacles, that mental reservoir in your mind says, we’ve faced a similar obstacle before a few years ago and this is the way around it.

When you face an uncertainty, that mental reservoir in your mind says, we’ve faced a similar uncertainty before and this was the mistake we made and need to avoid.

When you face a risk, that mental reservoir in your mind says, we’ve taken a similar risk before and we survived.

Courage grows through action because actions create a mental reservoir of historical experiences and those historical experiences give you the courage to take future action.

Filed Under: Daily Success Tips

Rich Habits Poor Habits Episode 50 | Rich Habits Part 2

November 25, 2017 by Leave a Comment

Intelligence, talent and charm are great, but more often than not these aren’t what separate the wealthiest among us from the poorest.

Instead, the differences are in our daily habits.

Do you realize that these subconscious, second-nature activities make up 40 percent of our waking hours?

That means that two out of every five minutes, all day and every day, we operate on autopilot.

It’s true: Habits are neural pathways stored in the basal ganglia, a golf ball-size mass of tissue right in the center of our brains, in the limbic system.

Here are the most important Rich Habits you can take up to reach and maintain your wealth potential:

1. Control your emotions

Not every thought needs to come out of your mouth.

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Not every emotion needs to be expressed.

When you say whatever is on your mind, you risk hurting others.

Loose lips are a habit for 69 percent of those who struggle financially.  

Conversely, 94 percent of wealthy people filter their emotions.

They understand that letting emotions control them can destroy relationships at work and at home.

Wait to say what’s on your mind until you’re calm and have had time to look at the situation objectively.

Fear is perhaps the most important negative emotion to control.

Any change, even positive changes such as marriage or a promotion, can prompt feelings of fear.

Wealthy people have conditioned their minds to overcome these thoughts, while those who struggle financially give in to fear and allow it to hold them back.

Whether you fear change, making mistakes, taking risks or simply failure, conquering these emotions is about leaning in just a little until you build up confidence.

It’s amazing how much confidence helps.

2. Network and volunteer regularly

You’ll build valuable relationships that can result in more customers or clients, or help you land a better job if you spend time pressing the flesh and giving back in your community. Families by state

Almost three-quarters of wealthy people network and volunteer a minimum of five hours a month.

Among those struggling financially, only one in 10 does this.

One perk of volunteering is the company you’ll keep.

Very often the boards and committees of nonprofits are made up of wealthy, successful people.

Developing personal relationships with these folks will often result in future business relationships.

3. Go above and beyond in work and business

Unsuccessful people have “it’s not in my job description” syndrome. business-2345812_1920

Consequently, they are never given more responsibility, and their wages grow very little from year to year—if they keep their jobs at all.

Wealthy individuals, on the other hand, make themselves invaluable to their employers or customers, writing articles related to their industry, speaking at industry events and networking.

Successful people work hard to achieve the mutual goals of their employers or their businesses.

4. Set goals, not wishes

You cannot control the outcome of a wish, but you can control the outcome of a goal.

Every year, 70 percent of the wealthy pursue at least one major goal.

Only 3 percent of those struggling to make ends meet do this2.

5. Avoid procrastination

Successful people understand that procrastination impairs quality; creates dissatisfied employers, customers or clients; and damages other non-business relationships.

Here are five strategies that will help you avoid procrastination: Business Patient

  • Create daily “to-do” lists. These are your daily goals. You want to complete 70 percent or more of your “to-do” items every day.
  • Have a “daily five.” These activities represent the crucial things that will help you get closer to realizing some major purpose or goal.
  • Set and communicate artificial deadlines. There’s nothing wrong with finishing early.
  • Have accountability partners. These are people you team with to pursue a big goal. Communicate with them at least every week, and make sure they hold your feet to the fire.
  • Say a “do it now” affirmation. This is a self-nagging technique. Repeat the words “do it now” over and over again until you begin a task or project.

6. Talk less and listen more meeting

A 5-to-1 ratio is about right: You should listen to others five minutes for every one minute that you speak.

Wealthy people are good communicators because they are good listeners.

They understand that you can learn and educate yourself only by listening to what other people have to say.

The more you learn about your relationships, the more you can help them.

YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN READING:

RICH HABITS POOR HABITS EPISODE 49 | RICH HABITS PART 1

RICH HABITS POOR HABITS EPISODE 48 | BEING RICH IS REALLY ABOUT TWO THINGS PART 2

RICH HABITS POOR HABIT EPISODE 47 | BEING RICH IS REALLY ABOUT TWO THINGS PART 1

RICH HABITS POOR HABIT EPISODE 46 | 4 HABITS THAT WILL KEEP YOU FROM GETTING RICH

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Filed Under: Tip of the Week

The Grass is Always Greener Until You Have to Mow the Lawn

November 24, 2017 by Leave a Comment

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If you were to ask most people if they want to be rich, they will emphatically answer YES almost every time.

But, as I learned from my five-year study of self-made millionaires, the journey to success isn’t easy.

It often requires that you take numerous risks.

Success is also riddled with obstacles, adversity and mistakes, which requires sacrifice – long work hours that separate you from your family and friends. It takes time to overcome the pitfalls you will face during the success journey.

Success is also an emotional roller coaster ride. Most days things will not go your way and you need to gain control over your emotions or that emotional roller coaster ride will break you.

In reality, most people do not want to become successful because most people do not want to take risks, face adversity or make the sacrifices success requires.

The grass is always greener until you have to mow the lawn.

Most people simply want success to happen to them. Deep down, they do not want to do the work required of success.

But success never just happens. It has to be made to happen. It has to be earned. And when the rubber meets the road, most are simply unwilling to devote their heart and soul to doing what it takes to become a success in life. The fear of the unknown stops them in their tracks.

They fail to take action because they do not believe they have what it takes to survive the success journey.

Unfortunately, what most fail to realize is that courage, work ethic, persistence, focus, patience and resilience are not success traits you must possess before you pursue success. They are success traits that reveal themselves during the success journey.

Everyone possesses these success traits. They are part of every human being’s DNA. But they remain dormant until they are called upon. And they are only called upon when they are needed.

When you pursue your dreams in life, these success traits spring forth, like a fountain of riches you never knew you had.

Don’t let fear of the unknown stop you from pursuing your dreams. All you need is already deep inside of you. You just need to take that first step. You need to take action on your dreams. You are much more than you ever imagined.

Filed Under: Daily Success Tips

Easiest Rich Habits

November 23, 2017 by 1 Comment

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According to one of the most comprehensive habit studies conducted by habit researcher Phillipa Lally of University College London, it can take anywhere from 18 – 254 days to forge one habit, depending on the complexity of the habit.

In my Rich Habits Study, in which I studied the daily habits of self-made millionaires, I identified certain habits that are the easiest to forge:

Automate Savings

This habit is among the easiest to automate because all it requires is one decision – setting up an automated savings program. Once you specify how much you will save every paycheck, the savings is automatically directed into a separate savings account. This forces you to live below your means, meaning to survive financially living off the remaining net pay check.

Living Below Your Means

This is another habit that only requires one smart decision. Since a home is the most significant cost for most people, living in a modest home, in a modest neighborhood reduces your rent or mortgage payment, real estate taxes, utility costs, home maintenance costs and home repair costs. Like a domino, this one habit reduces many other related costs.

Daily Self-Improvement

Daily self-improvement is one of the most powerful Rich Habits. It helps you grow your knowledge-base and your skill set. Just 20-30 minutes a day of daily self-improvement sets you apart from the competition.

Eating Healthy

Eating right helps reduce weight, improve your cardiovascular system and introduces healthy bacteria (microbiota) into your gut, boosting your immune system. All this habit requires is one or two healthy meals a day.

 

Filed Under: Daily Success Tips

5 Bad Spending Habits the Rich Avoid

November 22, 2017 by 1 Comment

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The self-made rich are rich for a reason. They accumulate wealth and then they keep the wealth they accumulate.

Keeping your hard-earned wealth requires that you adopt certain Rich Habits that make it impossible for your to part with your money. Below are five bad spending habits the rich do not have:

  1. Emotional Purchases – You see that amazing red dress, or that Movado watch, or that cute sports car and next thing you know you’re whipping out your debit/credit card. That’s called an Emotional Purchase, one driven by your reptilian brain and not your thinking brain. The rich make a habit of controlling their emotions and this is where that Rich Habit pays off big time.
  2. Spontaneous Purchases – This is a close cousin to Emotional Purchases. Retailers are tuned into this Poor Habit. That is why they place so many items at the checkout counters. They know that most people, while waiting to check out, will make a Spontaneous Purchase or two.
  3. Want Spending – Buying what you want, when you want it, even if it means going into debt, is a Poor Habit the rich avoid. Want Spending is driven by instant gratification, something that has been hardwired into us through: the constant bombardment by advertisers and easy credit.
  4. Cheap vs. Frugal Spending – The rich in my study were not cheap. They were frugal. Cheap spenders seek the lowest price first. Quality is a secondary consideration. Frugal spenders seek the highest quality first and then they diligently search for the lowest price.
  5. Gambling – Gambling is high risk speculation. The rich do not speculate. 94% of the rich in my study did not gamble, while 77% of the poor admitted to gambling every week.
Filed Under: Daily Success Tips

Beware The Experts

November 21, 2017 by 1 Comment

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Experts live in a box.

Inside that box, is a playbook.

The playbook contains all of the agreed-upon doctrines, processes, strategies and rules by which the experts rely. Those who deviate, incur the wrath of the experts who seek to dismiss and ridicule the outsiders who do not follow or accept the rules within the playbook.

The problem is that in today’s faced-paced environment, the playbook is constantly being re-written by outsiders who do not know or accept the rules.

Think Albert Einstein, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs – all outsiders who did not follow the rules of the playbook. Where would we be without outsiders who challenged the status-quo?

Outsiders bring fresh, new solutions to time-worn problems. Over time, new solutions become accepted doctrine and are entered in the playbook by the experts.

Don’t be brainwashed or dissuaded by the experts. Those who pursue and realize their dreams, are the very individuals who force the experts to re-think their rules.

True dreamers are outsiders who refuse to play by the same rules as everybody else.

Filed Under: Daily Success Tips
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