Archives for July 2019

Successful, wealthy people do not just suddenly become rich and successful. Success is a process that takes place over many years.

For those who pursue the accumulation of wealth through the Saver-Investor path, there are certain Smart Money Habits that guarantee you will become financially independent, and in some cases, even wealthy.

While knowing what to do is important, knowing what not to do is equally important. The following is a list of Poor Money Habits that will virtually guarantee that you will wind up in the poor house. [Read more…]

New parents are constantly vigilant in protecting their little ones from an innate, powerful curiosity that drives them to put things in their mouths that could be harmful or cause them to choke. Parents even install safety plugs to prevent their toddlers from sticking their curious fingers into outlets.

The words “no” or “bad” are spoken by new parents to their toddlers often in order to prevent this innate curiosity from causing them harm.

But if curiosity can be harmful, why is it so prevalent?

Curiosity is the brain’s default programming. The brain is hardwired, at birth, to be curious.

The human genome preprograms curiosity into every brain in order to encourage learning.

Those who are able to somehow retain their innate, hardwired curiosity, without killing themselves early on, see life as a classroom.

And they thrive.

Those who are the most curious, experience the greatest level of growth. Growth is a prerequisite to success. Those who grow the most, succeed the most.

The successful, grow into the individuals they need to be in order for success to visit them.

Seek out novelty. Never stop learning. Experiment. Meet new people. Take educated risks. Pick up a book and read. Take up a new hobby.

Never stop learning.

Humans are hardwired to be curious for one reason – to learn and to grow.

Those who follow this preprogramming, are rewarded with success.

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!

According to a Willpower study by Australian researchers Megan Oaten and Ken Chew, certain habits spur the creation of other, complimentary habits.

These certain habits are known as Keystone Habits.

Keystone Habits are unique in the habit world in that they produce a Ripple Effect on habit formation.

For example, let’s say you’re overweight and smoke cigarettes. Fed up, you decide to take up jogging in an effort to lose weight and get healthy.

After a month of jogging, you lose ten pounds. People around you take notice and compliment you on your weight loss. This feeds your ego and motivates you.

In an effort to lose more weight, you increase the number of miles you jog every week and also modify your diet. You begin eating healthier – fewer calories and more nutritious food. This helps you lose an additional ten pounds. The compliments continue, further feeding your ego.

The increase in positive emotions associated with your new habits, drives you to cut back on the number of cigarettes you smoke every day in order to improve your breathing, so you can jog even more miles every week. And, you lose even more weight, resulting in more compliments.

Eventually, you give up cigarettes, as this unhealthy habit is now in conflict with your new healthy habits and your new positive emotions.

This singular Keystone Habit, jogging, gave birth to three Complimentary Habits – Eating Less, Eating More Nutritious Food and the Elimination of Cigarettes.

The most interesting thing about Complimentary Habits is that they are almost seamless, meaning, effortless.

One Keystone Habit can foster the creation of several Complimentary Habits and also foster the elimination of several habits that are in conflict with your new habits, without relying on willpower.

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!

Those struggling with poverty share some common traits. I call them the Poor Habits. I’ve written extensively about these Poor Habits. But, Poor Habits alone only tell part of the story.

There are certain Pillars of Poverty that make poverty possible. Some are self-imposed, others external. In their order of relevance, below are the Pillars of Poverty.

1. Bad Parents – When your parents are bad human beings, you are literally screwed right out of the gate. Bad Parents, for various reasons, simply do not do their job. Drugs, alcohol, gambling and a host of other character flaws pulls the rug out from underneath their kids.
2. Ignorant Parents – Sometimes parents don’t know what they don’t know. Ignorant Parents have Poor Habits that spread like a virus to their children. If their children are not rescued by well-intentioned mentors, they will struggle with poverty as adults. Ignorant Parenting is the primary cause of Generational Poverty.
3. Broken Families – If you are raised in a broken family unit, life can be very difficult. Divorce, incarceration, abandonment, death are common denominators among the poor that fracture the family unit.
4. Illness – Sometimes life just writes families a bad check. Medical expenses associated with cancer, disabilities, mental disorders and other grave illnesses can force families to incur medical costs that take a lifetime to overcome.
5. Bad Environment – If you are born and raised in a very poor neighborhood, that neighborhood will infect everyone living in it with Poor Habits. In Bad Environments, danger lurks around every corner. Obstacles are omnipresent, acting like an anchor around the necks of everyone living in that Bad Environment. Bad role models within the Bad Environment can lure innocent children into a life of crime, drugs, prostitution and lawlessness. The saviors in a Bad Environment are good parents, good teachers or other mentors emanating from community-based organizations residing in that Bad Environment. Covenant House, is an example. Big Brothers and Sisters is another example. The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, too.
6. Bad Money Habits – If you are raised in a household in which parents are financially illiterate, those parents will lack smart money habits to teach their kids, putting them behind the eight ball.  Those who have bad money habits spend their money as quickly as it comes. They don’t save. They don’t invest. Thus, they are unable to accumulate wealth.
7. Poverty Ideology – When you are raised in a poor household, it’s easy to forge a Poverty Ideology. When you have a Poverty Ideology you see poverty as fact of life. Those with a Poverty Ideology believe they will be poor their entire lives. They are without hope, feel helpless and, thus, they lack the motivation to escape poverty.
8. Uneducated/Unskilled – Being uneducated or without marketable skills invites poverty. Lack of education or skills is a common plight among the poor. Self-improvement is often the only escape hatch. But self-improvement depends wholly on self-motivation. When you are raised in a Bad Neighborhood or Bad Environment, it’s hard not to adopt a Poverty Ideology, which imbues you with a sense of helplessness and hopelessness.
9. Poor Habits – When you are raised in poverty, you are exposed to Poor Habits. Since habits spread like a virus throughout your social network, those raised in Poor Neighborhoods or Bad Environments pick up the Poor Habits of those around them.
10. Victim Ideology – When you are stuck in poverty, generation after generation, you begin to see the world through a different lens. At the end of that lens, those stuck in a cycle of Generational Poverty, see themselves as pawns in a game of chess being played by Wall Street, banks, big corporations, the wealthy and corrupt politicians. This Victim Ideology fosters an Entitlement Mindset, in which the poor desperately look to the government to remedy their poverty, through policies that force the redistribution of wealth.

Success isn’t easy, even in an ideal environment. Building wealth isn’t easy, even in an ideal environment. In a Bad Environment, it becomes infinitely harder.

Many who are poor are poor for reasons outside their control. The key to breaking out of poverty is forging Rich Habits that will weaken the chains of poverty and eliminating Poor Habits which further weakens those chains.

But learning what to do (Rich Habits) and what not to do (Poor Habits), requires education. Education, either formal or informal (self-study), pulls the curtain, exposing the Rich Habits, which lift you up, and the Poor Habits, which drag you down.

My Wizard of Oz mission in life, is to be the person who pulls that curtain back, in the hopes of lifting millions up and freeing them from the chains of poverty.

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!

Like attracts Like.

Unconsciously, we seek to associate with others who are like us.

According to Nicolas Christakas, a former Yale University researcher, habits spread like a virus throughout our social networks.

This could be a good thing, if the things you have in common are constructive and improve your life.

For example, if your inner circle includes people who are thrifty and focused on saving money, it’s highly likely you’ll be infected by their smart money habits.

It could be a bad thing, however, if the habits of your inner circle are destructive or toxic.

According to my Rich Habits Study, those struggling financially in life unintentionally surrounded themselves with Toxic Relationships – negative individuals with bad money habits, bad health habits, emotional instability, addictions, poor work ethic, and many other things detrimental to living a happy, successful life.

Conversely, the self-made millionaires in my study intentionally surrounded themselves with Rich Relationships – upbeat individuals with smart money habits, good health habits, emotional stability, and strong, long-term relationships with similar people and many other things that contributed to living a happy, successful life.

For those who want to improve the quality of their lives, it is very important pursue Rich Relationships as members of your inner circle, or Insider’s Club, and minimize your exposure to Toxic Relationships.

Forging Rich Relationships and avoiding Toxic Relationships is a science, or process. At the heart of that process is understanding the difference between Rich Relationships and Toxic Relationships.

Rich Relationship Traits

The hallmark of these individuals is an upbeat, optimistic, positive mental outlook. Rich Relationship types have a can-do spirit. They believe individuals can accomplish anything they put their mind to.

Rich Relationships lift you up. They open doors that are otherwise closed. They help you solve your problems, achieve your goals and realize your dreams. When they are part of your inner circle, they improve your life. They drip words of happiness, love and encouragement on you, which helps keep you going, in the pursuit of your goals and dreams.

Here are some of the traits of Rich Relationships:

• Abundance Mindset – They don’t see success as a zero sum game, meaning for every winner there must be a loser. They believe everyone can win.
• Solutions-Focused – They are focused on finding solutions to problems.
• Provide Constructive Criticism – They offer criticism that is intended to help others, not demean or discourage them.
• Optimistic – They believe they can change the circumstances of their lives
• Confident – They take action on their goas and dreams, which boosts their confidence/
• Humble – They see egotism as a deficiency.
• Emotionally Stable – They intentionally control their emotions, especially when things go wrong in life. This gives the people confidence in their dealings with them.
• Can-Do Attitude – They believe they are the architects of the circumstances of their lives
• Happy – They look for the good in life, not the bad.
• Grateful – They focus on what they have, not on what others have.
• You First-Me Later – The focus on adding value to the lives of others.
• Patient – They understand success and wealth takes a long time.
• Relentlessly Persistent – They never quit on their goals and dreams.
• Focused on the Future – They are pursuing goals and dreams.
• Seeks Feedback From Others – They see feedback as a means to help them pivot and adjust what they are doing.
• Authentic – They do not pretend to be someone they are not. This is because they like who they are.
• Long-Term Focused – They invest in themselves, sacrificing today for a brighter future.

Toxic Relationship Traits

The hallmark of members of this group is pessimism and a negative mental outlook. Toxic Relationship types see themselves as victims of their circumstances. This negative, victim outlook fosters a sense of entitlement – they believed they were wronged and someone should right that wrong. They see various elements of society as holding them back, making it impossible for them to lift themselves out of their poverty or financial struggles.

Toxic Relationships will drag you down. Their lives are filled with drama, conflict, put out the fire-type emergencies and financial struggle. When they are in your orbit, their problems eventually become your problems.

Here are some of the traits of Toxic Relationships:

• Scarcity Mindset – They believe wealth is scarce and almost impossible to acquire.
• Problems-Focused – They are focused on finding problems, rather than solutions to those problems. They see problems everywhere.
• Destructive Criticism – Because they have low self-esteem, they seek to drag others down along with them by using pejorative and critical language.
• Pessimistic – They see no future or a very limited future. As a result they are reluctant to pursue their goals and dreams.
• Exaggerated Ego – They have a bad habit of inflating themselves in the presence of others in order to impress people.
• Uncontrolled Emotions – They allow their emotions to run wild. They are quick to anger.
• Helpless/Hopeless – They have lost hope in their ability to lift themselves up and improve their lives.
• Sad/Depressed – They have a morbid outlook on life and this makes them feel sad and even depressed.
• Wanting – They only see what they lack. They are not grateful for what they have. They are always looking at what other people have and comparing it to themselves.
• Me First-You Last – Their entitlement mindset puts their needs and wants ahead of others.
• Impatient – Their lack of a long-term focus on building wealth coupled with a sense of helplessness regarding life, makes them impatient for the change they desire.
• Fear of Feedback – Because they are insecure, their exaggerated ego prevents them from seeking feeldback from others. In fact, they fear feedback.
• Fake – They are unhappy about the circumstances of their lives and their ego drives them to pretend to be someone they are not.
• Short-Term Focused – They seek immediate gratification and are unwilling to invest in themselves for the long-term. They want what they want and they want it now.

Your goal should be to create your own unique Insider’s Club comprised of individuals who possess Rich Relationship traits. When you know what traits to be on the lookout for, it becomes much easier to separate those you want to associate with and those to avoid.

Rich Relationships will help you pull your cart. They will become active participants in your journey towards success. They will be your greatest asset.

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!

Since 2004, I’ve been studying rich people and poor people. In my Rich Habits Study, over the course of two years, I asked 144 questions to 233 millionaires in order to find out what it takes to live a happy, healthy and wealthy life.

While it’s important to know what to do, it’s also important to know what not to do. Oftentimes, it’s the things you are doing wrong, in spite of the many things you are doing right, that prevent you from living the life of your dreams. So, I spent another two years asking 128 poor people those same 144 questions.

After analyzing the volume of data I gathered over four years, I realized that living the life of your dreams is within everyone’s reach. You just need to know what to do and what not to do.

Below are a few smart money tips from my Rich Habits books that will help you build wealth.

Tip #1 Become a Saver-Investor – In my Rich Habits Study I learned that there are four paths to wealth:

1. Saver-Investor Path
2. Senior Executive Path
3. Virtuoso Path
4. Dreamer-Entrepreneur Path

The Saver-Investor Path is the guaranteed path to financial independence and sometimes uber-wealth. Success, as a Saver-Investor, has only two requirements:

1. Saving 20% or more of your income by living off of 80% or less of your income and
2. Consistently and prudently investing your savings.

According to my Rich Habits Study, this guaranteed-success path takes about 32 years to accumulate enough wealth ($3.3 million) to render you financially independent.

Tip #2 Change Your Inner Circle – According to Nicolas Christakis, former head researcher at Yale University, habits spread like a virus thorough your social networks. Your social network includes your home, school, neighborhood, workplace, gym, etc. If you want to become financially independent by saving money, hang out with savers. If you want to become a Virtuoso in what you do, hang out with other individuals who are experts in your field or craft.

Tip #3  Don’t Supersize Your Life – When Conor McGregor fought Floyd Mayweather in August of 2018, he received a guaranteed payment of $30 million. Almost immediately, he supersized his life by purchasing a $17 million yacht. In order to pay his taxes on the $30 million, McGregor had to dip into other money, because there wasn’t enough money left over after his yacht purchase for the tax collector.

When you receive a raise, bonus, promotion or higher paying job, don’t supersize your life by purchasing a bigger home, expensive cars, jewelry or any other stuff. Save that increase in income for your future. One way to do this is to commit to saving a percentage of your income, including raises and bonuses. This way you stick to a consistent savings plan that will benefit the future you.

Tip #4 Avoid Want Spending – Want Spenders surrender to instant gratification, eschewing saving in order to buy things they want now: 60 inch TVs, nice vacations, expensive cars, jewelry, etc. Want Spenders will even incur debt in order to finance the purchase of the things they want.

Tip #5 Avoid Lifestyle Creep – The definition of Lifestyle Creep is to increase your standard of living in order to match your increased income. It’s a common Poor Habit among many who suddenly find themselves making more money. The Rich Habit is to forgo the desire to spend your money today and, instead, sock it away into savings and investments that grow in value and provide financial resources that can be used in the future to maintain your future standard of living.

Once you spend your money, it’s gone. When you hit a bump in the road, such as a job loss, you are then forced to sell your stuff. If the stuff you purchased depreciated in value, you get pennies on the dollar.

One of my older and wealthier friends explained to me his rule for financial success:

“Same house, same spouse, same car.”

There’s a lot of wisdom in these words. What they really mean is that no matter what good fortune visits you in life, do not change your standard of living. Have a plan and stick to it.

Tip #6 Make Your Money Invisible – Open up a savings account. Every time you get paid, immediately move a specific amount of your net pay into the savings account and then immediately invest your savings. This will force you to spend only what you have in your main checking account. This has two effects on your life:

1. The simple act of moving money into a savings account and then investing those savings makes you feel good about yourself. Feeling good about yourself makes you happy.
2. You will be forced to limit your spending to what is available in your main checking account. This forces discipline, which also makes you feel like a financially responsible adult.

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!

I am often asked how important discipline is when it comes to habits.

Discipline is fueled by willpower. When you run out of willpower, discipline is impossible. Willpower is at its greatest immediately upon waking up after a good night’s sleep. It begins to fade away after about two hours of focused activity, also known as work.

When willpower starts to fade, it’s time for a nap, snack or relaxation time. These things restore willpower, which in turn permits you to engage in activities that require discipline.

If, however, the main ingredient for habit formation was discipline, very few would have habits, since discipline is fueled by willpower, which is always in short supply.

Thankfully, habits are not dependent on discipline. Habit formation is actually easy, if you know the shortcuts:

Shortcut #1 Habits By Association – Habits spread like a virus within your social network. If you want to forge specific habits, hang around people who have the habits you desire.

Shortcut #2 Habit Stacking – Think of an existing habit as a train on a track, except it’s inside your brain. If you add your new habit to that same train, as if it were a new passenger, the brain won’t put up a fight because you’re not trying to take control of the train or the track. You’re just taking a ride. When an old habit does not perceive a new habit as a threat, it does not wage war against the formation of that new habit.

Shortcut #3 Make it Easy – It is far easier to change your habits if you start with small habits. Small habit change involves adding habits that require very little effort. Examples include drinking more water during the day, taking vitamin supplements or listening to audio books while you commute to work. Small habit change also includes cutting back on existing bad habits. Examples include reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke, reduce T.V. watching by thirty minutes each day or reducing Facebook or Internet use to less than an hour a day. The smaller, easier the habit change, the higher the probability that it will stick. Small habit change gives you momentum and increased confidence. This allows you to take on bigger, more complex habit changes in the future.

Shortcut #4 Accountability Partner – Find someone with the habit you desire and make them your Accountability Partner. For example, let’s say you want to lose weight and decide to take up jogging. Do you know anyone in your community who jogs? If yes, then ask them if you could be their running partner. Jogging is transformed into a personal commitment – you will be less apt to forgo jogging when you know your new running partner is waiting for you at the park.

Shortcut #5 Change Your Environment – A change in environment is a great opportunity to change habits. Going to a gym puts you in a new environment. Going away somewhere on vacation puts you in a new environment. New home, new job, new relationships, etc. give birth to new environments.

Shortcut #6 Make It Hard – If you want to stop engaging in any habit, make it harder to do so. Example: If you have a habit of snacking on Doritos while watching TV, then stop buying Doritos

Shortcut # 7 Make it Unpleasant – If you want to stop engaging in any habit, make it unpleasant to do so. Example: If you have the time wasting habit of watching too much TV, then make TV watching less pleasant – change your subscription package so that the shows you normally watch are no longer available to you.

Shortcut #8 Make it Pleasant – If you’d like to forge a new habit, reward yourself every time you engage in the habit. The reward can be very small, but it needs to be meaningful. Example: You forgo smoking cigarettes for the day and reward yourself with your favorite meal for dinner.

Shortcut #9 Pursue Something You Are Passionate About – When you pursue something you are passionate about, you will forge habits that are associated with your passion. For example, when I decided to write my first book, Rich Habits, I needed to wake up before 5am in the morning, as that was the only available time I had. That waking up early habit stuck. To this day, I wake up before 5am just about every morning.

When it comes to habit change, discipline is overstated in terms of importance. When you know the shortcuts to forging new habits and abandoning bad habits, habit change is easy.

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!

Maintaining a positive mental outlook is a daily habit. It must be approached that way, as a habit, because humans are hardwired to be negative – it is very easy to lapse backwards into negativity.

Below are some tools that can help you maintain your positive outlook:

• Practice Gratitude –  At the start of every day, find three things you are grateful for. They can be simple things, such as: “I’m grateful I have a dependable car”, or “I’m grateful the air conditioner in my home is working today”, or “I’m grateful my spouse loves me”. If you give it just a little thought, there is always something to be grateful for.
• Victory Log – Maintaining and reviewing a log of all of your successes, no matter how small, keeps you focused on the progress you’re making in life and prevents you from focusing on your failures. Everyone fails, all the time. Failure is good so long as you learn and move on. A Victory Log helps you do that.
• Happiness Log – Maintain a running list of all of your year’s happiness events – good things that happened during the year.
• Pursue Goals – Pursuing goals will keep your mind active and prevent it from lapsing into the abyss of negativity.
• Meditation – If you are able to meditate, meditate. Meditation soothes the mind, and resets your Central Nervous System (CNS) and Peripheral Nervous System (PNS).
• Humor – Viewing, listening to or reading anything humorous prevents negativity.
• Music – Listening to uplifting music calms your CNS and PNS.
• Read Upbeat Content – Minimize your exposure to the news, since most news stories are negative and intended to excite negative emotions. Read books about individuals who triumphed in the face of adversity.
• Future Journal – A Future Journal takes you forward in your life two or more years. Write about the amazing future life you have. This will help keep you focused on the future realization of your goals and dreams.
• Vision Board – Since our brain thinks in pictures, a Vision Board speaks the language of the brain. Pictures of the things you desire to have, places you would like to visit or people you’d like to meet or know keeps you focused on growth and starves negativity.
• Express Love – Tell someone close to you that you love them. It will make both of you feel more positive.
• Insider’s Club – Create a unique, separate inner circle comprised of positive, upbeat people.
• Volunteer – Volunteering at a local, community-based non-profit will lift your spirits. You will feel like you are doing good and this boosts your happiness neurotransmitters: dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin levels.
• Kind Acts – Doing something kind for someone will boost your happiness neurotransmitters.
• Exercise in the Morning – No matter what goes wrong with your day, you can always look back on the fact that you did something good for yourself by exercising in the morning.
• Podcasts – Listen to upbeat or motivational podcasts.
• New Skill – Take up a new hobby that requires you to develop a new skill. This will keep your mind active and prevent it from drifting into negativity.
• Eat Healthy Food – Much like morning exercise, eating healthy is something good you do for yourself.
• Sing – It’s impossible to feel bad while singing happy tunes.
• Email/Text – Email or text a loved one something upbeat or uplifting. It will have a boomerang effect, making you feel positive about yourself.

These are the tools of positivity. Use them when you need them. Try to make a habit of one or two of them every day. It will keep negativity on the bench and not in the game.

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!

You know positivity when it walks into a room.

One person, bubbling over with positivity, can take over up an entire room.

Some call it charisma, but in reality charisma is nothing more than someone bubbling over with positivity.  And it’s contagious.

• A positive mental outlook transforms you into a people magnet – It attracts people to you like moths to a light.
• A positive mental outlook produces good health – It improves your immune system, lowers your blood pressure and sends a stream of neurochemicals throughout the body that not only improve brain performance and alertness, but also produce a euphoric feeling.
• A positive mental outlook improves brain performance – It broadens your ability to think creatively, make decisions and allows you to see solutions to problems.
• A positive mental outlook makes you better looking – Positivity actually makes you more attractive to others.
• Positivity opens up your mind to opportunities – Opportunities are everywhere and all around you. Positivity allows you to see those opportunities clearly.
• Positivity is critical in achieving your goals and dreams – Positivity allows possibility thinking. It increases your risk tolerance and ability to go for it in life.

Positivity is a Rich Habit. Anyone, with practice, can transform their mindset from negative to positive.

Having a positive mental outlook will transform you life and change your life circumstances.

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!