We all want a better life. We all want to have more money. We all want to be rich. But there is a lot more to being rich than having a lot of money. It takes more than a few extra 0s at the end of your paycheck to make you wealthy. Just because you have a lot of money today, does not mean you will be wealthy tomorrow.
The truth is it starts with your mindset and habits. Your habits are an integral part of your wealth and financial health. Habits do not improve when salary increases. You can’t buy habits, you have to work on them, and develop them. If you make $1,000 a month and have poor spending habits, those habits will not improve as soon as you start making $10,000 a month. You might think, “It won’t really matter because I’ll have more money.” But that’s a dangerous game to play. If you already have a bad habit of using debt, you’ll only have more money to fuel that fire. If you don’t know how to properly manage an income of $20,000 a year how can you possibly manage $1,000,000 a year?
So here are some habits to help you on your way to building a wealthy life.
Pay Yourself in Cash and Time First
Yes it is nice to treat yourself, but that is not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about paying your future self first. You worked for this money, and you should keep a portion of that before you give it to others. Give it to others? Who would that be? Your car payment, rent/mortgage, grocery bill, and other living expenses. All that money goes into someone else’s pocket. Yes you receive something in return for it, but that is still your money going to someone else. Before you start paying bills or going out and having a fun time, pay yourself first. Save it, or even better: invest it.
Never Stop Learning
Just like Dr. Seuss said, “The more you know, the more places you’ll go.” If you want to build a life you love and have a healthy wealth mindset you need to be a life long student. This doesn’t mean you have to be in college forever earning 5 PhDs and racking up student debt. However it does mean you need to realise you don’t know everything, and there is always some new knowledge that can improve your life. Go out every day and look for the information that will improve your life. Read, watch helpful YouTube videos, take online classes, listen to webinars. There are so many resources available at the tip of your fingers, that there is no excuse to not learn something new every day.
But more importantly: apply what you learned. What good is reading a financial book if you toss it to the back of the bookcase and forget about it as soon as you finish it. Take notes, write down actions steps. Work on one thing to day so you can work towards a better future.
Look At Your Finances Every Day
If this absolutely terrifies you, don’t worry. Finances can be scary. But you shouldn’t fear your finances. You shouldn’t fear your bills, spending habits, or income. Finances is simply a way of tracking your money. If you fear it, then it will control you, and you’re life. Because unfortunately money is a big part of everything we do. But if you look at it every day, if you treat it like a friend, then you will be able to control it.
If you look at finances everyday you know exactly what money is coming in and where it’s going. And if you know where it’s going, you can then control where you want it to go. You can see if you spend too much in one category and not enough in another. So you can adjust that.
You’ll also be able to set smart financial goals because you know exactly what is happening with your money.
And probably most importantly, if you know at the end of every day you have to look at your finances, you will start holding yourself accountable for the purchases you made throughout the day. This is not to make you feel guilty (it may feel that way at first). But it will make you think twice when you purchase something. And you can ask yourself, “Is it really worth it? Do I want to see that money coming out of my account?”
Talk About Ideas Not People
There are few people who have become wealthy by talking about people. It’s mainly tabloids. But large companies like Google, Amazon, Apple, and I’m sure you can name many others; they make their money from ideas. They ask questions like “what if the world was different?” “How can we better the world?” “what makes
Get into the habit of instead of talking about the Jones next door, or Betty Sue’s wedding, or whatever celerity, but about ideas. Big, complicated, brilliant ideas. Get someone who is willing to do this with you, and if you don’t have anyone just talk out loud or write it all down. My roommate and I do this just about every night. We have a long philosophical discussion. We ask questions we know we probably will never have the answers to. We find some weird topic no one else is talking about, and we discuss it. We’ve had some weird discussions anywhere from: how bees reproduce, art history, what it’s like being single, how the brain works
But there are a couple reason why this can help you build a wealth mindset: 1. learning how to have real conversation about the craziest things. You’re learning how to debate and argue and form opinions about the craziest things. You’re learning how to quickly think up answers to weird questions. And that not only is a good brain exercise, but if you own a business, or you’re looking to invest, or you’re in sales you are going to have to know how to debate, argue, and answer questions very quickly. You’re learning how to reason and put together logical arguments.
It also means you’re learning more about the world around you. You’re learning about problems you may not have heard before and you’re learning to come up with solutions. You’re learning how to ask questions and finding answers.
Set and Achieve Goals
Without a plan you are going to wander aimlessly in life. If you want to be a successful business owner, if you want to be a millionaire, if you want to be the most famous dancer ever, you have to set goals. Yes you do need that dream. But no one just wakes up a New York Time Best Seller. Wealth and living a rich life comes from setting and achieving goals.
Think about what you really want in life. Write it all out. Build a Pinterest Board. Paint a mural. Get your vision onto something concrete. But the world you dream of into the world. And then write a plan to get there. Yes you want to be rich, but that’s the end goal. How do you get there? What do you need to do? What do you need to learn? What kind of person do you want to be? You want to have a large Instagram following, but again, that’s an end goal. What are you going to do to earn that? You aren’t just going to log into your account one day and see a million followers if you don’t put in the work.
Think of where you want to go, think of want you need to do to get there, and start going.
Think of a Solution Instead of Complaining
If you want to build a wealth mindset, there is no room for complaining. There is no room for blaming other people for your problems. The only way to look at a situation is asking yourself “Can I control this?” If you can, great, move on and do something about it. If you can’t, great. Don’t wallow away into self pity. Move on, forget about it, clean up the mess you have to, and don’t worry about it.
People who know how to make money are people who know how to solve problems. Instead of looking at their life and thinking “it’s so awful, I can’t do anything. There is this huge problem. I just can’t go on with my life.” Instead they look at the problem and say, “Well yes, this sucks, but what can I do about it?” And from that they not only find a solution, but they invent a product or service for that problem. And then they look to others and say, “I’ve had this problem. I know others have this problem, so with this product or service I’m going to help improve their lives.” And people buy their product or service because they offer a solution to a problem. Instead of sitting on the couch complaining, they found a solution, and they found a way to help other people with that solution, and they built a business out of it. No one who complains or plays the victim will ever be able to do that.
So the next time you find yourself playing the victim or complaining that somethings hard, stop and take a step back. Ask, “Can I do something about it?” If you can’t then there is no use worrying about it. There is no use in blaming other people. But if you can do something, think of the solution, and then share that solution, and help better other people’s lives.
