Becoming rich isn't an overnight process, it's a journey that takes years of hard work, dedication,
and determination. Sacrifices like no other have to be made in order to achieve wealth.
Becoming rich can take many years, even decades,
of thinking big, making bold moves, and putting in the long hours no matter the risk.
One thing that's common in many rich public figures is that they carry themselves just
like anyone else. You might see them driving a fancy car or living in a luxurious house,
but they don't often display their riches in a showy way.
In fact, many of the richest people in the world live relatively simple lives like the rest of us,
with the only difference being their keenly thought-out decisions.
So, what else do the rich do that an average person doesn’t?
What secrets do they have that help them maintain their wealth?
Stick with me to find out things about the rich you didn’t know!
1. They give more than 10% of their worth.
Research has it that donating money makes you feel good regardless of the amount,
proving the saying "it’s better to give than receive."
On average, UHNW philanthropists will donate $25 million each over the course of their lifetime,
which equates to 10% of their net worth. You might wonder why they would give so much away
when they could easily keep it all to themselves,
but the answer is simple – they want to help others and make a difference in the world.
Most rich individuals are planners, and a little charity contribution not only makes
a difference to those who need it, but also is an investment in a long-term legacy. The
end goal is to create a non-profit where money can continue to come in regardless,
hence accomplishing their charitable goals without depleting their own wealth.
Have you heard the saying, "quid pro quo?" It's a term that means
"something for something" and it applies to the world of philanthropy as well.
These rich fellas try to make a donation to the right organisations where they are
certain it will bear good fruit and advance their causes for ages to come, such as in healthcare,
social, political, and environmental realms. No one wants to go broke while also doing good!
2. They hate waste.
As much as the rich live in the present and enjoy the finer things in life,
they are also very mindful of their spending. Rich folks always have their end game in mind,
and their goals usually involve leaving a legacy or taking care of future generations.
Think of it as their financial blueprint, with every cent calculated to make the most impact.
This is why you'll find that the wealthy are very mindful of their spending
and often have a "no waste" policy.
Rich people understand that they need to save even the smallest amount left,
be it food, paper, or even clothes. To an average person, this mindset might seem frugal,
but to the rich, it’s a way of life that keeps them mindful of their spending.
The rich consider little waste to be like a small leak on a ship
that crew members ignore. Giving it ample time, no matter how small the leak is,
it will finally fill the entire vessel with water and sink it.
The same goes for their financial world; the few rim papers you write on then throw away when you
find you’ve made a small mistake can quickly add up over time and throw your budget off course.
These minimal waste often aren’t displayed on a regular basis
since it can take months before it accumulates.
For the rich, who have figured out the importance of delayed gratification
and worked out their long-term goals, they know it’s best to avoid such financial leaks
and save that money for something more important.
That’s why they want to use every resource they have to the maximum.
3. They are not as smart as we think.
One common misconception about the rich is that they are all geniuses, which is often
perceived by their outfit or their money talk. An average person takes one look at a rich guy and
immediately think he must have secured a masters or a PhD degree to have gotten where he is.
Well, here's the thing: when we talk about smart,
we first have to learn to distinguish between pure intelligence and financial intelligence.
If we define it as the former, not all rich people are geniuses.
Some just have some luck with the lottery, while others have put their blood, sweat,
and tears through many years of hard work and the right decisions to get rich.
People who generate their own income to become rich are smart at making,
managing, and minting money. They are financially smart but not smart in the
conventional sense where they can ace a test or know every answer to a question.
This makes perfect sense since we aren’t Google who has all the answers. Being rich
doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be a genius to get your digits running up.
Anyone with a brilliant mind can relentlessly pursue their goals
and still end up being richer than the genius who did nothing with his life.
4. They always keep learning.
In our current lives, the only place you can successfully hide something is in a book. Most
people ignore them, especially when they start getting a sense of ownership over their lives,
be it a good job with a perfect income or a house with a white picket fence.
I can’t say for sure that this will be their downfall, but a different approach
to learning will expand your financial know-how and perhaps make you more money.
The rich know this, which is why many of them are avid readers. In fact,
some even have home libraries! The rich understand that there’s always something new to learn,
and they want to be on the forefront of whatever will make them more money.
It’s so obvious to them that more knowledge always pays off,
whether in the form of a promotion or a pay raise. They also know that the more they know,
the better they can handle their finances and make sound investment decisions.
The world is constantly changing, and every day, something new pops up on the internet,
bringing along new opportunities, ideas, and insights.
That's why the rich often take on every little opportunity they are handed to learn.
Reading doesn't necessarily mean exhausting themselves with non-fiction books related to
business or money. A simple business journal a day or taking online courses every now
or browsing personal-finance websites to keep up with what’s going on always does the trick.
A good educational background is the best investment you’ll ever make
so that you’ll never have to constantly look over your shoulder and worry about
whether there's an ROI. After all, who doesn't know that knowledge is power?
5. How do they spend their time?
When you get rich, you’ll finally come to realise that you have more to lose than an average person.
This realisation will call for making the right decisions, and one of the most significant
decisions — I’m talking about how you choose to spend your time in your day-to-day life.
The rich know that their time is very limited,
and they can't afford to waste it on things that won't improve their lives or make them any richer.
Rich people always want to make the most of their time with activities that build them
up in some way, whether it’s mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually.
Their minds are always preoccupied with figuring out how to prepare
for things they can't control, such as unannounced tragedies,
which is why they work on building up their mental and emotional strength.
You’ll find them sitting down figuring out how to add an extra dollar to the millions they
already have in their bank account by investing or coming up with new ideas. All this with the goal
of having multiple streams of income, so their money can work for them even when they're not.
Most people assume that the rich spend most of their time on parties or fancy vacations,
which is true that some of them do, but their wellbeing always comes first.
You see, when you have a lot of money, you can easily get caught up in a false sense of security,
and if you're not careful, you might end up losing everything.
The rich know this all too well, which is no wonder you’d find a rich person getting
up early for a morning run, then having a healthy meal packed with all the right nutrients to power
them through the day. They prefer to stay fit and healthy before getting back to making money,
since they know good health is equivalent to good wealth.
Just think about it for a second. How would you work for hours without being in good health? It’s
kind of impossible. The big question is, how is sleeping for fewer hours than the average person
making them healthy? Now it’s pretty obvious that money won’t make itself when you're asleep.
The rich also know that in order to achieve great things and make a lot of money,
they need to put in the work. That's why such sacrifices do exist.
Besides, with all the investing and saving the rich do, it always pays off with time,
and they can always enjoy their well-deserved vacations later.
6. They have various sources of income.
Forget about a steady paycheck and a single source of income;
millionaires and billionaires typically have multiple streams of income.
The rich know that having just one source of income is equivalent to
having all your eggs in one basket. And we all know what happens when you do that;
the basket gets dropped, and all your eggs break.
To avoid this, the rich have learned to spread out their income sources so that they
can sleep soundly at night, knowing that even if one fails, the others will still be there.
The various incomes that the rich have include: profit income, interest income, earned income,
capital gains, dividend income, royalty income, and rental income.
Most rich people usually start with earned income.
As you know, before reaching where you want to be in life, you have to start at some point.
This earned income is usually from your regular 9 to 5 jobs whereby you work for someone else.
With time, you leave this type of income and start focusing on other sources that
will make you more money with less work. For example, profit income,
which is what you make from your business ventures after subtracting all the expenses.
Then there’s interest income, which is what you make from lending money
to someone and charging them interest on it. The big advantage of this is
that you don’t have to do any work; you just let your money work for you.
The problem is that most of these revenue sources are only really worthwhile if you
already have a lot of money, making it simpler for the mega-rich to just keep getting richer.
What we are able to learn from all this is that one needs to figure out something else they can do
that can generate income and have multiple sources to be able to increase their net worth
instead of relying on a single paycheck, which will mostly be spent anyway on expenses.
7. They are either self-employed or own a business.
Self-employment means that you are not employed by anyone; you are your own boss. You don’t have
a manager telling you what to do or when to do it. This type of employment brings along several
benefits, which include the fact that you are more passionate about what you do, you can set your own
work schedule, choose your own co-workers, and determine your own work environment.
The rich also have characteristics which enable them to build their empires,
and if you look into the famous rich people, most of them have their own businesses,
which led to them acquiring their wealth. People like Bill Gates,
Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Warren Buffett all have businesses which they own and control.
The good thing is you do not have to be born into a wealthy family or have to work a 9 to
5 for years hoping to get promoted to become rich. You can be passionate about something,
be skillful, or have an area in which you excel in order to be able to start your own business.
The rich also tend to partner with others who are able to supplement their weaker areas
so that they can create a well-rounded business. You, therefore, need to have a
plan and be able to build something that will grow and be profitable over time.
You can take control of your life today and start working on becoming self-employed or
owning a business. People do it all the time — they create their own enterprises,
learn to trade stocks, or find other means to a mass fortune for themselves.
Use training and mentors to hone your strengths and partner with others to fill in your weaknesses
You can be the next big thing if you set your mind to it and work hard towards making it happen.
Really, it is just up to you to make it happen.
8. Prefer work over handouts
When someone is given a handout, the chances are that they’ll still come back once what you
offered them is finished because they didn’t work for it. And then they’ll keep coming and coming,
and before you know it, you’ll be catering to their bills as if they were your own children.
Being rich puts you in a bracket like this where people will always want some quick cash
and, given that you are there and capable of it, you’ll always be the first target.
This is the same reason why many rich people prefer to stay invisible and not advertise their
wealth. They are the people you see mowing their lawns, standing in line behind you at
the grocery store, or riding up the elevator at work on a daily basis. They are the individuals
who live simply and without all the bells and whistles that most people associate with wealth.
Despite the large sum in their bank account, these are people who live relatively modestly.
Come to think of it, there is no alarm that goes off when you become rich,
and you don’t have to start driving a Bentley or move into a penthouse to be considered wealthy.
You can keep a low profile of your wealth while leading a simple life
because people and the media will only see what you want them to see.
Now that asking for handouts has become a habit,
many rich people have come to prefer offering people a job instead of just giving them money
they didn’t earn. They’ll want you to mow their lawn for cash or just simply give you
a job so that you can have an income and not have to rely on them for every little thing.
It’s undoubtedly the best idea they came up with because it benefits both parties
involved without any one acting like a leach. This also instills a sense of responsibility in
the person and keep them from becoming too comfortable with just being given things.
Looking back at all these points, it’s evident that becoming rich starts with one's mentality,
branching it down to right decisions,
and eventually leading to taking actions that will result in an increased bank balance.
Being rich is a simple decision that will require being patient and resilient with what you do
since most rich people didn’t just do it and get it right away.
They had to put in years of dedication, making mistakes along the way, and learning from
them until they finally got it right. Some did think of themselves as pathetic in the process,
but it’s because they didn’t quit that they turned out to be at the top of the food chain.
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