The following is a guest post from Trisha Wagner who writes at Destroy Debt.
If you are not wealthy you may have a distorted mental picture of wealthy people and how they live. Granted people who have achieved millionaire or beyond status are in a better position to enjoy the many perks in life that having money provides, however there are many wealthy people mingling among the rest of us commoners. What makes them different? How did they achieve financial success? Money is not the only thing that separates the wealthy from the middle class or poor. If you want to achieve real financial stability and build wealth you should ask yourself if you think like a rich person?
Do You Have The Discipline?
The media is largely responsible for bringing images into our lives each day portraying celebrities jetting off to sunny beaches or spending their day shopping and getting beauty treatments. Actors and musicians are not the only people in the world who are wealthy and for the average person building wealth will require significant discipline and sacrifice along the journey. If you waiting for your “big break” to find instant wealth you may find yourself waiting a long time.
Do You See The Big Picture?
In reality eighty percent of American millionaires are first generation millionaires, which means they did not receive an inheritance from which to grow their wealth. They live well below their means, do not drive the current model-year car and live in homes valued well below one million dollars. They are generally well educated and fastidious investors, investing on average twenty percent of their annual income. Most are self employed entrepreneurs or self employed professionals. In other words you do not have to be born rich to become rich. Living in a huge home, driving dozens of cars and wearing expensive clothes should not be the only indication of wealth. Many millionaires work over forty hours a week and look like the rest of us. What the choose to do with the money they make is the real difference between the classes.
Can You Look Long Term?
Amassing wealth for most people will not happen overnight. To get started you will have to think long-term about your financial life. This should include determining where you want to be (and how much you want to be worth) ten and twenty years from now. Don’t just think about it, or dream about it, instead write it down. In order to reach these goals you have to a clear idea of where you want to be and how you are going to get there. Successful people think of their long term goals and adjust their daily behavior to achieve them. This will involve overcoming the immediate gratification attitude which is common in our society. You will not get rich by spending every dollar you make or worse spending money (credit cards) that you have yet to make.
Trisha Wagner is a freelance writer for DestroyDebt.com, a debt community featuring debt forums. Trisha writes regularly on the topics of getting out of debt and personal finance.
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Good thoughts. It’s a very simple principle of learning that if I want to be a good parent, I should figure out how other good parents act and do that. Same with being a good spouse, an expert in a particular field, or learning to handle your money well. Find successful people and do what they do.
All too true! You really need to get out and do something if you want to have the life-style of a movie star. And I believe many can if they work hard enough- maybe not millions and millions of dollars, but we can all do just fine for ourselves if we work for it.
@Grant- Good point about parenting! Looking at others to emulate is a great way to learn how to be successful.
@Trevor- I agree, I think anyone can be financially well-off if they work hard at it. It may take a while and it may not be easy, but it can be done.
It’s crucial that you learn to think long term or else all of your decisions will be minor short sighted ones. The trick is to keep the big picture in mind when saving a few dollars here and there.
Thank you Trisha Wagner!I like the article of yours.It tell us the diffrence between person and person. “Amassing wealth for most people will not happen overnight”,but too many people are always doing day dreaming. We should have a dream,but we must act at once. I plan to copy it into my blog.
@Studenomics- Definitely true!- long term thinking can really help you focus on your goal and what is important without getting bogged down in short term details.
Excellent article. It will help lots of people.
Please, continue providing inspiring material like this one.
Leo F.
I think it is possible to have the lifestyle of a movie star, but people like us don’t really want that. We want to work hard our whole lives. So even if we got to where we needed to be we would have to do something else.