I like to think of myself as a wealthy person in training. Perhaps you feel the same way about yourself? Well lucky for you and me, financial planner Tom Corely spent over five years studying the daily habits of over 350 "rich" and "poor" people for his book Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals. I'm covered on the habits of the poor, I've spent a lifetime studying, if not practicing them, but I think there is much to be gained by incorporating some of the habits of rich people into my life.
Surely, you've heard the saying, "Fake it until you make it." This seems like the perfect scenario to follow such advice.
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So without further ado, check out these six habits of wealthy people:
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The early bird catches the worm. According to Corely's research rich people get up 3 hours before their job and focus on self improvement like reading industry blogs, working out, or catching up on current events. Yikes, that would mean I would have to start getting up at 3:45 am. I wanna be rich, but I also need my sleep so I may have to modify this habit by a couple of hours.
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To-do lists. Most rich people keep a to-do list and actually check off about 70 percent of their items off the list every day. Note to self: Must remember to add: *Keep a to-do list to my to-do list.
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No long lunches. Wealthy people do not take long lunches. Neither do I! They use their time to network and wheel-and-deal. I work from home so I use mine to do laundry and shower. Hmmm, probably not the best use of my time.
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Count calories. It appears the rich are not just into counting money, but also counting calories. Wealthy people count calories not just to be thin, but to remain healthy. I would count my calories too, but I can't count that high.
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Ixnay on the gossip. Very few wealthy individuals gossip as opposed to the majority of un-wealthy people studied by Corely. Well, I don't gossip nearly as much as some people I know. There's this one lady I know who will tell you … oh wait, am I gossiping right now?
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Get off the internets. When wealthy people are done working they go network, socialize, or volunteer. Apparently the un-wealthy spend over an hour on Facebook. Ugh, but what if Facebook is how I socialize?
Seems I need to change some of my habits if I want to act like I'm wealthy.
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