According to Tom Corley a financial planner who studied 350 rich and poor people, wealthy people have some daily habits in common. He wrote the book, Rich Habits – The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals. While the book strongly states that these habits make you more successful and as a consequence, more wealthy, you have to wonder if it is the chicken or the egg here. Let’s start with the book’s definition of wealthy – $160k/year in earnings and holding assets of $3.2 million. Poor was defined as income under $30k/year and less than $5k worth of assets. So what are the daily habits that the wealthy have in common? Some are quite interesting….
1. 44% of rich people wake up at the crack of dawn — a good three hours before they are due to arrive to work. They also don’t waste that time. They spend it reading trade journals, newspapers or industry blogs. A fair bit of them use that time to work out as well. Only 3% of the poor do this.
2. The vast majority have a running to-do list and on average, check off at least 70% of their tasks they want to accomplish each day. 19% of the poor have a running to-do list.
3. Lunches are spent networking and wheeling and dealing for 55% of those who are wealthy.
4. Wealthy people = healthy people. Corley found that rich people limited snack foods to under 300 calories per day and limited alcohol as well (this runs counter to a different study which indicates drinking facilitates wealth). Corley claims that the desire to be healthy is directly tied to the desire to be wealthy as those who don’t get sick have fewer days off or work and have more energy and that equals more money. This enables them to work harder day to day and work for more years as well. 97% of poor people eat more than 300 junk food calories daily.
5. 79% of low-income people admit to gossiping and only 6% of the wealthy do. I find that difficult to believe.
6. Wealthy people spend their leisure time networking, volunteering, doing sports-related activities or socializing. The vast majority of wealthy people spend less than 1 hour of recreational time on the internet. Doh!
7. 67% of the wealthy watch less than 1 hour of tv per day versus 23% of the poor. In that same vein, only 6% of the wealthy watch reality tv whereas 78% of the poor do.
8. 6% of wealthy say what is on their mind versus 69% of the poor. This one I find very interesting. No more RealTalk.
9. 70% of the wealthy demand their children volunteer ten hours or more per month versus 3% of poor parents.
10. 84% of wealthy believe that good habits create “opportunity luck” versus 4% for the poor. Similarly, 76% of the wealthy believe that bad habits create “detrimental luck” and only 9% of the poor believe that.
11. Only 23% of the wealthy gamble and 52% of the poor engage in this activity.
12. 80% of the wealthy are focused on accomplishing some single goal, only 12% of the poor do this.
13. 63% of wealthy parents make their children read 2+ non-fiction books/month versus only 5% of the poor.
14. 80% of the wealthy call people and wish them happy birthday and 11% of the poor do this.
I find this whole idea fascinating – that simply changing your habits can lead to more financial success – despite not believing in such a simplistic concept. Some of these ‘habits’ are really the result of being affluent, in my humble opinion, rather than the cause of that increased wealth. Still, some of these habits are worth contemplating just because they are good habits; if they lead to personal and financial success so much the better.
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