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The reality is most people never reach financial freedom.
And if you don’t practice the millionaire habits you need to be financially well off; you’ll fail like most people.
So what’s the secret to reaching financial freedom?
A lot of sacrifices and hard work.
However, you can work hard and still end up failing, which is why it’s best to do what’s already worked for the wealthy.
Below I’ve listed the habits that matter the most.
Although I’m still working towards financial freedom, the habits listed below aren’t my opinion; they’re facts backed up by data.
In the book, The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley shows us how most millionaires achieved and maintained their wealth.
If you’re serious about achieving financial freedom, keep reading!
Habits of the Wealthy vs. Poor
Some people are rich, and some look rich, as Thomas Stanley and William Danko pointed out in their best-selling novel The Millionaire Next Door.
The authors compare Under Accumulators of Wealth (U.A.W.), and Prodigious Accumulators of Wealth (P.A.W.).
It discusses why high-income white-collar workers are more likely to spend their money on expensive products or status pieces than saving or investing.
And that most individuals in the country’s highest income earners live frugally and seem no different from the less affluent.
To reason out, the following are some behaviors that separate wealthy from poor people.
- Wealthy people live on a tight budget, while the poor pay more than they earn.
- Wealthy people understand that upgrading their house, driving a more expensive vehicle, or dressing in more opulent clothing would put a strain on their finances.
- They live for themselves while the shoddy work for a living.
- They do not offer financial life support to others, while the poor depend on someone else’s resources to live the lifestyle they want.
- They ensure that their money works as well as they can, while poor people put their money in a bank account and do not invest.
Morning Rituals Wealthy People Practice
Waking Up Early
Benjamin Franklin was right when he said,
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man well, prosperous, and smart.”
That’s why Millionaires work best in the early hours and do the same.
But what if you aren’t a morning person?
First, decide if financial freedom is for you.
If you’re currently happy with your current life and how it’s structured, there’s no need to change anything. However, I’m betting that because you’re reading this article, something is missing.
I’d recommend waking up earlier in small increments.
For example, set your alarm today to wake up 30 minutes earlier tomorrow. Then, keep your alarm simultaneously for a few days and eventually set your alarm to wake up another 30 minutes earlier.
Keep repeating this until you have 1-3 hours to be productive while not sacrificing your sleep.
There’s no point in waking up at 3 am if you’ll be tired throughout the day.
Since everyone’s different, adjust your mornings so that you’re productive and full of energy!
Meditating
Apart from a billion dollars, what do Rupert Murdoch, Arianna Huffington, and Oprah have in common?
Every single one of them meditates.
Being wealthy doesn’t mean you’re free from stress.
Meditation can help you relax, strengthen your memory, and even enhance your immune system. In addition, it raises your attention span and adds more hours to your day.
Meditation also boosts brain function and lets you get a decent night’s sleep. You will communicate with yourself and launch the day with good energy by doing this practice first thing in the morning.
If you’re not even convinced, look at the success of Russell Simmons, Bill Ford, and Padmasree Warrior that have all been credited to meditation.
Also, Tony Schwartz, C.E.O. of The Energy Project, claims that meditation has helped him overcome migraines and gain patience, and he promotes mindfulness to increase work efficiency.
The best way to start is by downloading a meditation app like Headspace or Calm.
Some of these apps do cost money, so make sure you adjust your budget accordingly.
However, if you don’t want to spend any money, go to YouTube and type “meditation for X minutes,” and you’ll get many free options.
Exercise
Okay, admit it.
Not everybody enjoys working out.
But if you want to be wealthy, you better start now.
Most successful individuals exercise regularly. If you have a busy schedule, find 10-15 minutes during your lunch break or in the evening to exercise.
You can do activities such as biking, yoga, going to the gym, or doing an outdoor workout to get the body moving after a night’s rest.
And though millionaires are very busy, they almost always have time to exercise. So there’s no excuse!
Research shows that the wealthy have more time to exercise because they spend less time on social media. So start tracking your time daily to understand how you spend your time.
At one point, I’d thought I spent only 1 hour a week on social media but discovered I’d spent over 7 hours!
Once you understand how you spend your time, start cutting out unproductive tasks like watching T.V., listening to music, social media, etc.
Being productive doesn’t mean that you’d have to cut off T.V., music, or an unproductive task for good. Instead, squeeze time for fun activities, but first, make sure you’re finishing your most important tasks each day.
Setting Goals
Those who have goals are more likely to achieve them and better understand where they’re headed.
One of the best things you can do if you ever want to be wealthy is to practice the habit of setting goals.
How do you set goals?
Start by writing one or two things you’d like to accomplish.
If you can achieve financial freedom by 40 or save 20K within the next 18 months.
Don’t make goal setting a daunting task by planning your entire life or five years down the line.
Often goals change within a year, so there’s no point in thinking too far ahead.
After you’ve noted vital things you’d like to accomplish, start breaking them down into smaller monthly and weekly goals.
Finally, track your progress daily and check how you’re doing weekly to ensure your odds of reaching your goal!
Always keep in mind that goals are visions of timelines that cause physical or mental exercise.
Once you’ve identified your goals and broken them into smaller goals, you’re already ahead of most people. However, the real work begins every day when you wake up and choose to make little progress toward them!
Top 9 Millionaire Habits You Need to Be Financially Well Off
1. Honesty
In his book, The Millionaire Mind, Thomas Stanley shows that integrity is the most important out of the 30 success factors listed.
Why should the wealthiest assume that integrity is the most crucial factor in their success?
One of the respondents, Jon, a successful developer, credited much of his success to his father’s honesty lessons that say, never, ever, cheat.
Self-made millionaires who own and operate their businesses recognize the importance of integrity in persuading clients to do business with them.
Their reputation is based on their honesty.
And if you can’t live up to your principles, you’ll lose faith in your commitments. It will affect your company and other crucial aspects of your life.
Here’s the bottom line, be honest, and start with yourself.
If you’re not honest about your dreams, it’ll be hard, to be honest with others.
Start by evaluating your life and be honest about whether you’re happy.
Once you’ve assessed your life honestly, take small steps to being honest with others. Even those innocent white lies you’ve been telling yourself and others need to stop.
Being honest doesn’t mean being perfect, but good things will come your way if you strive for honesty.
2. Discipline
You think you want to be a millionaire, but do you have the willpower to achieve that goal?
Success, as we all know, does not happen immediately.
Stuff can eventually get complicated and tedious, and you will want to quit.
However, it would help if you built discipline to do the work you have to do, even when you don’t feel like it.
Millionaires, like the rest of us, have days where they are unmotivated and tired.
The distinction is that they are well aware of it and do not encourage themselves to become complacent.
Create a dream board, join a mastermind, or listen to motivational podcasts.
You don’t need a tutorial on creating a dream board; find relevant images online that capture your goals.
For example, if you want to achieve financial freedom, find a picture of the ideal place you’d like to go on vacation and add it to your vision board.
A mastermind isn’t an elite club of wealthy people; only select a few you can join.
You can join a mastermind with a friend that’s always motivating you or has similar goals. You can also search on Facebook groups or forums for people with whom you share similar interests.
The going will get tough, but if you have an excellent support group, a clear vision, and feed yourself the correct information consistently, success will be inevitable.
3. Be Organized
Missed opportunities, missed deadlines, and lost time would all result from being disorganized.
I bet you don’t want that, and neither do I.
Being organized isn’t something that is passed on through the generations.
It has everything to do with how well you arrange your everyday schedule and activities to ensure everything is in order.
Millionaires worked hard for their growth, and a successful organization is the first step.
It means not paying late fees, not buying two of anything, being aware of financial targets, and completing more tasks with less time.
Many of the influential people you see around you didn’t be successful. Instead, they are well-organized individuals who can know how to manage their goals successfully no matter how hectic their day is.
They make it a point to exercise mindfulness and clear their heads of clutter regularly, allowing them to concentrate on what matters to them.
You can be structured and competitive as well; the only condition is that you have the mentality to get it done correctly.
Download apps like ATracker to help you track your time and Google Calendar to organize your days.
There’s no one-size-fits-all, so test different apps or methods to help you stay organized.
4. Have an Amazing Spouse
Who wouldn’t want to have a fantastic spouse like those you see on T.V., in novels, and in movies?
As Thomas Stanley polled tens of thousands of millionaires about their spouse, they said things like “down-to-earth,” “unselfish,” “common beliefs,” “frugal,” “my mental backbone,” “patient,” and “understanding.”
Many wealthy people are drawn to women who appreciate their lifestyle, even how busy they are, and can prioritize their own needs when appropriate.
Some people say that marriage makes them feel less lonely. They believe that working as a team is more successful than working alone. The advantage of having a fantastic partner is that they are as familiar with you as you are with yourself.
Having an exceptionally attentive partner, regardless of their conscientiousness rate, enhances the odds of advancement at work, connected with earning more income over time and greater job satisfaction, Solomon notes.
5. Have Tenacity
Success comes from all different places -from the wealthy to your favorite N.B.A. players.
Spend time with people who understand that most of the attempts you make will fail the first time.
And the fact is that you will not excel, at least not in the manner that you had hoped.
What matters is that you keep going, studying, and gaining knowledge and that you can continually change directions as new insight becomes available.
Gary Vaynerchuck, the C.E.O. of VaynerMedia, is an entrepreneur with much tenacity.
He almost enjoys losing because he views it as an opportunity to prove others wrong.
While most won’t live up to Gary V’s standard of working 10+ hours daily, seven days a week, we should strive to show up as much as possible each week consistently.
It means making progress towards our goals while not burning out.
Your goal shouldn’t always be working towards your goals, because having this mentality will cause you to burn out.
Instead, follow the plan you’ve set when you break down your goals and make consistent progress daily.
To avoid burning out, give yourself enough free time to do the things you love.
6. Live Within their Budget
Aside from having large net worths, the wealthy have one common factor: they are frugal.
Many people mistakenly believe that being economical means being inexpensive, but this is not the case.
Being frugal means keeping a close eye on your money and not wasting more than you need to—a quality shared by many of the wealthy.
It was because of this trait that they became wealthy.
Consider billionaire Warren Buffett, reportedly the fourth richest person globally with an estimated net worth of $89.9 billion.
He isn’t one for extravagant spending and invests a small amount of money.
He still lives in his humble Omaha, Nebraska, house, which he purchased in 1958 for $31,500.
Buffet also drives a relatively inexpensive vehicle, a 2014 Cadillac X.T.S. with an M.S.R.P. of $44,600.
Now, evaluate your life and prioritize what’s important to you.
As Paula Pant states, you can afford anything but not everything.
Start by creating a budget and choose to live a frugal life.
7. Read
“Poor people have big TVs Rich people have big libraries.” ― Jim Rohn.
In this modern age where the internet is the quickest way to read, do you still prefer a book?
However, most people read for pleasure rather than to learn. The wealthy read books that educate them.
Reading is valued by some of the world’s most successful people.
The wealthy have an insatiable appetite for wisdom, and reading is one way they satisfy this appetite.
According to research, this may be the reason for tens of thousands of people’s tremendous success.
As Benjamin Franklin so aptly put it, an effort in intelligence always pays the highest interest.
Read books on how to invest, budget, build a business, and much more.
And, if you don’t want to spend any money, borrow books from your local library or use your Amazon Prime membership to score free books!
8. Great Goal-Setters
Have you ever asked how ambitious individuals manage to not only set but also achieve their goals?
The wealthy set great goals to remain focused, which is one key to long-term growth.
What makes a great goal?
The term often used when setting goals is S.M.A.R.T.
S.M.A.R.T. goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound if you don’t know.
Essentially, you want to set goals that are clear, measurable, and have deadlines.
For example, don’t set a goal to be a millionaire someday.
When you think about this goal, it sounds silly.
But, if you’re not tracking your goal or have taken the time to define it, it’s not much different.
A better goal would be to build a business that generates $1,000 per month.
You’d then break this goal down into smaller goals that’ll help you ultimately achieve it.
Often, you’ll find that you don’t know the exact next steps to your goal, which is fine.
Make it your priority to figure out the missing pieces along the way and be prepared to pivot.
Rarely will you achieve your goals exactly how you intended, so it’s essential to adjust to setbacks and opportunities that come your way.
9. Manage Time
Guess who’s constantly bombarded with thousands of emails, has a thousand things to do but still achieves maximum productivity and squeezes the most out of every day?
Any successful person who’s wealthy.
You will see none of the wealthy wasting their time.
They have learned to manage their time without becoming workaholics.
How?
The wealthy make it a point to prioritize their efforts not to waste time on low-level tasks.
They set up time slots for less critical tasks and restrict the time they’ll spend to complete them.
It means you have to prioritize tasks so that the most important ones get completed first.
And when you’re working on non-priority tasks, set a time limit on when you’ll stop.
Setting a timer when working on your tasks will help you a ton in being productive.
Millionaire Books You Need to Be Wealthy
1. Millionaire Next Door
If you are serious about becoming a millionaire, this book by Dr. Thomas Stanley and Dr. William Danko can help you.
This book will help you understand the features that all those who have attained that degree of wealth have in common.
Imagine driving into a wealthy neighborhood and having the opportunity to interview wealthy people. That’s exactly what Thomas does.
2. Think and Grow Rich
By reading the critical points from Think and Grow Rich, you’ll learn how to master your subconscious and command your destiny.
It does not imply material wealth, but it means cultural, financial, and social wealth.
The best part about this book will learn what it takes to achieve success and happiness.
3. Rich Dad Poor Dad
This book covers the basics of cash flow, assets, and liabilities.
And if you’re looking to learn the basics about money, this would be an excellent book to start with.
Not only do you learn good money habits, but you also learn key mental shifts you need to make to become wealthy.
For less than some of your monthly memberships, you’ll learn timeless advice.
Start Chasing Your Dream of Becoming A Millionaire
You cannot become wealthy by only dreaming about it.
What you need is to change your mindset and implement some of the millionaire habits outlined above.
Combining the above ideas does not ensure a stable future, but it would undoubtedly relieve some financial issues in your life.
Do it early and do it right now.
Eventually, you will set yourself up for financial success and become the person you’ve always dreamed of.
