Habits of the Wealthy

This post is part of a 31-day treatise on habits. <— Click there to see all the posts.

I’m a big fan of finance guru and talk show host Dave Ramsey. My husband and I attended Financial Peace University classes a few years ago, and have been working on his Baby Steps ever since. There was an article on his website a couple of months ago that caught my eye on habits of the wealthy. It was written by Tom Corley, author of the book Rich Habits.

Among other things, Corley states that wealthy people are more likely to: exercise daily and avoid junk food, hold their tongue instead of giving vent to their feelings, read and listen to audio books than watch TV, maintain a to-do list, focus on an important goal, wake up early, etc.

What’s most interesting about the post are the 800+ comments. It seems that most people fall into two camps: the ones who believe that poor people are poor because it’s “their own fault” (these people subscribe to the “just-world” belief, and it’s a fallacy), and those that understand that scarcity itself can make anyone stupid, and that circumstances beyond one’s control are quite powerful in shaping where one ends up on the socioeconomic scale.

I’m not going to try to unwind these two belief systems in this blog post. And it’s hard to say which came first: the wealth or the good habits? But for the purposes of this blog post, I’ll say that being mindful of how our habits contribute to our finances is important, especially if you live in the Western world where anyone reading this already has the necessities of life.

If the habits of scarcity interest you, definitely read the book Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much. Absolutely fascinating stuff!

And while you’re at the library picking up that book, go ahead and check out some audio books to listen to during your commute (63% of wealthy listen to audio books during their commute). It couldn’t hurt!

What do you think about research like this that points out the different habits of the wealthy versus the poor?