Thinking about Money and Being Rich

What you think and how you think determines a number of things – but specifically it determines how you act, your behaviour and your attitude.

Being confronted continuously with people complaining about battling, not having enough money and how unfair things are, I decided to do some reading about how financially successful people go about the one thing that does impact on all of us, money.

It is good practice to determine what work and what not, and if one then uses the same principles and practices, you should be able to achieve some degree of success.  Thus, determining how rich people think and go about their money should provide reasonably sound guidelines for how we should think and act regarding money.

Following is the result of my reading about the subject, differentiating between average and rich people’s thinking.

#	Average people …	Rich people ….
1	Think MONEY is the root of all evil	Believe POVERTY is the root of all evil
	Establish yourself first financially so that you’re in the position to help.  You cannot give what you don’t have.  You do not get rich and stay rich by helping everybody carelessly.
2	Have a lottery mentality	Have an action orientation.
	It’s picking the right numbers and praying for prosperity versus solving problems/focus on opportunities and focusing on the future.
3	Think the road to riches is paved with formal education	Believe in acquiring specific knowledge
	Education must serve a specific goal.  It should never be the objective. Stay focused on learning from others.
4	Long for the good old days	Dream of the future
	People who believe their best days are behind them rarely get rich, and often struggle with unhappiness and depression.” The future is only the present waiting to happen. Be ambitious, think big.
5	See money through the eyes of emotion	Think about money logically
	"An ordinarily smart, well-educated and otherwise successful person can be instantly transformed into a fear-based, scarcity driven thinker whose greatest financial aspiration is to retire comfortably" versus money is a critical tool that presents options and opportunities. A compelling vision will allow the rich to find other people’s money to invest. Don’t be afraid to invest. Emotions create dangerous business deals. Leave emotions out of this and turn to logic.
6	Earn money doing things they don't love	Follow their passion
	Do what you love and find a way to get paid for it. Be passionate about what you do.
7	Set low expectations so they're never disappointed	Are up for the challenge
	To achieve greatness you have to dream big. The middle class underestimate their potential, the rich set huge goals “Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.” Bo Jackson
8	Believe you have to DO something to get rich	Believe you have to BE something to get rich
	Becoming successful is a journey.
9	Believe you need money to make money	Use other people's money
	Ask the question; 'Is this worth buying, investing in, or pursuing? And then find funding.
10	Believe the markets are driven by logic and strategy	Know that markets are driven by emotion and greed
	Understand this in your trading decisions.
11	Live beyond their means	Live below their means
	Simple.
12	Teach their children how to survive	Teach their kids to get rich
	There is balance in everything.
13	Let money stress them out	Find peace of mind in wealth
	Money as never-ending necessary evil versus money as liberator.
14	Would rather be entertained than educated	Would rather be educated than entertained
	What do you watch on TV or what do you read?
15	Focus on saving	Focus on earning
	Being too frugal can let you miss major opportunities. “Your greatest asset is your earning ability. Your greatest resource is your time.” Brian Tracy “If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting.” Benjamin Franklin
16	Play it safe with money	Know when to take risks
	Every investor loses money on occasion. Act in spite of fear.
17	Believe they must choose between a great family and being rich	Know you can have it all
	Decide self if wealth must come at the expense of family time. Think both, not either/or
18	Focus on obstacles.	Focus on opportunities.
	How do you think about things? Are you bigger than your problems?
19	Believes promoting yourself is boastful.	Are excellent promoters, knowing how to promote themselves, their ideas and their products with enthusiasm.
	There is only one you, and only you can promote yourself the best.
20	Work for someone else, they have a job.	Tend to be self-employed, the “own” a job.
	“The richest people in the world look for and build networks; everyone else looks for work.”  Robert Kiyosaki
21	Work to earn	Work to learn
	If you want to be rich, you should be working to learn the skills you need to become rich (e.g. sales).
22	Have things	Have money
	“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people that they don’t like.”  Will Rogers
23	Believe in hard work	Believe in leverage
	Hard work is a necessity. Hard work alone will rarely make you rich. You can’t become rich by doing it all yourself. You have to use leverage.

What else do they do?

They choose the best employees to get the job done.

They don’t care about what you think of them.

They surround them with positive and successful people. “It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.” -Warren Buffett

They choose to get paid based on results (e.g. own business or in a commission-based or bonus-based job)

They manage their money well.  Use spare money optimally, avoid credit and only spend on useful things.

Conclusion

Working well with you money and creating wealth is more about the right attitude than it is about money itself.  Consider why a large number of lottery winners go broke after a few years.

Some differences between the middle class and the rich are vast, while others may seem simple and minor. The fact is that if you want to become rich, you have to think like the rich and do the things the rich do. With the wrong mental attitude, it is impossible to become and stay wealthy. (K. Rawlinson)

What is my take on all of this?

I don’t think being rich is a sin.  It does, however, creates a couple of challenges.

You have to define “rich” for yourself.

I firmly believe that nothing great comes without giving something in return – you decide what you really want.

Sources:

Do you think like a wealthy person?  Keith Rawlinson. http://eclecticsite.com/wealthyminded.html

21 Ways Rich People Think Differently. Mandi Woodruff.  www.businessinsider.com

15 Surprising Ways Rich People Think Differently.  http://www.lifehack.org/

17 Things Rich People Do Differently.  Phil Drolet.  Personal Mastery.  Wealth Creation.

10 Differences Between Middle Class And Rich People.  Kalen Bruce.  www.lifehack.org