Attitudes of the wealthy #1

This is the first of a few blog posts where I will provide tips, techniques and motivation to support my readers on the road to financial freedom. After four years of just collecting rent checks on not doing much to contribute back to the community, other than a few UCLA classes, I decided it was time to get back into action in supporting others to create financial freedom. This is where work becomes a choice instead of a requirement.

I’ve said that regardless of how much money someone earns, they cannot become wealthy unless they think and act as the wealthy do. There are many ways to measure the wealth of a person besides money, but that’s not the conversation for this blog post. Here I am talking about financial wealth.

How do wealthy people think, and what do they do? Over the next few posts, about one per week, we will cover several areas where the wealthy think differently than the poor. First we need to cover a few definitions.

We need to define wealthy, poor and broke. A wealthy person has enough money to feel comfortable in their lifestyle. They are not worried that they will lose their home or they won’t have enough money to feed their family. They don’t care how much they’ll get from Social Security.

A poor person does not have any of those attitudes. They don’t have enough, they know they don’t have enough, and they know they will never have enough. If the government doesn’t help them, they may not survive, and they believe the government owes them what they feel entitled to.

Broke is a condition where there is a lack of money.

I’ve been broke twice before, and once I was poor. When I was younger I only made enough money to keep my head above water. Based on the relationship with wife at the time my attitude was, “It doesn’t matter how much money I earn, I’ll never having any savings.” It was not a good marriage because I could not support my wife in the manner to which she wanted to be accustomed.

After my second divorce I was broke. I had the attitude that I could rebuild my wealth. I knew that I was in control of my life and I had the knowledge to make it happen.

“The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything to which he is justly entitled.” – Andrew Carnegie

Let’s look at the first attitude of a wealthy person:

Wealthy people control their circumstances.

 I recall a program from about 40 years ago where the presenter said the wind blows in the same direction for every sailboat. But how the skipper sets the sails determines his direction. What I hear in this is that the economy can be weak, there can be bad news, and civil unrest in the world, but a wealthy person will choose how to respond to the circumstances. The circumstances will not dictate the outcome. The mindset, attitudes and actions of the wealthy will determine the outcome.

The poor are controlled by their circumstances.

People who are poor have a victim attitude. They believe the world conspires against them. They do not feel they have any control over what happens in their life. They complain about their job, their mate, their children, their health or their neighbors to the point they have nothing good in their life.

Regardless of your income level, as an exercise, practice catching yourself and see if there is something you want to complain about. For seven days, find something instead that is worthwhile in anything you would have complained about in the past. This will start an amazing shift in your outlook.

In the next blog post I will give you some ideas on where you can put money to work and earn 8-12% with little risk and as little as $2500.

For a free copy of the best selling, award winning book, Wealth On Any Income, log onto www.WealthOnAnyIncome.com , enter your name and email address and press the button that says “Click here for your free book.”