By Gerri
Detweiler, Credit.com
Eat less junk
food. Exercise daily. Sounds like a recipe for getting fit, right? Those habits
may also be key to becoming financially healthy, says Tom Corley, who
interviewed 233 wealthy individuals and 128 poor ones during a five-year
period, gathering data on more than 200 activities each group engaged in. He
shares his findings in his book Rich Habits—The Daily Success Habits of
Wealthy Individuals.
"What I
found was that there was a difference a lot like the size of the Grand Canyon
between the daily activities of the wealthy and the daily activities of poor
people," he said in a recent interview for my radio program Talk Credit
Radio.
Here are some
of the habits Corley found to be common among wealthy people.
1. Rich people
eat less junk food. Corley found that 97% of poor people “ate more than
300 junk food calories each day whereas 70% of the wealthy didn’t.” That’s not
surprising, considering junk food is cheap. How often do you see “buy one get
one free” specials for organic produce versus chips? But eating junk food
results in an increase in the number of calories you consume during each day,
which affects your weight and ultimately your health. Health issues, such as
diabetes and heart disease, interfere with your ability to make money and
medical expenses can put a greater strain on your finances.
2. They
exercise regularly. Again, the rich subjects he interviewed generally
have healthier habits. “Seventy-six percent of the wealthy individuals exercise
aerobically at least four days a week versus 23% for the poor.” He added that
this habit, along with eating better, is key. “To wealthy people, health is
everything,” he said in our interview. “If they’re healthy, they can work. They
have more energy. They work longer hours. They have fewer sick days, it
increases productivity and it’s a lot driven by their desire to be successful.”
3. The wealthy
don’t procrastinate. They are goal-oriented and accomplish things, he
notes in his book. Breaking this bad habit is crucial to success, says Corley.
“When the thought of putting off something enters your mind, immediately cast
this thought out by saying, ‘Do It Now.’ Repeat these three words a hundred
times a day if necessary,” he writes.
4. They keep
learning. One of the “eye-openers,” he says, was discovering that 88% of the
wealthy people he interviewed read 30 minutes or more each day for education or
for career-related reasons versus 2% for poor people. “I even dug a little
deeper,” he adds. “I found that 76% of the wealthy read two or more
education-related, self-help related books each month and the poor didn’t. So
there’s a lot of this emphasis on education, and reading, and self-improvement,
improving the vocabulary.”
5. Rich people
nurture relationships. "Successful people are students
of relationship building," he writes. "They faithfully return
phone calls right away. They continuously seek out ways to improve their
relationships." Remembering birthdays—even just to make a happy birthday
call first thing in the day—networking, and sharing milestones are regular
habits for them. For example, he found that 79% of the wealthy network five
hours or more each month vs. 16% for the poor.
If reading this
list leaves you feeling overwhelmed, Corley reminded me that you don’t have to
implement every single one of the dozens of rich habits he uncovered. Each rich
habit was intentionally created to be what he calls a “keystone habit.”
Keystone habits are unique in that they affect other habits. He says they have
a “multiplier effect” that makes them even more powerful. For example, one good
keystone habit, like exercising aerobically 20 to 30 minutes each day, can help
eliminate other bad habits like overeating, eating junk food, smoking
cigarettes and consuming too much alcohol.
Corley says
that “one or two rich habits is often all it takes to turn your life completely
around and raise you out of poverty and onto a new, happy life.”
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