The Attitudes of the Wealthy Series: 10 - 12

As you know, one of the most important keys to creating wealth is the right attitude. That is why I decided to share with you in a series of articles the Attitudes of the Wealthy. This is the fourth article of that series.

Attitudes of the Wealthy #10: Voracious Readers

In the next attitude of this series, we will cover how the wealthy are voracious readers. They are continual learners.
Do you love to learn?

If so, you already have one of the traits the leaders of the United States possess. Many U. S. Presidents have been voracious readers from George Washington and James Madison to Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy.

I have read that most corporate Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) read about one book per week. The following six billionaires credit reading with their success: Elon Musk, Warren Buffet and his partner Charlie Munger, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates.

The point is if you want to earn more you need to learn more. It is reported that Warren Buffet spends 80% of his day reading. And when you are passionate about something it is only natural to want to learn more about it.

That can also be one of the tell tale signs that you may be off course in your career. If you do not want to learn more about it, maybe you are in the wrong field. If you enjoy learning more about something, whether it is knitting, horses, coaching or finance, you may very well be moving in the right direction.

And continual learning is not limited to books. It can show up in seminars, workshops, podcasts, conferences, traditional classrooms, coaching, and mentorship. From this they look to see how they can create a return on that investment.

Be sure to carve out the time to learn more about what you love. And as you learn more you will earn more.

Attitudes of the Wealthy #11: Penny Wise and Dollar Foolish

When I was a child I first heard this expression from my dad, who was from England, “Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish.”

As child I didn’t know the pound was a unit of money in England, and not a reference to how much something weighed.
It wasn’t until I was an adult that I started to use the expression, “Don’t be penny wise and dollar foolish.”
And it doesn’t matter which expression you live by, it still makes sense.

Too many people will be sure to fill their car where the gasoline will be 5 cents cheaper, but spend thousands of dollars too much when buying or leasing their car because they did not shop around for the best deal. Or better yet, they did not have to buy a new car in the first place.

The reality is that it is important to watch the small amounts of money and the large amounts also. For many, many years I used a tool that I describe in my book; the Spending Plan Register. It allowed me to see if I was on track in spending money toward my financial goals and gave me feedback in as little as 5-10 seconds whenever I spent money, used a credit card, or wrote a check.

In my day we only had cash, checks or credit cards. Now we have Apple Pay, Venmo, Bitcoins, PayPal and other forms of payment I am not even aware of.

Until you have established your long-term goals it is easy to be distracted by advertising and objects that you might want to buy now. As an example, you could be standing in a department store and trying to choose between a red sweater and a blue sweater. Red, blue, red, blue, which one should you buy? But maybe you should not even buy either one because you have sweaters at home you have still not worn.

Without long-term goals, and being conscious of what they are, you can easily be stuck in the red versus blue sweater quandary. Many years ago I heard the following expression: The wealthy plan for generations, and the poor plan for Saturday night.

If you would like to see the exercise my students and coaching clients use to establish their long term financial and lifestyle goals, just send me an email and request it.

Attitudes of the Wealthy #12: It’s Okay to Talk About Money

Finally, I want to share that the wealthy are open about money conversations. They do not feel it is rude to talk about money.

The wealthy will talk about money: How much they pay staff; how much they paid for the country club membership; what investments they have made; what the rate of return is on various investments; and the deal they got on the car they purchased or the jet they leased.

Sure, some of it might be bragging, but the point is they do not see it as rude. It might look like this: “You might want to consider buying into XYZ Corporation because at the rate they are growing they could have a stock split in the next 12 months. I just purchased 1000 shares.”

Another example is when I am talking with other apartment building owners. I might ask what they get for a 1-bedroom apartment in the city and they might say, “$1695 per month.” My reply might be, “That’s $100 more per month than I am getting. I should look at that.”

Now if you are a tenant, and asked that question, you would not get an answer. But from one apartment building owner to another, we will talk about money. We will talk about how much we pay our plumber, our roofer, our handyman, our utilities, and more.

Again, wealthy people do not find it rude to talk about money. We are exchanging information to help each other.

To your prosperity,

Rennie