Hi everyone! :-)
The reason why you aren't a millionaire (or on your way to
becoming one) is really quite simple. You probably assume it's because you
aren't earning enough money, but the truth is that for most people, whether or
not you become a millionaire has very little to do with the amount of money you
make. It's the way that you treat money in your daily life.
10 possible reasons you aren't a millionaire
1. You Care What Your Neighbors Think: If you're competing
against them and their material possessions, you're wasting your hard-earned
money on toys to impress them instead of building your wealth.
2. You Aren't Patient: Until the era of credit cards, it was
difficult to spend more than you had. That is not the case today. If you have
credit card debt because you couldn't wait until you had enough money to
purchase something in cash, you are making others wealthy while keeping
yourself in debt.
3. You Have Bad Habits: Whether it's smoking, drinking,
gambling or some other bad habit, the habit is using up a lot of money that
could go toward building wealth. Most people don't realize that the cost of
their bad habits extends far beyond the immediate cost. Take smoking, for
example: It costs a lot more than the pack of cigarettes purchased. It also
negatively affects your wealth in the form of higher insurance rates and
decreased value of your home.
4. You Have No Goals: It's difficult to build wealth if you
haven't taken the time to know what you want. If you haven't set wealth goals,
you aren't likely to attain them. You need to do more than state, "I want
to be a millionaire." You need to take the time to set saving and
investing goals on a yearly basis and come up with a plan for how to achieve
those goals.
5. You Haven't Prepared: Bad things happen to the best of
people from time to time, and if you haven't prepared for such a thing to
happen to you through insurance, any wealth that you might have built can be
gone in an instant.
6. You Try to Make a Quick Buck: For the vast majority of us,
wealth doesn't come instantly. You may believe that people winning the lottery
are a dime a dozen, but the truth is you're far more likely to get struck by
lightning than win the lottery. This desire to get rich quickly likely extends
into the way you invest, with similar results.
7. You Rely on Others to Take Care of Your Money: You believe
that others have more knowledge about money matters, and you rely exclusively
on their judgment when deciding where you should invest your money.
Unfortunately, most people want to make money themselves, and this is their
primary objective when they tell you how to invest your money. Listen to other
people's advice to get new ideas, but in the end you should know enough to make
your own investing decisions.
8. You Invest in Things You Don't Understand: Your hear that
Bob has made a lot of money doing it, and you want to get in on the gravy
train. If Bob really did make money, he did so because he understood how the
investment worked. Throwing in your money because someone else has made money
without fully understanding how the investment works will keep you from being
wealthy.
9. You're Financially Afraid: You are so scared of risk that
you keep all your money in a savings account that is actually losing money when
inflation is put into the equation, yet you refuse to move it to a place where
higher rates of return are possible because you're afraid that you will lose
money.
10. You Ignore Your Finances: You take the attitude that if
you make enough, the finances will take care of themselves. If you currently
have debt, it will somehow resolve itself in the future. Unfortunately, it
takes planning to become wealthy. It doesn't magically happen to the vast
majority of people.
In reality, it is probably not just one of the above bad habits that has
kept you from becoming a millionaire, but a combination of a few of them. Take
a hard look at the list, and do some reflecting. If you want to be a
millionaire, it's well within your power, but you'll have to face the issues
that are currently keeping you from creating that wealth before you will have a
chance to call yourself one.
Everyday ask yourself: "Am I doing what I need to do TODAY - to take me even just 1 single step closer to my dream?"
