In my five-year study of the daily habits of the wealthy and the poor, I asked over 300 activities separating the rich and the poor. Here is a sampling of some of the differences in their daily habits:
- If you are poor, you probably rent a car. 45% of the poor rented a car against 6% for the rich.
- 13% of the rich drive a luxury car against 9% of the poor. The big difference here is that the rich own their luxury cars, while the poor rent their luxury cars.
- The rich carefully monitor their credit. They know if they have good credit and they know what their credit score is. 72% of wealthy knew their credit score against 5% of the poor.
- Poor people like to play the lottery. 77% of the poor admitted to having played the lottery regularly against 6% of the rich. But it’s not just the lottery that they play their money on… ..
- 52% of the poor admitted that they play on sports at least once a week against 16% of the wealthy.
- The poor do not control their feelings. 43% of the poor admitted to having lost the temper at least once in the last month against 19% of the wealthy.
- Parents who are success mentors raise wealthy children. 75% of the rich learned good daily success habits from their parents. 94% of the poor admitted that they learned bad habits from their parents.
- The rich do a better job of keeping the pounds away. 21% of the wealthy admitted to being overweight by 30 pounds or more. vs. 66% of the poor. But there is more about this story …
- 69% of the poor visit fast food restaurants 3 times or more each week. 75% of wealthy stay away from fast food restaurants. Even more….
- 57% of the rich counted calories each day against 5% of the poor. Wait, not finished yet …
- 69% of the poor eat sweets more than once a week against 28% of the rich. It gets worse….
- 70% of the rich ate less than 300 junk food calories every day. 97% of the poor ate more than 300 junk food calories. Got one more on health …
- 76% of the rich training exercises each day against 23% for the poor.
- How do the rich and the poor think when it comes to wealth and poverty? 79% of the poor believe wealth is the result of random good luck. 92% of the rich believe you are creating your own luck.
- 90% of the poor believe in fate against 10% for the wealthy.
- 79% of the rich believe they are the cause of their financial condition. 82% of the poor believe they are not responsible for their poverty. It’s someone else’s fault.
- The poor love -TV and reality shows. 77% of the poor admitted to having seen more than an hour of TV every day and their preference? Reality TV wins hands down. 78% of the poor Watch Reality TV shows. The rich, on the other hand, are not big on TV 67% Watch less than an hour every day, and it is not reality -TV that they are setting. Only 6% see reality -tv
- Last but not least…. 62% of the rich dental floss regularly against 16% for the poor.
There you have it. It’s not beautiful. We only scratched the surface. The rich are rich because they have more rich habits than bad habits and the poor are poor because they have more bad habits than they have rich habits.
If you want to change your financial circumstances, you need to change. You need to grow to the person you need to be too financial success to visit you. This growth begins by changing your daily habits.
Tom Corley is an accountant, financial planner, public speaker and author of the books “Insert-Less Wealth: Smart Money Habits At All Phases of Your Life” and “Richkids: How To Raise Our Children To Be Happy and Successful In Life”. Corley’s work is shown on CNN, USA Today, The Huffington Post, Success Magazine and many other media and podcasts in the US and 27 other countries. Tom is a frequent contributor to Business Insider and CNBC.