You’re asking yourself “why am I poor?”
Without mincing, the majority of individuals wish to be rich. While riches may look unevenly and unfairly distributed, it is worthwhile to understand that there are differences in the things that the poor and the rich do.
Unfortunately, most poor people have cultivated certain habits that will continue to make them poor. As expected, the rich don’t engage in those things.
So, if you’re ready to ask yourself “how to be rich?” or if you have the desire to be rich, you need to avoid the things that the poor do that the rich don’t do. To help you avoid these activities, take the time to check out the following 10 things that poor people do that rich people don’t.
Why Am I poor?
1. Poor people waste their time watching TV
The advent of technology has brought us so many things, and one of them is TV. Sadly, TV has become one of the tools that have made many people poor. If they are not watching an exciting movie on Netflix, they are probably seeing the recap of a TV series on another channel.
Many poor people spend hours watching TV and forget about the most important things that they need to improve their lives. In addition, many poor people will still spend some hours discussing and arguing about these movies and series with their friends or on social media platforms.
The rich, on the other hand, have learned the essence of reading meaningful books. They have tons of wealth-creating, mind-blowing, and self-motivational books on their shelves and also read them from time to time. Rather than investing their time on TV, the rich rather buy books that can show them the things they need to do to make more money.
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2. They borrow money for dumb reasons then they asked “why am I poor?”
Both the poor and the rich borrow. But the only thing that differentiates their borrowing habits is what they spend the money on. While the rich borrow to invest and expand their riches, the poor are fond of borrowing for things they are not valuable or helpful to their lives. They tend to borrow for things that will only satisfy their pleasure.
There have been many cases of poor people borrowing money to host a birthday, engagement or wedding party. Sometimes, the poor borrow money to buy the latest phones, wristwatches, clothes, shoes, TVs and other irrelevant things.
In many cases, they borrow money to acquire liabilities that will still take away more money from them. This foolish habit does not only deprive them of the chance to create wealth, but it further leaves them in bad debt that they will have to struggle with for weeks, months or even years.
3. They don’t take responsibility for their misfortunes
Blaming others for their misfortunes is one of the things that are common to most poor people. They will never take responsibility for their actions because they believe that they have never made any mistakes. Their failures, their poverty, their debt, and other forms of misfortunes are never their faults. They find it hard to accept their mistakes. They believe that the uneven distribution of wealth is due to the unfairness of life. They will blame the economy, weather, government, parents, and every other thing except themselves.
“Why Am I Poor? Well, it’s their fault!”
The poor sometimes blame rich people for not giving out money to help them get out of poverty. They blame the well-to-do individuals in their family or circle of friends for not helping them to become rich.
The main problem with this bad habit of the poor is that it ensures that they don’t see their mistakes. As a result of this, they can never learn from those mistakes. They will never put in any effort to find a way to improve their skills so that they can earn more. They will continue making the same mistakes over and over again.
Rich people believe that their failures are their mistakes. They take full responsibility for their mistakes, learn from them and take actions that can turn their fortune around. So, if you want to be rich, you need to start taking responsibility for your misfortunes. You own your destiny and can decide how your life will turn out to be.
4. Poor people are always focused on the problem but not the solution
Whether you are rich or not, you are going to encounter problems. While the rich look for ways to solve a problem, poor people are fixated on the problem. The poor are more concerned about how the challenges have been holding them from progressing. They will continue to discuss how, why and where the problems started. However, they will never try to come up with solutions to the problems. This will make the problems have more damaging effects on them.
Contrarily, rich people understand that it is impossible to change what has occurred but they have the power to mitigate the problems that it can cause. Therefore, they will continue looking for solutions until they find one.
5. They only save without investing
Saving is an important habit as it can help in putting together the funds needed to invest in bigger and better things. But this is not true for poor people. Instead of saving to invest, the poor just save for the sake of it. At the end of the day, saving becomes a delayed expense for them. That is, poor people save money only to spend it later.
Such money will remain the same amount that they saved. It does not work for them neither does the money increase over time. It is crucial to note that saving can never make you rich. Based on the average earning of most individuals, saving can never make them a millionaire in 20 years. However, if you save and invest it in a profitable business, you can become rich over time. So, stop the habit of saving without investing if you don’t want to continue being a poor person.
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6. They never take actions
Both poor and rich people have great ideas that could bring significant changes to the world and transform their lives. However, the poor only keep these ideas in their heads without taking any action. They sometimes want to share these ideas or find someone to partner with to turn the ideas into action but they never put in the effort required to make this happen.
The only thing the poor do about their ideas is to talk about them every day to everyone. But whenever it is time for them to take action, they will chicken out and then start looking for excuses. Poor people often cite their backgrounds, education, career, family, lack of money or skills, and lots more as the reasons holding them back from doing the needful. Nevertheless, the real problem is that taking actions will force them out of their comfort zone. And this is difficult for them to do.
Another reason why poor people don’t take action is that they are afraid of failing. So, rather than take a risk and fail, they will not try to act at all. This will continue to keep them in the cycle of poverty.
Maybe they should ask “how to get rich?” instead of “why am I poor?”
7. They possess a lottery mentality
A lottery mentality is a form of belief or mindset that a person will win a lottery or another quick-money scheme one day and all their financial problems will end. This wishful thinking forms the basis of the daily activities of many poor people. Consequently, they rather spend money to gamble or buy lottery tickets than take action that can make them rich.
The poor believe that something dramatic must happen for them to become rich. They believe that they have to gamble before fortune can smile at them. They don’t look for opportunities; they wait for opportunities to come their way.
For rich people, the reverse is the case. Instead of a lottery mentality, the rich have an action mentality. They believe that they need to make plans and take actions before they can become rich and maintain their wealth. They don’t leave anything to chance but take control of their lives. Even if they have parents, friends or relatives that can help them, they still believe that their future and fortune are under their control. This action mentality spurs them to seek for opportunities anywhere they find themselves.
8. Poor people surround themselves with wrong people
As they say, show me your friends and I will tell you who you are.
Poor people have perfected the habit of keeping only other poor people as friends.
In most cases, the major factor that brings them together is a similar mindset. They think alike and take similar futile actions; hence, it is easy for them to keep each other as friends. By staying with other poor people, a poor person will not feel bad about their situation. This allows them to have a pseudo-feeling of satisfaction with their present condition.
They come together and rationalize their lack of willpower to strive to become rich. They discuss what rich people are doing wrong and dictate how the rich should spend their money. They are all small-minded and unwilling to challenge each other to make an effort to improve their conditions.
9. They wake up later during their most productive years
Although the rich tend to sleep and take more rest during their later years, they usually sacrifice their early years to gather wealth. During these early years, they sleep less and wake up early to deal with all the important things that can help them build the wealth they want. Their most productive years are dedicated to working all around the clock to create an unending wealth that even their future generations will enjoy.
On the other hand, the productive years of the poor are wasted on sleeping and doing other unprofitable activities. They also wake up late. Of course, sleeping is important to rejuvenate the body, but it should be moderate or else it will affect your ability to become rich.
Don’t use your doctor’s recommendation for sleeping for an extended period as an excuse, strive to wake up earlier and sleep less than before. If waking up late has become a bad habit for you, consider sleeping earlier and setting an alarm to wake you up. Overall, learn what it takes to sleep moderately.
10. Poor people hardly learn because they believe they know it all
The rich understand the fact that nobody knows it all and, as such, they often try as much as possible to ensure that they acquire knowledge from everybody and in different forms. They learn from their mistakes as well as the mistakes of other people. Rich people read books to expand their knowledge.
They are open to learning from their superiors and even their subordinates. The rich believe that every event offers them an opportunity to learn a new thing.
But the same cannot be said about poor people. This is because they believe that they are perfect; hence, they can never make mistakes. Instead of listening to and gaining from the opinion of others, poor people are only interested in airing their opinions.
They believe they are smarter than other people; therefore, they must talk so that others can listen and learn from them. This action makes it difficult for them to learn new systems, strategies and other things that can enhance their lives.
They hold on to the same old lifestyle that has never brought them any remarkable success.
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Final Thoughts
In a nutshell, no one is destined to be poor. However, our action is the single most important thing that will determine whether we will be rich or not. If you continue doing the things that poor people usually do, you will continue living in penury while complaining about so many things.
Nevertheless, if you can decide to avoid the things that poor people do, you will experience positive changes that will make you rich.
It’s time to start asking “how to get rich?” instead of “why am I poor?”
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