An important contrast in how poor and rich people think is the “there’s not enough” mindset versus “look at all the ways to increase cash flow” way of thinking. This is the pessimist versus the optimist. To use a common comparison, this is also the person who views the glass as half empty compared with half full.
You might say that the poor view money with a lack of abundance, or ‘lack’ mindset. They feel that they never have enough money, there’s nothing they can do to earn more, and this is “all I can expect from life because that’s the way things are. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.”
One of the reasons for the latter statement being true is that the rich recognize that their is abundance everywhere, with plenty to go around for everyone. Wealthy people notice abundance, seek to attract it, and take advantage of events and situations around them. They see low-hanging fruit right in front of them and know that all they have to do is pluck it from the tree to produce wealth.
The rich think about cash flowing in and how to make it happen. They think about smart investments and ways to create wealth. Notice that most of them do not retire to a tropical island, never to be heard from again. They are often in the news with a new venture or charity work or something else that helps spread wealth and abundance to others.
Here are some facts based on which you can start thinking about making more money
WHAT TO DO WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS?
Throughout life, you encounter many opportunities that can be considered to be real turning points in your life. People who think poor often fail to notice the opportunities that surround them until it is too late. Or, they have a fear of failure (which could also be a fear of success) and let the great opportunity pass them by.
Things to do
- What special skills or abilities do you have that people would be willing to pay money for? List them.
- What special equipment do you have that can help you make money? List each item.
- Search the Internet for a few general terms to describe the topic you are interested in pursuing. How many websites on Google cover this subject? That can be your competition and your market place.
- Jot down your ideas and start to think seriously about opening your own topic-related business.
- How much time would you have to spend on starting and running your own business?
- Who would be able to help you?
- Research similar opportunities on the Internet. Is it possible to find other people on the Internet doing the same thing and making money at it.
THE WEALTH CREATION MINDSET
Business and marketing trends down to three simple factors. You can either go up, down, or sideways. In other words, if you are running your own business, you can either make money, lose money, or things will stay the same.
This is a good way to look at investment and wealth creation as well. There are really only three things to do with money, spend it, save it, or invest it. And within the investment strategy, there are really only three things that can happen with your money: you can either make money, lose money, or things will stay the same.
This is not rocket science, now is it? It is simply common sense. A fearful mindset will say that you already have so little, you really can’t afford to risk anything on an investment. It is really only a gamble, after all. But in some cases it can be said to be a calculated risk. That is, you can see in terms of a 401k or 529 account that some funds are performing well. While this does not mean that they will always continue to do so at the same rate, as a general rule, they will give you some percentage of return on your investment.
If you put your money in a mattress, for example, or in a box under the bed, then there will be no chance for growing your wealth at all. There might even be a risk of it being stolen if someone were to break into your house. A poor person experiences great difficulty looking past the fear of losing money to the possibilities of actually making money on any form of investment.
Wealthy people do the opposite. Whenever the bottom drops out of the market, that is when they buy stocks in tried and tested companies, when stocks are at their lowest and the economy is the scariest. This is the time top investors like Warren Buffet will tell you is the best opportunity you will ever have to buy great stock known to be high-performing, at bargain basement prices.
KNOWING YOUR POWER
It might sound like circular reasoning to say that feeling empowered is powerful. Yet, when it comes to comparing how rich and poor people approach their financial lives and their attitudes to wealth, feeling empowered galvanizes the rich into positive action, while feeling powerless and at the mercy of ‘fate’ or things just being ‘that way’ prevent the poor from doing anything to improve their situation.
Feeling empowered does not mean you have, or think you have, control over every situation. What it does mean is that you know that you are personally responsible for the decisions you make and that you feel confident that you can deal with whatever challenges in life come your way.
ASPIRING TO MORE
Dreams are thoughts, and thoughts, of course are part of your mind, and therefore your mindset. What you think about and wish for is closely connected to what you can accomplish if you ‘set your mind to it’ as the common phrase goes.
Do you spend some time each day thinking about your dreams? And are your dreams big, grand, a great vision like a Hollywood movie? Or are they just based on your regular daily life, with you just hoping and praying that you are going to be able to make ends meet this month?
Poor people tend to dream small. It is of course only natural for them to be fearful of their future when they are struggling, but at some point, that constant worrying can be too draining and negative for people to continue with for long. They will either fall prey to money-related stress or some other form of illness, or depression.
Stress can stop you from acting in an intelligent manner when it comes to making decisions about your finances. Depression can do the same, in a different way. With stress, you might have poor impulse control and take big risks or gambles in the desperate hope of a big pay-off. With depression, you lose the motivation to try to improve your situation. You think that everything is hopeless and nothing ever changes in your terrible life.
MANAGING YOUR MONEY
Understanding your money and how to manage it will be one of the best ways to create the kind of wealth that you dream of in order to achieve your goals and the kind of success you long for, however you wish to define success.
For money people, they get a paycheck at the end of each week or two-week period, and need to manage their money in such a way that they can have a stable life, with a home, food, electricity, transportation of some form to and from work, and so on.
Your cash will flow in from your paycheck and out through your checking account and online bill pay system.
This is just one stream of cash, however, and if it were to dry up for whatever reason, such as the loss of a job, things could start to get into an emergency situation very quickly if you did not have any savings in the bank.
Therefore, the key to financial success is to look for ways to increase your cash flow, so that you have more than one stream of income going into your bank account’s.
Your mindset about money largely determines the kind of financial life you will lead. Simply put, your thoughts create your life.
Those who think their lives have abundance are thinking richly, while those who take on a “lack” perspective and do not see the abundance in the world are thinking like a poor person, and therefore staying poor.
Those who look around them for things to invest their time and effort in are thinking richly about their future and all the opportunities that are available to them if they just take positive action.