Last time, we took a look at five of the top habits shared by the most successful millionaires in the world. As I noted then, simply copying the road map of rich people isn’t necessarily going to get there, but it is definitely worthwhile to look at the kind of lifestyles they lead and the conscious decision they make to get there.
Do you read on a regular basis? Do you exercise? Here are six more habits shared by successful millionaires, as cited by Visual Capitalist.
6. Keep Current
Especially when you work for yourself from a home office, it’s far too easy to become something of a hermit. You close yourself off from the rest of the world and live in your own little bubble. Nothing else matters, right?
Wrong. A full 94% of the millionaires surveyed say that they keep up with current events every day, whether that’s through a newspaper, television or online. By keeping up with the news, they are better able to recognize (and jump on) emerging opportunities before everyone else does.
7. A Penny Saved Is a Penny Earned
Don’t get me wrong. I love fast cars and beautiful houses and fancy vacations as much as the next person, but “looking” rich and “being” rich are vastly different things. The guy with the impressive mansion could be millions of dollars in debt. The old rule still applies: spend less than you earn.
How much less? The Visual Capitalist infographic points toward the “discipline of saving at least 50% of your earnings.” Sound hard? It just might be, but that’s what will put you in the right kind of mindset. Indeed, 88% of the rich say that saving money is “incredibly important.”
8. Learn from the Best
It’s one thing to read advice from successful millionaires and attempt to implement some of their core values and strategies into your own life. It’s another thing altogether when you have one of these individuals to turn to for personalized insight and guidance.
Of the self-made millionaires questioned, an overwhelming 93% attribute their wealth accumulation to having the right mentor. Not only will you have a better sense that you’re headed in the right direction, but you’ll also learn how to get there faster since you can avoid the “beginner mistakes” that plague everyone else.
9. You Are Your Friends
There’s an observation floating around that says that you are the average of the five people with whom you associate the most. If you hang around with deadbeats and poor people, you’re probably going to be a poor deadbeat yourself. If you hang around with millionaires, you’re much more likely to be a millionaire too.
To this end, 86% of the rich people asked said that they associated the most with “other success-minded people.” If you surround yourself with pessimistic people with pessimistic outlooks, you’re probably not going to achieve your more ambitious goals. They’ll shut you down.
10. You Are What You Do
Success doesn’t happen overnight. Unless you win the lottery, wealth won’t happen overnight either. It’s something you need to plug away it, oftentimes for years on end, but it’s through this experience that you grow and make things easier for you for years to come.
The more you learn and the more you do, the better able you are to adapt those learnings to real life situations to maximize your benefit (and profit). As your skills improve, your money-making ability will grow. To keep learning, 79% of the wealthy read “educational, career-related material” on a regular basis.
Never stop learning. Never stop adapting. And while there’s no guarantee you’ll ever “make it,” there is a guarantee that you won’t if you never put in the dedicated effort in the first place.