Episode Details

5 Traits of the Rich Vs Poor

By Charles Kelly, Property Problem Solver, Author of Yes, Money Can Buy You Happiness and creator of Money Tips Podcast

I spent years researching my book, Yes, Money Can Buy You Happiness, because I wanted to find out why some people are rich and others are poor.

What I discovered is that having wealth has little to do with how hard people work, since millions of poor people work hard in jobs putting in long hours of sometimes backbreaking work all of their lives with little to show for it.

It is not all about academic qualifications. Education helps, as academic qualifications will increase your earning power over your lifetime. However, just have a university degree is not the key.

Where you live can make a difference, as people born in a first world country, like the UK, obviously have a huge advantage over millions of others born in developing countries even if they do not always appreciate their good fortune and often waste the many opportunities right in front of their noses! Yet even in poor countries, I have seen both poor and rich people, and observed similar rich traits and habits. If you go to any town in the UK, Europe or America, you will find the poor part of town and the bigger houses on the hill in the wealthier part of town. You will find people who are doing well and people who are struggling.

Is it down to luck? Luck or good fortune can play a part, but we all have those lucky breaks and times when opportunities seem to just fall in our lap. Unfortunately, we don’t always take advantage of those lucky breaks.

Can we make our own luck?

The great golfer, Gary Player, was once told by a spectator during a match, “Gary, that was a lucky shot”. He replied, “do you know, the more I practice, the luckier I get!”.

You could also say that “luck” happens when opportunity or good fortune meets preparation.

No, my research into the rich and successful has shown that it is not just about luck, hard work, education or, within reason, where you were born. Many successful wealthy people I know never went to university and were even thought of a stupid at school, like Richard Branson and Jamie Oliver who were later diagnosed as dyslexic. Billionaires, such as, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs dropped out of college.

Some people might blame external factors like the economy or the government. However, the government in the country like the UK or America makes it easy to set up a business and give tax breaks to entrepreneurs. The UK is a leading world economy and one of the easiest countries in the world to set up a business or a limited company or corporation. It has a good tax regime which encourages people to set up businesses. The economy will always fluctuate a little in boom and bust cycles, but some people seem to do well in good times and bad.

There are also thousands of free and very inexpensive courses, training programs and seminars to help people improve their knowledge and skills.

There are a number of traits of successful people - and by success I am using money as a means of measuring success for this example - whilst recognising that you can be successful in many endeavours that do not involve money.

Here are five common traits that separate the rich from the poor. And by poor, I mean the average person in a first world country living from pay cheque to pay cheque, living in first world poverty. They are not starving, they have the essentials and a roof over their heads, but they are struggling to keep their heads above water.

1. Mindset

One of the main traits of the wealthy is mindset. How they think about money, their attitude towards money and people with money,