Listen, I wish I read a article or watched a video in my 20’s that helped me understand that what I was doing at that moment was not moving me in the direction of where I wanted to ultimately be. Now don’t get me wrong, I was working very hard and super ambitious, but mostly all that misdirected energy could have been focused on habits that helped me achieve my goals much quicker.
This is for that younger me, and the habits we will go over can make a huge impact and ultimately change the trajectory of your life moving forward.
These may just sound like simple habits, but trust that once you put these 10 millionaire habits in motion and remain consistent, then the effects will compound on itself and overtime you will thank yourself for implementing these millionaire habits.
According to research, it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days for a person to form a new habit and an average of 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic. This is a broad range and is dependent on the individual and the habit they are looking to learn.
I wanted to start of with this habit, because without this, none of the other habits we mention will even matter. And that’s…
1. Healthy Lifestyle
Without health, nothing else matters. You could be the richest person in the world, and without your health, you couldn’t even enjoy it. Regular exercise, clean eating, water consumption and 6-7 hours of sleep, can have a significant positive result on the longevity and quality of your life.
I workout 4-5 days a week, 20 mins of cardio and about 35 mins of weight training. I’ve been consistently doing this for almost 15 years. This helps with mental clarity; energy and you just end up feeling a lot better.
These changes will carry over and result in better performance in all areas of your life.
2. Listen More / Talk Less
There are a couple reasons why you would want to listen more than you talk. Most of you have heard of a book called “How to win friends and influence people.” One of the key principles that Dale Carnegie mentioned is that when you become a great listener, you allow the other person to speak more about themselves, as a result you’ll end up gaining their respect and admiration.
Also, this millionaire habit will prevent yourself from mistakenly saying something dumb or communicating ideas that weren’t fully thought out – By being slow to speak and quick to listen, you give yourself space to develop your ideas.
There’s something called “5:1 listening rule.” For every 1 minute a millionaire talks, they would listen for 5 minutes. I’m not saying this is a ratio you need to follow, but more so to put in perspective how much more you should listen than speak.
3. Weighted Daily Tasks
Every night I write down all the tasks that I have to get done for the next day. I organize them by difficulty and complexity. From 7 am to noon, I’m focused on the most important tasks that require the most amount of thought and execution. This is usually meetings with my team or working something within my business. After lunch, I focus on tasks that requires less thinking. For example, between noon and 4, ill record my YouTube videos, shorts, respond to non-urgent emails or even jump on the phone and touch bases with mentors.
The reason to have the weighted tasks is because when you wake up, you are able to think more clearly and deeply. There are less interruptions and I personally find that my mind is more focused the first few hours of my day.
4. Invest
It’s important to develop a habit of investing continuously. A major difference between the habits of the middle class and the habits of millionaires is that the middle-class works for money, and millionaires make their money work from them.
Growing up my mom, would tell me to save as much as I can, go to school get a high earning job and retire. She meant well and wanted the best for me, but that’s not the life I chose, and I would rather ride the entrepreneur roller coaster than drive a straight line.
Most millionaires, get there, by letting their money work for them, and often has more invested than they have saved.
This is because the rich understand, that saved money, is a sitting duck, waiting to be consumed by inflation. Create a habit of investing and watch how your finances transform.
5. Read
According to research 88% of rich people spend about thirty minutes or more consuming information, whether its audible or reading a book. This is usually around self-improvement with the intention of acquiring new knowledge that can be helpful in their life.
This is not to be confused with reading books to be entertained. When discussing millionaire habits, their time spent is purposeful and the books tend to be centered around how to grow, whether its financially or personally.
A few books that helped me are, traction, who not how, 80/20 principle and atomic habits.
When you learn something new, it unlocks roadblocks in your mind and allow you to achieve new highest. Remember you don’t know, what you don’t know.
6. Leverage Debt
There’s bad debt and then there’s good debt. I remember the first time this really clicked for me is back in 2018 when I started flipping stuff online. I ran out of capital from investing all of it into items to sell online. I went out and got I think a 20 or 50K loan, I’m not sure exactly. I used those funds to by even more stuff to sell. I ended up grossing half a million that year. This is leveraging good debt, when you use other people’s money to increase your earning capacity and get a higher return on your investment then what is owed on the loan itself.
Millionaires have a habit of using debt vehicles to increase the ability to earn more. Find and investment or create a business and once you see some consistent results, go out and try to get a loan and use the funds to grow your business. Once you pay the loan back in full, analyze the performance the loan had on the business and see if there were any increased earning as an effect of the levied debt.
7. Be Patient
Most millionaires don’t chase get rich quick ideas. Understanding that great things take time and to incorporate patience is a great habit to practice. This is not to be confused with execution, millionaires are quick to execute on their ideas, and there is a huge difference in the 2.
Anytime I find out a new way to make my business better or even learn something new, im very quick to apply it and see how it goes.
There’s a famous quote by warren buffet that goes “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.” -Warren Buffett
Creating the habit of remaining patient will allow you to stay the course and see your ideas through to fruition.
8. Increase your Earning Capacity!
Self-made millionaires, who came from nothing, had to find a way to increase their earning capacity in order to invest more in their ideas that led them down the road to millionaire status.
If you’re barely getting by, it’s difficult to get things in motion if you have no money to put towards investing or starting a business. If this is the case, try learning a high-income skill or find a way to make more money by starting some side gigs, so that you can have more money to work with and risk. Say for example you wanted to start investing in real estate. You could learn a new skill and get certified as a real estate agent. You can then sell houses and use the commission you earn to invest in your business idea.
Going back to my story of 2018, I turned $800 into half a million that same year. I didn’t even have the initial $800, I had to sell some items around my house to come up with the money to invest. Now I wouldn’t have been able to scale as quickly as I did if I didn’t practice the next habit, which is…
9. Control Your Expenses
The fastest way to increase the amount of money you are able to keep each month is to control your unnecessary expenses. Millionaires have a constant habit of knowing how their money is being spent.
Millionaires understand the difference between wants and needs. This is especially critical in the beginning stages. Your finances should be under a magnifying glass at all times and knowing where and why your money is going, where it’s going, is an important habit to adopt, especially in those early stages.
10. Go Givers
Obviously not all millionaires are giving, but I’ve noticed that many millionaires can be.
Whether it’s tithing, feeding the homeless or helping friends and family, millionaires have knowingly or unknowingly created this generous habit and are quick to help others. Something amazing happens when you give, it’s always comes back to you, one way or another.
My theory is when you practice giving, you lose the fear of money itself, and maybe it subconsciously develops an abundance mindset that effects the decisions you make in life. This mindset then allows you to take on more and more risk and results in even better outcomes for you.
Overall, we know that you can’t take that money with you when you leave and personally its my life mission to be able to give more and help those that are put in front of me.
