Theresa Worrell: Rich habits, Poor habits Episode 29 | Will Your Child be Rich or Poor? Part 1

In Tom Corley’s five-year Rich Habits study of 233 rich people and 128 poor people he discovered that we adopt the beliefs of our parents, family, mentors, culture, and environment.

He found that children are being taught that the wealthy are corrupt, greedy, have too much wealth and that this wealth needs to be redistributed.

When Tom travels and speaks to students about exactly what they need to do to become financially successful in life he always begin his presentation – by asking three questions:

“How many want to be financially successful in life?”
“How many think they will be financially successful in life?”
Almost every time he asks the first two questions every hand rises in the air. Then he asks the magic third question:
“How many have taken a course in school on how to be financially successful in life?”

Not one hand rises in the air, ever.

Clearly every student wants to be successful and thinks they will be successful but none have been taught by their parents or their school system how to be financially successful in life.

Not only are there no courses on basic financial success principles but there are no structured courses teaching basic financial literacy.

We are raising our children to be financially illiterate and to fail in life.

It’s so secret that children are a sponge for the information they are given – therefore most of what they are taught will naturally stay with them in their adult years.

The fact is the poor are poor because they have too many Poverty Habits and too few Rich Habits.

The best parents teach their children good habits that lead to success and the worst parents teach their kids bad habits that lead to poverty.

Here are some statistics from Tom Corley’s five-year study on the daily habits that separate the wealthy from the poor:

72% of the wealthy know their credit score vs. 5% of the poor.
6% of the wealthy play the lottery vs. 77% of the poor.
80% of the wealthy are focused on at least one goal vs. 12% of the poor.
62% of the wealthy floss their teeth every day vs. 16% of the poor.
21% of the wealthy are overweight by 30 pounds or more vs. 66% of the poor.
63% of the wealthy spend less than 1 hour per day on recreational Internet use. 74% of the poor spend more than an hour a day in the Internet.
83% of the wealthy attend back to school night for their kids vs. 13% of the poor.
29% of the wealthy had one or more children who made the honor roll vs. 4% of the poor.
63% of wealthy listen to audio books during their commute vs. 5% of the poor.
67% of the wealthy watch less than 1 hour of TV per day vs 23% of the poor.
9% of the wealthy watch reality TV shows vs. 78% of the poor.
73% of the wealthy were taught the 80/20 rule vs. 5% of the poor (live off 80% save 20%).
79% of the wealthy network 5 hours or more per month vs. 16% of the poor.
8% of the wealthy believe wealth comes from random good luck vs. 79% of the poor.
79% of the wealthy believe they are responsible for their financial circumstances. 82% of the poor believe they are victims and not responsible for their poverty.