Five Reasons Why People Don’t Become Wealthy

Here are what I consider to be the five reasons why people don’t become wealthy

1 Never occur to people to become wealthy

First, at the top of the list, is that it never occurs to them. The average person has grown up in a family where he has never met or known anyone who was wealthy. He goes to school and socializes with people who are not wealthy. He works with people who are not wealthy. He has a reference group or a social circle outside of work who are not wealthy. He has no role models who are wealthy. If this has happened to you throughout your formative years, up to the age of twenty, you can grow up and become a fully mature adult in our society, and it may never occur to you that it’s just as possible for you to become wealthy as for anyone else.This is why people who grow up in homes where their parents are wealthy are much more likely to become wealthy as adults then people who grew up in homes where their parents are not. So the first reason why people don’t become wealthy is it never occurs to them that it is possible for them. And of course, if it never occurs to them, then they never take any of the steps necessary to make it a reality.

2 Make a Decision!

The second reason that people don’t become wealthy is that they never decide to. Even if a person reads a book, attends a lecture, or associates with people who are financially successful, nothing changes until he makes a decision to do something different. Even if it occurs to a person that he could become wealthy if he just did certain things in a specific way,if he doesn'’t decide to take the first step, he ends up staying as he is. If you continue to do what you'’ve always done, you’ll continue to get what you’'ve always got.The primary reason for underachievement and failure is that the great majority of people don’t decide to be successful. They never make a firm,unequivocal commitment or definite decision that they are going to become wealthy. They mean to, and they intend to, and they hope to and they’re going to, someday. They wish and hope and pray that they will make a lot of money, but they never decide, “I am going to do it!” This decision is an essential first step to becoming financially independent.

3 Maybe Tomorrow

The third reason that people don’t become wealthy is procrastination.
People always have a good reason not to begin doing what they know they need to do to achieve financial independence. It is always the wrong month,the wrong season, or the wrong year. Business conditions in their industry are no good, or they may be too good. The market isn'’t right. They may have to take a risk, or give up their security. Maybe next year.There always seems to be a reason to procrastinate. As a result, they keep putting it off, month by month, year by year, until it’s too late. Even if it has occurred to a person that they can become wealthy, and they have made a decision to change, procrastination will push all their plans into the indefinite future.

4 Pay the Price

The fourth reason that people retire poor is what economists call the inability to delay gratification. The great majority of people have an irresistible temptation to spend every single penny they make and whatever else they can borrow or buy on credit. If you cannot delay gratification, and discipline yourself to refrain from spending everything you make, you can not become wealthy. If you cannot practice frugality as a lifelong habit, i twill be impossible for you to achieve financial independence. As W.Clement Stone said, “If you cannot save money, the seeds of greatness are not in you.”

5 Take the Long View

The fifth reason that people retire poor is perhaps as important, if not more important, than all the others. It is lack of time perspective. In alongitudinal study conducted by Dr Edward Banfield at Harvard University in the 1950's and published in 1964 as The Unheavenly City, he studied the reasons for upward socio-economic mobility. He wanted to know how you could predict whether an individual or a family was going to move upward one or more socio-economic groupings and be wealthier in the next generation than they were this generatio .Banfield studied and compared his findings against the most common explanations for economic success in America, and in other countries. Was it education? No. Many people with good educations actually moved down economically. Was it intelligence? No. A lot of very intelligent people are poor and can’t earn a living. Was it being born into the right family? No.Many people born into affluent families did poorly as adults, while many people with poor educations became very successful. Was it being in the right part of the country? Was it being in the right industry? Was it luck?What factors were best at predicting that a person would move up economically over the years?