Why You Are Not As Wealthy As You Should Be

Why you are not wealthy

God has given us the power to get wealth.  Deuteronomy 8:18

You have the power to be wealthy, and that is the absolute truth according to the Bible, having said that I am not oblivious of the fact that some people may not be able to for some reasons, like serious health conditions, or even the environment itself which can be detrimental to some people who aspire to be wealthy…et al.

“Statistics tell us that you take 100 people start at age of 19 years by the time they are 65 years of age, 1 will be wealthy, 4 will be financially secure, 19 still will be working, 54 will be broke, 22 will be dead.”

I want you to be one out of the hundred. 

If you earn an income you can be wealthy, whatever that is to you, to some people it could be able to have more than enough, to other is to have enough money that they don’t have to work any other day of their life.

Table of Contents

HERE ARE SOME 33 REASONS WHY YOU ARE NOT AS WEALTHY AS YOU SHOULD.

You Fail To Ask The Most Important Question, “Who Got My Money”

If you are not wealthy, it is because you are investing your time with the wrong people and you’re not applying, “Who’s got my money?” You need to figure out who has your money and what are the services that you can offer in exchange for the money. Don’t waste your time with people who are not relevant to your answers.

“Who got my money?” This must be your foremost focus. If you don’t do this, you end up wasting your time with the wrong people who will not buy your product or invest in your ideas. Learn more about, “Who’s got my money?” from Grant Cardone’s book.

You Minimize The Power Of Ownership.

To become wealthy be an owner and every single percentage point of anything you own is crucial. Strive to own and retain control of as near to 100 percent of any company as you can. There is a paradox though to ownership, you can’t own anything, thinking you can is nonsensical, we are all mortal and we take nothing with us when we die. 

Failure To Choose The Right Mountain

You must avoid the trap of going into what you think will make you money if you have no empathy or feeling for what you are about to do there’s no future in that. Go for something that exploits your natural talents. Look for new mountains where gold is being mined, great new mine right now is in telecommunications, or the internet and legalised gambling.

Inability To Decide To Be Wealthy

Those who are wealthy are people who have decided to be so. The majority of people have not decided whether they want wealth or not and because they haven’t decided what they want what they don’t want automatically takes place.

Why You Are Not As Wealthy As You Should Be

You have to understand the root word or etymology for decide comes from Latin decidere “to decide, determine,” literally “to cut off,” so when you decide you cut off others options.  This Latin meaning “to cut off,” is similar to the Latin word decisionem which in English is translated as decision.

So when one decides to be wealthy it means you cut off other options that are not in alignment with wealth. You have to make a decision now, not tomorrow or someday. Remember, today is yesterday’s tomorrow, and someday is an island that will wreak havoc you.

You Ignore The 3 Fundamental Elements Of The Spending Decision.

This major reason why you’re not as wealthy as you should be, you see, every moment you decide to spend money you should be considering the following three fundamental elements of The Spending Decision:

  • Utility: Do I need or just want this item?
  • Availability: Do I have the money “available” to pay for the item? 
  • Affordability: Can I “afford” the item? Does it fit into my long-range goals?

Wealthy people don’t buy before answering those three questions

You Are Living Above Your Means

I don’t care, I really don’t whether you’re as wealthy as Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, or Warren Buffet, if you live above your means the result will always be misery. When you live below your means with plans to raise your income the result will be happiness.

You can’t get wealthy when you are earning 1000 dollars and contemporaneously living a lifestyle of 1050 dollars, this is poor man’s economics. You need to live on less than you make and save the rest for future investment. Remember the money you spent is the money you can’t invest.

“To have an annual income of twenty pounds per annum, and spend twenty pounds and sixpence, is to be the most miserable of men; whereas, to have an income of only twenty pounds, and spend but nineteen pounds and sixpence is to be the happiest of mortals.”

Many people live above their means because they have an image to maintain.

You Are In Deep Debt

When you live above your means, keeping up with the Joneses you will be forced at some point to borrow, actually, when you live above your means you’re actually borrowing, this is true because your spending is above what you have, which means you’re spending money you don’t have to begin with.

If you use debt to buy anything that does not bring in income that is bad debt, whether is real estate or a car.

Debt is taskmaster, it strips man’s dignity, it robs a man of his self-respect and makes him almost despise himself. It destroys relationships, and it has made many slaves. Today modern slaves are in debt.

Why You Are Not As Wealthy As You Should Be, you are in debt

“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.” Proverbs 22:7 (NIV)

You can’t create wealth when you are knee-deep in debt. Unless you pay all the bad debts you haven’t decided to wealthy.  As long you are paying interest you are throwing your power to be wealthy away.  If you want to get out of debt read The Total Money Makeover By Dave Ramsey and better still listen to him on YouTube.

And I tell you what, paying your debt is the best investment with 100% tax-free return on your money. You need to break chains of debt, that is what is shackling many.

Lack Of Budgeting

“A budget is telling your money where to go, instead of wondering where it went.” John Maxwell

Budgeting is such a powerful tool that helps people to manage their money successfully.

Why You Are Not As Wealthy As You Should Be is caused by lack of budget

If you don’t have a budget in place the following will happen;

  • It will be hard to achieve your financial goals.
  • Lack financial control.
  • Money wastage.
  • You overspend
  • Get in debt/ or if in debt will be difficult to get out.
  • You buy what you want and later beg for what you need.
  • More stress.
  • Anger and difficult to have a good relationship with others
  • Broke always

You can’t get wealth when you are experiencing the above consequences.

You Don’t Track Your Spending

Many people spend money on what they label as “small expenses” but those seemingly small spending here and there in long term accumulate to thousands and thousands of dollars.  I can’t agree more with the sage who said, “A small leak will sink a great ship.” Your financial ship will sink because those “small expenses” are doing to you what a small leak can do to the ship.

Be careful of small leaks

Spend $5 everyday on coffee in one year will amount to $1,800. What can you do with that amount if you didn’t take coffee every day?

Most people are trapped in an impulsive mentality that prevents them from keeping much of the money they make for any length of time.

People who don’t track their spending can’t realize how much money they can save for future investment because they lack a system in place to track their spending.

“Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.”  Songs 2:15

Big vineyard ruined by little foxes.  Big ship sunk by small leaks.  It’s no wonder that God’s wisdom tells us to catch the little foxes or stop the small leaks.  Don’t wait for them to get big.

When you start tracking your spending you will come to realize how much money you have been wasting on trivial stuffs. Tracking your money that is how you ensure that all leaks are sealed.

Like a chicken with it head cut off, is a person with no structure or strategy in place to track expenses spending. When you fail to track your money, you can easily consume every penny you earn on impulse and without any real awareness.

Some of the best spending tracker apps include but not limited to;

  • Mint
  • Wally
  • personal capital
  • QuickBooks
  • FreshBooks
  • Expensify

But before you go for those fancy apps, first DIY with your phone you can record everything you spend money on, I mean everything, you can call it Daily Money Log. You can also use a piece of paper with the following columns; Date, Item bought, Category, Amount. Make your Daily Money Log simple, remember simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

You Impulse Buy

This is an enemy for every person who wants to be wealthy. Wealthy people don’t impulse buy, they stick to their budget. You see, if you don’t need it, don’t buy it just because you want it. Even if it is on discount, If you wouldn’t buy it if it were at full price, you don’t need it when is on “bargain”. Stay away from impulse buying, those things we were not taught in school, or in our home, we have been conditioned if you want to get it, cry for it, borrow to get it, after all, you deserve it. The thing is we deserve what we truly need, not what we just want.  Impulse buying makes you spend gas money on shoes and then you borrow for gas.

Lack Of Delayed Gratification

Also known as deferred gratification, it is the act of resisting an impulse to take an immediately available reward in the hope of obtaining a more-valued reward in the future. Delay gratification is essential to self-regulation, or self-control.

Many people want it now that is why many borrow, they can’t wait and save money to buy what they want. Delayed gratification is what separates adults from babies. Mature people are willing to delay pleasure for a greater result later. They know it will be a temporary pain for long-term pleasure.

One of the biggest downfalls for many financially is the inability to self-regulate.

One of the ways to train yourself to self-regulate is by applying 48-hour rule on anything you want to buy online. It works by putting an item in your cart for 48 hours before you make the purchase, many times you will realize that you don’t really need those things in your cart. It also help you to pause and think about whether you really need to spend the money now. You can divert your impulse and think about what you could do with the money instead.

No Personal Financial Goals

Why You Are Not As Wealthy As You Should Be

Another reason why you are not as wealthy as you should be is lack of financial goals. Personal financial goals are monetary targets you want to hit, the things that you want to achieve financially. They can be;

  • Short-term goal
  • Medium-term goal
  • Long-term goals.

Examples of financial goals include;

  • Opening an emergency account
  • Paying off debt
  • Plans for buying a house
  • Saving for retirement
  • Invest for college
  • Plan for holiday

If you have no financial goal in place, is a sign that you will never be wealthy. You can’t hit a target you don’t see. Financial goals help you to stay on course; they help you to focus your mind on the set target.

In The Total Money Makeover By Dave Ramsey you’ll learn 7 Baby Steps to put yourself together financially, those steps are the best to start with as your goals.

Goals help you to know what matters to you and what doesn’t and consequently it allows you to be specific on where to spend your money and where not to. Wealthy people have goals. You must set your financial goals.

Entertaining Get Rich Quick Schemes

People who think they can get rich quickly in today’s world they are either stupid or they are just about to kill their rich uncle. To be rich means you have to take some risk, work so hard that your best friends mock you.  It takes time and risk to accumulate money and the wealthy people know it. To think otherwise is fantasy at best. People who take get rich quick schemes lose even the very little they had. To be wealthy learn from the best. Learn how to get rich using proven methods. Read my notes on Your First 100 Million by Daniel S. Peña Sr. is a great read.

Low Level Of Financial Intelligence

Lack of financial education is another reason why you’re not as wealthy as you should be. This has put so many people in a class of stupid, poor and broke. Financial education gives you an unfair advantage when it comes to wealth creation. You read all other books, but those that teach you how to, manage, save, get out of debt, leverage, and invest your money, you minimize this area that affects all of us.

read more to get an edge

Failure to create time to learn the fundamentals of personal finances will ensure you have time to be broke and in debt. You increase your financial IQ by reading books on personal finances and authoritative blogs. Money doesn’t make anyone rich, but the application of knowledge does. Income rarely exceeds personal development.

You Don’t Think You’re Smart Enough To Be Wealthy

To earn money you have to solve problems, the tragedy is many people don’t see themselves as solution bringer. They don’t think they have what it takes to solve problems, they complain instead of finding means to solve problems. All wealthy people are problem solvers; they know we get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of the problems we solve. You can’t solve problems unless you believe that you’re smart enough to achieve anything you want.

Spending Money On Unnecessary Luxuries

You are a prodigal/ a spendthrift that is why you’re not as wealthy as you should be. Most of the people are just wasters.  To waste money is to waste life. We earn by exchanging a portion of our lives for money. Your Money Or Your Life author Vicki Robin  wrote that money= life energy.

Why You Are Not As Wealthy As You Should Be

Money is your life energy. You “pay” for money with your time. You choose how to spend your money (life energy). Next time before spending asks yourself, “I am willing to exchange my portion of life for this item.”

Dr. Tom Stanley & William D. Danko book’s The Millionaire Next Door (read my incisive notes), in their intensive research they discovered millionaires are the most frugal people. They live a modest life, drive second- hand vehicles, they live next to welders, factory workers…et al. Jeff Bezos continued driving Honda Accord even when he was a billionaire. Here is a list of Billionaire that are most frugal. Don’t spend major money on minor things, and, conversely, don’t spend minor money on major things

You Have A Single Source Of Income

“Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.” Ecclesiastes 11:2 NIV

In today’s economy having a single source of income is a bizarrely bad idea and has set many in an insuperable financial hardship. Having multiple sources of income is the fastest way to be wealthy, and it protects you in case you lose one source, the other source will take care of your needs. You mitigate risk by having multiple sources of income. No one ever gets rich without increasing income first.

Wealthy people have multiple sources of income, and people who are not wealthy have a single source of income. To be wealthy you need to model those who are wealthy. Learn how you can create have multiple sources of income 

You Haven’t Monetized Your Skills

One way to create multiple sources of income is by monetizing your skillset. If you don’t have any skill you can commit to learning freely online, go to YouTube, and learn. In today’s time, there is no excuse why you can’t learn a new skill and monetize it. If you don’t is not that you can’t is only that you lack discipline and commitment to do so. Here is a comprehensive list of money-making skills you can learn in less than a year

You Avoid Risk

Take some risk

Another reason why you’re not as wealthy as you should be is that you avoid risk. Wealthy people are risk-takers they have realized that the riskiest strategy is to try to avoid risk altogether. Yes, you can fail, but the wealthy don’t allow failure to shackles their risk-taking ability. Poor people are so busy guarding the little they have accumulated instead of using that energy to invest their money, in good ventures. You don’t have to be a savvy investor, but you can invest in a savvy investor. To grow you have to take some risks that is how you become wealthy, there is no way around it.

You Have A Poor Money Blueprint

In His book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker says, “Your financial blueprint consists primarily of the information or “programming” you received in the past, and especially as a young child.” Wealthy people have a blueprint that empowers them, poor people have a blueprint that disempowers them. You can’t be wealthy when you demonize people with a lot of money and canonize those without, that kind of blueprint is wrong. You can’t kill what you worship. 

People with poor money blueprint canonize;

  • Money won’t make you happy.
  • A lot of money will make people to dislike me
  • More money =more problem
  • Money is the root of all evil
  • Wealthy people are evil 

Some people’s money blueprint is too low; they just want enough to pay the basic. If your blueprint is a certain income a year, eventually that’s what you’ll get. You need a high-income blueprint.

Your blueprint is like a thermostat. If the temperature in the room is seventy-two degrees, chances are good that the thermostat is set for seventy-two degrees. Reset your money blueprint.

You Minimize The Value Money Have In Life

Why You Are Not As Wealthy As You Should Be

Many say that money won’t make you happy and I agree, but neither is poverty. If I am going to be unhappy let it be accompanied by some cash. Money was not designed to make anyone happy, what money does is buy away a lot of unhappiness. You see, money is a placebo, not the cure. 

Money is very valuable, it is extremely important in the areas in which it works and extremely unimportant in the areas in which it doesn’t. More often than not, people who say money is not important and has no value they are trying to validate the lack of money in their life, they are dead broke, and they do things that reinforce their believes consequently they are trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty. Wealthy people know better that money is valuable in areas which it works and very useless in areas it doesn’t work. 

You Save To Save, Instead Of Saving To Invest.

Save with a purpose

Saving money is good when money is put aside for investing purposes. Saving for sake of saving is worthless. You get rich by investing not by saving money. Wealthy people save with one goal to invest in the future; they don’t just save for emergency and retirement. Saving money without an end goal in mind is a loser’s game.

You Have No Cost-Cutting Mechanism In Place

Donald Trump is a billionaire in his book How To Get Rich he said he still switches off the office lights when not in use. He is a Billionaire, now ponder on that. If you don’t know how to cost-cut you will have a lot of money going out, wealthy people ensure the outlet is tiny. That is why many of them sign every check, no matter the amount. In his book Driven, Robert Herjavec on signing cheques said, 

“It’s a matter of knowing and acknowledging how much money is flowing out of the company. If you’re not aware of this factor in your firm, you might as well drive home blindfolded every night.” 

By doing some basic cost-cutting is how you stop the financial bleeding in your life. What are your cost-cutting mechanism?

You Treat Money Differently Depending On Where It Comes From

This tendency is known as mental accounting. When you treat money this way you will not amount to much financially. The value of money doesn’t change regardless of where it comes from a dollar is a dollar may it be from gambling or salary the value remains, it can be a windfall, inherent, gift, income from investment, salary… et al. The way you spend money will determine how wealthy you will be. Many people when they get money outside their income, or from their investment or salary they waste it. Mental accounting will cost you if you don’t start treating money equally. Any money you get, you have a choice to either spend it or invest it for profit that is a choice you anytime you have money. Wealthy people treat money equally with the same respect. A dollar is a dollar.

You Lack An Emergency Fund

This is another reason why you’re not as wealthy as you should be. Having an emergency fund ensures when an unforeseen event happens you have a cushion to fall on, this prevents you from borrowing money. Borrowing money for an emergency like a car break down, sickness et al is the ultimate dream killer, you pay interest on liabilities. Wealthy save for the unforeseen.

You Haven’t Put The Power Of Compound Interest To Work For You

 “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it earns it; he who doesn’t pays it.” Albert Einstein.

The reason why many never experience this wonder is that it works against them (paying high-interest rates on bad debt) or they haven’t put it in practice yet. 

You’re Not A Smart Shopper.

Poor shopper

This is why you’re not as wealthy as you should be you spend more money and time doing shopping.

Smart shoppers;

  • Buy in bulk
  • They wait for the price to go down before buying the latest stuff in the market
  • They go shopping at the end of the season
  • Compare prices
  • They research the product before they buy it.
  • They read reviews on products.

If you are not a smart shopper you spend more money on fuel or fare going to do shopping, but when you’re a smart shopper you buy in bulk, and by so doing you save money on fuel or fare. You also buy at a cheaper price. By doing so you can save serious cash by planning your purchases and being a smart shopper.

You Are Comfortable Living Paycheck To Paycheck.

The salary has an attraction and addictiveness all of its own. A regular paycheck and crack cocaine have that in common. 

Salary conditions your mind for a specific amount of money at a specific date of a month, similar to Pavlovian conditioning. Working too long for a paycheck may blunt your desires to take the risk that is needed to succeed in life. Yes, you can get rich on salary but not wealthy. The bigger your salary, the bigger chunk of your money goes to taxes.

You Fail To Do An Outstanding Job

Ownership is incumbent but doing an outstanding job is indispensable if you want to expedite your process of being wealthy. Many people are bosses of crap, yoyos owning a mediocre company. There is no need of owning 100% of the rubbish company as Felix Dennis said in How To Get Rich. Focus on your business, whatever it is. It represents what you are.

Excessive Idolatry Of Money

Another reason why you’re not as wealthy as you should be is excessive idolatry of money. This will corrode your inner core, your integrity, your belief, your worth, and the love of those dear to you.

“There is no fortress so strong that money cannot take it.” Cicero 

If only I have this amount of money I will be so happy, if I am rich people will respect me, love me…etc money won’t do anything of the sort, thinking so is what Mark Manson called Shitty Values. Which matrix are you using to measure that “if only I have this I will be happy?” First of all, you don’t have it, so you don’t have an actual feeling of the outcome. “If onlys” is a nebulous thing.

“The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity, and it’s really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad — because you never know what will be the consequence of the misfortune; or, you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune.” Allan Watts.

You Scatter Your Powers

You Scatter Your Powers

Another reason why you’re not as wealthy as you should be is that you scatter your powers. You don’t stay with anything long enough and strong enough. Many start this business and within a few months, they try something new because that is where many people are killing it. Spending their limited resources so widely that they barely accomplish anything. Wealthy people, commit fully to one task.

 “If you want to be a software company you have to be only a software company, you can’t dabble in other things.” Bill Gates, Microsoft

“You should focus on one important goal and you need to be pretty single-minded about it.” Larry Page, Google Founder.

“You need to be super focused like a laser to get anything worthwhile done. When I did Avatar, I was focused for 4 years.” James Cameron, film marker.

In The Art Of Money Getting P. T. Barnum, encourage people to engage in one kind of business only, and stick to it faithfully until you succeed, or until your experience shows that you should abandon it. A constant hammering on one nail will generally drive it home at last.

When a man’s undivided attention is centered on one object, his mind will constantly be suggesting improvements of value, which would escape him if his brain was occupied by a dozen different subjects at once.

You Are A Willing Guarantor

There is a reason why bank asks people to give them a guarantor, they are smart to figure out the borrower many fail to pay back. Many people are not wealthy because they are paying a debt for someone else, the money they could have otherwise invested. Wealthy people only cosign money they can afford to lose. Daniel S. Peña Sr. in his book Your First 100 million said a Guarantor is “a fool with a pen” 

You Blab

Another reason why you’re not wealthy as you should is because you blab about your business, career, your success, and by the time you realize someone has taken your recipe and kicked your ass. Some men have a foolish habit of telling their business secrets. If they make money they like to tell their neighbors how it was done. Wealthy people don’t blab, unless they are getting paid to do so, they know as Kelvin O’Leary said in His Book Cold Hard Truth said, “Business is war.”

Dr. Phil said, “Don’t dilute your importance by telling everyone everything you know.”

Conclusion

So if you want to be wealthy, you must do the opposite of all the 33 reasons. They say if you want to be rich observe what poor people do and avoid it, and simultaneously try your best to model the strategies of the wealth people.

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