Why Aren't You Rich Yet?

Filed in archive General on March 22, 2007

Jeffrey Strain has an interesting list of 10 Reasons You Aren't Rich at TheStreet.com. I'm going to see which of the ten are holding me back. Feel free to quiz yourself to see why you're not rich (unless you are rich, which in that case poo on you).

1. You Care What Your Neighbors Think -- I'm not a big "keep up with the joneses" kind of guy, although it does grip me occasionally.

2. You Aren't Patient -- Strain uses this to mean using credit cards to buy what you won't wait to afford. Not a problem for me.

3. You Have Bad Habits -- Talking here about money spent on smoking, drinking, gambling. I'm not a smoker or gambler. Buying a little less wine might be a good idea, though.

4. You Have No Goals -- Do you have a Financial plan or are you just winging it and hoping? I have a financial plan, but in truth it's dated and I should probably do some revising, which I'm not really tempted to do because it's such a pain in the bum.

5. You Haven't Prepared -- He's talking about insurance here to protect your wealth. I'm OK on this front. I would make the case that this isn't a great point for why someone's not rich, although it could explain why someone was rich but then lost everything. Insurance only stops you from getting rich if you actually have to use it for something catastrophic; for most of us, it costs more than we get out of it.

6. You Try to Make a Quick Buck -- Guilty as charged. I've tried a lot of schemes to make money fast versus building slowly. I'm trying a double track these days. Build slowly but constantly be on the lookout for that scheme that's really going to blow it all up.

7. You Rely on Others to Take Care of Your Money - Not me, I trust no one with my cash.

8. You Invest in Things You Don't Understand - I've been guilty of this quite a few times.

9. You're Financially Afraid - This is about your ability to handle some risk in order to get bigger gains. My problem is really the opposite---I need to be more financially afraid.

10. You Ignore Your Finances - Never.

That was helpful. My biggest impediment to getting rich is obviously too much embracing of risk. And wine. When I really get into trouble is when I take financial risks after having a few glasses of wine. Now that's a bad habit.

How do you stack up on the 10 reasons?