Top Ten Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class

DISTINCTION 10 Millionaires think long-term. The middle class thinks short-term. Society can be broken down into five groups of people: the very poor, poor, middle class, rich, and very rich. Each group of people thinks differently about money. Very poor people think day to day. Poor people think week to week. Middle-class people think month to month. Rich people think year to year. And very rich people think decade to decade. There are three primary goals that can be found in the mind-sets of these five social groups. The primary goal for very poor and poor people is survival. The primary goal for middle-class people is comfort. And the primary goal for the rich and very rich is freedom. The reason that very poor and poor people seek to survive and the middle class seeks to be comfortable is because they have a scarcity mentality. They believe there is not enough money for everyone to have more than enough. The rich and very rich know the truth: there is enough money for everyone to have more than enough. What you believe about money has everything to do with how much money you will make. If you have a scarcity mentality, then you will seek to survive or just have enough to be comfortable. If you have an abundance mentality, you will seek freedom. The old saying "Seek and you will find" is true when it comes to your finances. You really do get what you look for in life. If you seek to survive, you will. If you seek to be comfortable, you will be. If you seek freedom, you will find it. There is power in long-term thinking. It can and will make you rich if you make it a habit. Let's look further at each of these groups of people. Thinking day to day, as very poor people do, is where you will find day laborers and street beggars. They typically earn less than $10,000 a year. Thinking week to week, as poor people do, is living paycheck to paycheck and barely making ends meet. Poor people typically earn $10,000 to $25,000 a year. Thinking month to month, as middle-class people do, is being concerned with monthly bills, such as mortgage payments, car payments, credit card payments, and other revolving accounts. The middle class typically earns $25,000 to $100,000 a year. Thinking year to year, as rich people do, is where people start learning about fiscal responsibility, financial literacy, and investing. Rich people typically make $100,000 to $500,000 a year. Thinking decade to decade, as the very rich do, is where you find business plans that reach far into the future. It is where people learn how to legally avoid taxes so they can keep their money working for them. It is where people learn how to pass their assets on to future generations without the government taking part of what they spent their lives building. Very rich people typically make well over $500,000 a year. Most very rich people consistently make a minimum of $1 million a year. Stretch Your Thinking Further Into the Future The longer you can stretch your thinking into the future, the richer you will become. Most multimillionaires I know personally have business plans that reach at least ten years into the future. When I first started thinking year to year, my income really started to increase. I asked myself questions like: How can I double my income this year? How can I legally pay less in taxes this year? As I have seen this principle of long-term thinking in the lives of my mentors, it has challenged me to look further into my future. I now have business plans that go twenty years into the future. I spend time on a regular basis thinking about what I want my life to be like five, ten, and twenty years from now. Then I create plans for how to get there. What would you like your life to be like ten years from now? Think about it and start planning for it. Thinking long-term requires patience. Patience is an asset in the lSmith, Keith Cameron is the author of 'Top Ten Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780345500229 and ISBN 0345500229.