George Kamel - The 7 Habits of Millionaires

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

Changing your money habits can change your life! Today, we are going to look at the habits millionaires make. The more bad habits you kick and good habits you follow, the more successful you'll be with money. Links: Budgeting For Beginners I love a good deal, when you sign up using this link, I’ll hook you up with a 14-day free trial and $15 off your first year of the premium version of EveryDollar. Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pop quiz hot shot. And lucky for you, today is multiple choice. And the test begins now. So put on your thinking caps and put away your phone. Unless you're watching this video on your phone, then that's okay. I just smashed your phone. You what? Question number one.

Author John Maxwell famously said, I can predict the long-term outcome of your success if you show me your what. Is it A, license and registration? Or is it B, habits? Three seconds on the clock. Go. Too late, the answer is B, habits. Question number two.

To what was the Buddha referring? when he said, drop by drop is the water pot filled. Was it A, Avatar, the way of water? Or is it B, developing good habits? B, developing good habits, final answer. Last question. Who said the successful person makes a habit of what the failing person doesn't like to do?

Was it A, Corey Matthews, famously known from Boy Meets World? Or was it B, Thomas Edison, famously known from an equally impressive societal contribution, the light bulb? Thomas Edison, I hope you guessed that one right. That was an easy one. And it's no secret there was an overarching theme in those questions. Habits.

Especially developing and maintaining the good ones. You see, most people who have found financial success understand that building wealth simply comes from having good habits. And on the flip side, those people also stay away from bad habits, or at least the habits that make them and keep them broke. Now, I'm not talking about habits like flossing. I don't know their flossing routine. It wasn't asking the survey, and I never want to assume dental hygiene.

Too risky. So today we're taking learnings from Ramsey's survey of over 10,000 millionaires across the country to understand the habits of the rich. And the habits keeping you from becoming one of them. I don't know. Some of you are thinking, George, millionaire? That's middle class at best.

But most of you watching this aren't millionaires. So before you have it, don't complain about it. Plus, many of the people in the study are multi-millionaires. So maybe you should start it off with the habit of listening to what rich people actually do. Rant over. Now, before we crack open this fresh can of introspection, I've got one more question for you. What would be more helpful on your wealth-building journey?

A, the black hole of magnet fishing videos over in your suggestions bar? Ha ha ha! Of course it is! Or B, hitting my like, subscribe, and share combo to get more content like this. Listen, no judgment. We all had that magnet fishing phase, but eventually we all grow up and end up watching the George Campbell channel. All right, this first habit of the wealthy we're talking about might surprise you. But millionaires tend to be avid readers.

And that's how they know words like avid. In fact, President Harry Truman once said, Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers. Constant desire to learn is a key habit to being successful in life and building wealth. Leadership books and biographies and even works of fiction are much more valuable than knowing who won too hot to handle Germany. How severe was it then for you, a so shone's motive, just kidding.

There's not enough Deutsch marks in the world to make me watch those Deutsch bros. Which brings us to the inverse habit keeping you broke. Just doing what feels good. As my friend Dave Ramsey says, adults devise a plan and follow it, children do what feels good. And trust me, I'm preaching to the choir here. It's way easier for me to veg out and watch corn cobb challenge TikToks than to actually use my cognition to read a book.

But corn cob challenges aren't taking me anywhere, other than maybe the dentist. Mature adults know that saying no to idleness and choosing discipline will produce something greater in you and in your bank account in the long run. All right, next habit of the wealthy goes hand in hand here. Millionaires practice delayed gratification. They spend most of their lives opting out of temporary pleasures in exchange for long-term success. They say, new car for zero down with a moonroof? No thanks.

Give me a used Honda accord I can afford in cash. Or 6,000 square foot mansion by the country club? I'm good with my modest house. I'm paying off in 15 years. You see, these people just don't care about keeping up with the Joneses. Instead, they do wild things like save for retirement and college and build up a large down payment for their dream home. We're talking wildly responsible things. They realize that instant gratification can be fun, but delayed gratification is way better.

On the flippity flip, broke people typically have the habit of paying for convenience. And I know it's easier to Uber eats your wantons. But if you want tons of money, skip it. Delete the food delivery apps and thank me later. Here's the deal. Every single day, you have the power to make decisions that will move you forward financially or set you back. So know where you're tempted to overspend on convenience so you can practice delayed gratification like a baller millionaire. All right, next habit of the wealthy, they stay away from debt.

One of the biggest myths out there is that average millionaires see debt as a tool to be leveraged, but the data says otherwise. If a millionaire wants something they can't afford, the research shows they don't buy it. They save and pay cash for it when they have the money. Radical concept, I know. Same with car payments, student loans, or buy now, pay later plans. These things just aren't part of their vocabulary. So if you're one of my Gen Zer friends, to those things, you should say, that's low-key big yikes.

like life's been mad cringe lately. Like instead of taking W's, I'm taking L's. Plus because millionaires don't owe anything to the bank, every dollar they earn stays with them. On the other hand, broke people make a habit of relying on debt. And in our culture today, that's pretty easy to do. You see, we just live in a world where just about anything can be financed or borrowed. I mean, you can finance a tiger named Kip these days. And while I can give you a feeling of financial security, the loan, not the tiger, it's just a feeling, not a fact. That means you think you can afford the Tiger payment, the new car, the house, or the big purchase, but it's actually eating up your

financial future. And if Kipp's involved, potentially more, he's hungry. So if you're serious about learning how to stop spending money, you have to swear off debt for good, because your debt owns you until you pay it off. Think about it. If you go out to a nice dinner with your friends and you pay for it with a credit card, you might as well just eat your next paycheck. And if you forget to pay the bill on time, interest gets added, and that $20 meal just keeps getting more expensive, and you don't have anything to show for it. So remember this, debt is a thief,

and if you want to stop the robbers, stop going into debt. The next millionaire habit is one of my favorite six-letter words, right up there next to Zephyr, and that is budget. You see, financially successful people know that a budget is just a plan. It's not for broke people,

it's for people who want to keep their money, and you can't build a million-dollar net worth without a plan, because success is not an accident. You are in charge of your own wealth building. So just like you build a house by starting with the foundation, you build wealth by starting with the budgeting basics. In fact, the average millionaire has a habit of budgeting every single month. Every month. All of them. They know if they want to continue

to build and keep their wealth, they need to know exactly what's coming in and what's leaving their bank accounts. People who struggle financially, however, have the habit of spending without a plan. They have kind of the leftover budgeting method where as long as there's some money left over at the end of the month, they're happy. That's not how you reach your goals. So listen, if you don't have a monthly budget, your money will disappear. And you won't know where it went, just like your youth. What's your age again? You're 34, Eric. It's time to grow up and move out. And losing track of the money you've spent or payments you've got scheduled will eventually come back to bite you. Ben Carson, then the list goes on. Ow, son of you. So if you want to build wealth, you need to break

this money habit ASAP. So here's the new rule when you spend your money. If you don't have the cash to pay for something right now, you can't afford it. That's it. And listen, I know budgeting can be intimidating if you've never learned how to do it. But don't worry. You don't need to whip out a pencil and go to town on your checkbook ledger, if you even know what that is. Shut up, boomer. So I personally use a budgeting app called Every Dollar that makes budgeting super simple. I'll drop a link below. Plus, I did a whole video on budgeting for beginners where I walk you through how to use

this app. I'll link that below as well. All right, next habit of the wealthy, millionaires don't let food bust their budget. Believe it or not, most American families are spending more than the average millionaire on groceries every single month. The average monthly grocery expense for millionaires is $412. while a comparable non-millionaire family spends $647. That means non-millionaires spend about 57% more on groceries than actual millionaires.

And before your comment, going, Well, millionaires only spend less on groceries because they're eating out all the time. Unequivocally false. You don't have to yell at us. You see, on average, Americans spend $3,365 per year on eating out. That's $280 per month, or 10 KFC 12-piece buckets. And 28,000 calories later, your finger-licking broke. And while broke people spend an average of $290 bucks,

the average millionaire spends $267 on eating out. And if they use coupons, it goes down to $22. And regardless of what your food budget is or needs to be, the fact remains that while millionaires are worth way more than the average jo, they spend less eating out and buying groceries. Okay, last habit of the wealthy. And don't sleep on this because it's definitely the most important. Millionaires are generous.

I know, it sounds counterintuitive. How does giving money away help you build more wealth? Well, here's some facts. is good for your brain, makes you happier, helps you live longer, and counters depression. That's all scientific, and it makes other people better off too. Think about this. It's contagious and it's in Proverbs. A generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. If you're generous when you're broke, you're going to be super generous when you're wealthy. And if you're real stingy while you're broke, you're just going to be stingy when you get rich.

So let's be clear. This idea that wealthy people always live in mega mansions complete with a Jeffrey is a total myth. The majority live in West Philadelphia or other normal middle-class neighborhoods where they're just chilling out, max and relax and all cool, and driving very modest cars. In other words, they're normal people who have simply done the right things with their money consistently over time, which is actually great news, because it means that being successful with money is as simple as living a modest lifestyle and having good habits. Now listen, changing your money habits has the power to change the trajectory of your life. So if you feel like building wealth is out of reach, I want to challenge you to focus on the habits you can

control. The more bad habits you kick and the more good habits you follow, the more successful. you'll be with money. It's that simple and it's that hard. So I want to challenge you to focus on the habits you can control because the more bad habits you kick and the good habits you follow, the more successful you'll be with money. And one of my favorite stats from this millionaire study that we did was this. 97% of millionaires believe that they control their financial destiny. So it starts with belief and hope. And instead of complaining and wallowing and going, whoa is me, they did something about it. They believe that they could take control and they could affect their habits and their life. So in the meantime, let me know in the comments your worst or best money habits. And make sure to share this video with a friend who needs to break some of the bad ones. Like constantly playing Ed Sheeran's bad habits every time he gets the ox. This could be their wake-up call.

The song has been out for two years, man. It's time to move on. He's got a new album out. What are we doing here? Thank you guys so much for watching. See you next time.