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TOM@RICHHABITS.NET
In my five-year Rich Habits Research, I asked 144 questions of 233 wealthy individuals — 177 of them self-made — and compared their answers with those of 128 people living in poverty. One finding is blunt: the rich work more.
- 86.3% of the wealthy worked 50 or more hours a week.
- Only 42.9% of the poor put in a 50-plus-hour week. That is nearly double the rate.
- Among those with full-time jobs, 86% of the wealthy worked 50 hours or more each week.
- 57% of the poor with full-time jobs worked less than 50.
- 44% of the wealthy worked 11 hours more every single week than the poor.
- 94% of the self-made did more than their job required. Only 17.2% of the poor said the same.
- 88% of the wealthy took fewer sick days than the poor.
- 79% of the rich networked five or more hours a month — 55% of it during lunch.
- 65% of the wealthy worked as hard as they did because they managed at least three streams of income.
- 45% of the rich managed four steams of income.
- Only 6% of the poor had more than one source of income.
The path to building wealth mattered.
- Dreamer-Entrepreneurs in the study worked an average of 61 hours a week for 12 years and accumulated the most wealth of any of the other classes of self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits Study – $7.4 million.
- Big Company Climbers and Virtuosos averaged about 51 hours a week during their climb.
- The Saver-Investor path was the exception: those individuals often stayed closer to a conventional 40hour week because their strategy was living far below their means and investing 20 percent or more of net pay, not grinding for promotion or building a company.
One of the reasons the wealthy worked so many hours was because 86% said they liked or loved what they did for a living. Affection for the work made the long hours tolerable.
The wealthy were able to work more hours because they did not engage in time-wasting activities:
- 67% of the wealthy watched less than an hour of television a day
- 77% of the poor watched more than an hour of television a day.
- 63% of the wealthy spent less than an hour a day on recreational internet use
- 74% of the poor spent more than one hour a day on recreational internet use.
The rich converted discretionary minutes into skill, relationships, and additional income streams. The poor converted them into consumption.
Effort still builds empires. Excuses build nothing. The 50-hour week is not a slogan. It is a measured gap: 86.3% versus 42.9%.
The wealthy did not wait for luck, inheritance, or someone else to rearrange the board. They worked longer, went beyond the job description, built multiple streams of income, engaged in daily exercise which enabled them to remain healthy so they could work those long hours for so many years and they took individual responsibility for creating the life they desired.
Tom Corley is an accountant, financial planner and author of “Rich Kids: How to Raise Our Children to Be Happy and Successful in Life”, “Effort-Less Wealth”, “Change Your Habits Change Your Life”, “Rich Habits Poor Habits”, “Rich Habits: The Routines Millionaires Use Daily to Build Wealth” and “Rich Habits Wealth Academy.”
