1) Have a budget

The wealthy invest a good chunk of their income before they can spend the rest. Visualise the long term benefits of budgeting. Of you spend 100% of what you earn every month you will never be rich.

2) Track spending

How much is going out the door and where is that money going? Typically millionaires will know where all the outgoings are.

3) Financial goals

Millionaires will have a defined list of yearly and lifetime goals. The wealthy will have financial targets and timescales to achieve those targets. Eg £1,000,000 in the bank by age 50. The average self-made millionaire spends 20-30 hours per month thinking, studying and planning their finances. Are you currently working in your dream job? – you need to be to maximise your earnings.

4) Stay married

Wealthy people tend to be married and stay married to the same person for life. Often the couple will share the same values of being frugal. A couple will struggle to accumulate wealth if one partner is a big spender.

5) Don’t drive away money

The most popular car maker among millionaires is surprising; Toyota! 80% of luxury cars are bought by non-millionaires. Cars depreciate in value the second you drive them out of the showroom. The wealthy have assets not a liabilities. Driving a flash a car and having fancy jewellery may give a temporary high but its effects will wear off.

6) Saving more today means spending more in future

Certainly there is peace of mind from living below your means and having money in the bank. Status related purchases have proven not to improve happiness. By living within your means and minimising debt means you can save more. But as saving will allow you to pay off your debts faster, in the longer term – your disposable income will rise with less money taken away by debt repayment

7) Believe you have high worth

To earn large sums of money you must believe you are worth large sums. The wealthy believe they deserve to be highly paid. Acquire the skills and experience to be the best at what you do. This will give you the confidence and therefore belief you are worthy of high pay.

8) Get paid on results

Working 9 to 5 on a fixed salary is one of the worst ways to become wealthy. The rich are high performers; they want to be paid according to performance. That’s why so many of the wealthy are business owners. This allows the high performer to benefit from the results they deliver. Look to for a job with commission or bonuses. This will motivate you to become a high performer and earn more money.

9) You can have it all

The poor have a lack and limitation mindset. They create ‘Either/or’ situations in life. The rich want ‘Both’. With creative thinking you can have your cake and eat it. Compromising will limit your potential for growth

10) Build passive income

Once you have money saved you need to invest it or inflation will erode it away. Passive income is incredibly powerful as it buys you the most important commodity of all; time. Your time is finite. The less time you spend working for someone else the more time you have free to work on strategies and projects to further your wealth.

11) Constant growth

Invest time and money in your own personal growth. Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. Make a commitment to self mastery. Become an expert in your domain. Never stop learning. Ever. The wealthy are always learning. It’s the only way to stay ahead of the competition. A daily habit of increasing your earning capacity through training and education will add small amounts every day to your income potential.

12) Develop a millionaire mindset

The rich develop the habit of ‘getting rich slow’ as opposed to ‘getting rich quick’. Rule one: Don’t lose money. Rule two: If ever you feel tempted, refer back to rule one. However risk taking is a necessity to achieve financial freedom. Just ensure you learn from mistakes.

13) Investigate before investing

Fast financial decisions are poor financial decisions. Become a good researcher. People make bad choices with money because they fail to perform proper research. Take financial advice from experts but never believe anything anyone says regarding an investment until you know as much about the investment as the person selling it. The best investments are often the ones you never make at all.

14) Negotiate hard

Never pay the asking price for anything. You make money when you buy an asset not when you sell. If you save 10% – 20% on every big purchase that will add up to a sizeable sum of money over your lifetime.

15) Expect hard work

People who earn over £100,000 a year spend less than a 20% of their time on leisure. Studies show most wealthy people wake 3 hours before their day jobs start to do yet more work.

16) You need to make more not spend less

Being careful with spending will help to accumulate wealth. But don’t be penny wise pound poor. Too many people spend too long trying to shave tiny sums of money off cheap items. Ultimately to be wealthy you need to earn more. Earning greater income is a more powerful builder of capital than saving. Eventually saving will hit a limit. But you have unlimited income generating potential

17) There’s more to wealth than money

Money cant buy you happiness. But its more fun than being poor. What everyone who says they want to be rich really means is they want the freedom, flexibility and security that wealth brings.

18) Develop habits

The simple hidden secret that the wealthy do that the poor do not is the rich develop habits. A habit you must do on a regular basis without fail. Those who struggle do so because they do not develop habits. You need to master consistency. Consistency is sexy or glamorous. But performing those rituals over and over will over time build the bridge from failure to success.

19) Start early

Its no secret some of the wealthiest people were successful early on in their life. Bill Gates created his first computer program at 13 and was a billionaire age 31. Procrastination kills dreams. Every year you accumulate responsibilities. There is never a better time to start your journey to wealth than today.

20) There is no secret to wealth

The secret to being rich is there is no secret to being rich. In summary; Rule 1 – Make more than you spend and invest the difference intelligently. Rule 2 – Develop daily habits that result in wealth accumulation. A daily habit of frugality saves small amounts every day that compound and grow over time.