Will Your Child be Rich or Poor?

15 Poverty
Habits Parents Teach Their Children
September 24, 2013 by Thomas C. Corley 422 Comments

When I travel the country speaking to high school and

college students about exactly what they need to do to become financially successful
in life I always begin my presentation by asking three questions:
How many want to be financially successful in life?
How many think they will be financially successful in life?
Almost every time I ask the first two questions every hand rises in the air. Then I ask
the magic third question:
How many have taken a course in school on how to be financially successful in
life?
Not one hand rises in the air, ever. Clearly every student wants to be successful and
thinks they will be successful but none have been taught by their parents or their
school system how to be financially successful in life. Not only are there no courses
on basic financial success principles but there are no structured courses teaching basic
financial literacy. We are raising our children to be financially illiterate and to fail in
life. Is it any wonder that most Americans live paycheck to paycheck? That most
Americans accumulate more debt than assets? That many Americans lose their homes
when they lose their job? Is it any wonder that most Americans cannot afford college
for their children and that student loan debt is now the largest type of consumer debt?
Whats worse is what our children are being taught by their parents, the school
system, politicians and the media. They are teaching our children that the wealthy are

corrupt, greedy, have too much wealth and that this wealth needs to be redistributed.
What kind of a message do you think that sends to Americas future generation? It is
teaching them that seeking financial success by pursuing the American Dreams is a
bad thing. The Occupy Wall Street movement was a manifestation of this wealth is
bad and needs to be redistributed mindset. .
Here are some statistics from my five-year study on the daily habits that separate the
wealthy from the poor?
1. 72% of the wealthy know their credit score vs. 5% of the poor
2. 6% of the wealthy play the lottery vs. 77% of the poor
3. 80% of the wealthy are focused on at least one goal vs. 12% of the poor
4. 62% of the wealthy floss their teeth every day vs. 16% of the poor
5. 21% of the wealthy are overweight by 30 pounds or more vs. 66% of the poor
6. 63% of the wealthy spend less than 1 hour per day on recreational Internet use

vs. 26% of the poor

7. 83% of the wealthy attend/attended back to school night for their kids vs. 13%

of the poor
8. 29% of the wealthy had one or more children who made the honor roll vs. 4%

of the poor
9. 63% of wealthy listen to audio books during their commute vs. 5% of the poor
10. 67% of the wealthy watch 1 hour or less of T.V. per day vs 23% of the poor
11. 9% of the wealthy watch reality T.V. shows vs. 78% of the poor
12. 73% of the wealthy were taught the 80/20 rule vs. 5% of the poor (live off 80%

save 20%)
13. 79% of the wealthy network 5 hours or more per month vs. 16% of the poor
14. 8% of the wealthy believe wealth comes from random good luck vs. 79% of the

poor

15. 79% of the wealthy believe they are responsible for their financial condition vs.

18% of the poor

The fact is the poor are poor because they have too many Poverty Habits and too few
Rich Habits. Poor parents teach their children the Poverty Habits and wealthy parents
teach their children the Rich Habits. We dont have a wealth gap in this country we
have a parent gap. We dont have income inequality, we have parent inequality.
Parents and our schools need to work together to instill good daily success habits as
follows:

Limit T.V., social media and cell phone use to no more than one hour a day.

Require that children to read one to two educational books a month.

Require children to aerobically exercise 20 30 minutes a day.

Limit junk food to no more than 300 calories a day.

Require that children set monthly, annual and 5-year goals.

Require working age children to work or volunteer at least ten hours a week.

Require that children save at least 25% of their earnings or gifts they receive.

Teach children the importance of relationship building by requiring them to call

friends, family, teachers, coaches etc. on their birthdays and to send thank you
cards for gifts or help they received from anyone.

Reassure children that mistakes are good not bad. Children need to understand
that the very foundation of success in life is built on learning from our
mistakes.

Punish children when they lose their tempers so they understand the importance
of controlling this very costly emotion.

Teach children that seeking financial success in life is good and is a worthwhile
goal. Children need to learn what the American Dream is and that it is
something to be pursued in life.

Children need to learn how to manage money. Open up a checking account or

savings account for children and force them to use their savings to buy the

things they want. They need to learn that they are not entitled to things like cell
phones, computers, fashionable clothes, flat screen T.V.s etc.

Require children to participate in at least two non-sports-related extracurricular

activities at school or outside of school.

Parents and children need to set aside at least an hour a day to talk to one
another. Not on Facebook, or on the cell phone, but face to face. The only
quality time is quantity time

Teach children how to manage their time. They should be required to create
daily to do lists and these lists need to be monitored by parents. The goal
should be to accomplish at least 70% of their tasks on their daily to do list.

Wealthy people do certain things every single day that sets them apart from everyone
else in life. Wealthy people have good daily success habits that they learned from their
parents. These daily habits are the real reason for the wealth gap in our country and
the real reason why the rich get richer. Unless we teach our children good daily
success habits, and level the playing field, the rich will continue to get richer and the
poor will continue to get poorer.
Filed Under: Featured Articles, Focus & Motivation, Goal Setting, Parenting For Success,
Professional Development, Relationship Building, Wealth Creation

About Thomas C. Corley

Tom Corley understands the difference between being rich and poor: at age nine, his family went
from being multi-millionaires to broke in just one night.
For five years, Tom observed and documented the daily activities of 233 wealthy people and 128
people living in poverty. He discovered there is an immense difference between the habits of the
wealthy and the poor. During his research he identified over 200 daily activities that separated
the haves from the have nots. The culmination of his research can be found in his #1
bestselling book, Rich Habits The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals.
A dynamic and empowering speaker, Tom motivates audiences at industry conferences, corporate
events, universities, multi-level marketing groups and global sales organizations. Participants
leave fortified and ready to excel both personally and professionally.
Tom has shared his insights on various national and international network and cable television
programs such as CBS Nightly News, Yahoo Financially Fit T.V., India T.V., News.com Australia

and a host of others. He has wowed listeners on many prestigious nationally syndicated radio
shows including the Dave Ramsey Show, Marketplace Money and WABC.
Featured in numerous print magazines, such as Money, Entrepreneur, More and Kiplinger's, and
various online publications including USA Today, CNN, MSN Money, and the Huffington Post.
Tom is also a frequent contributor to Business Insider and Credit.com and has been profiled in
SUCCESS Magazine.
National publicity has garnered international media attention for Tom and Rich Habits. Broadcast
media, online publications, and television throughout Asia, the South Pacific, Europe, the United
Kingdom, and Central and South America have supported Toms powerful message.
In an effort to help adults instill good habits in the younger generation, Tom has recently released
his second book, Rich Kids How to Raise Our Children to be Happy and Successful in Life.
Rich Kids was the self-help category winner of the 2015 NY Book Festival.
The consummate professional, Tom is a CPA, CFP and holds a Masters Degree in Taxation. As
President of Cerefice and Company, CPAs, Tom heads one of the top financial firms in New
Jersey.
Phone Number: 732-382-3800 Ext. 103.
Email Tom | Download Media Kit

Comments

1.

Daoism says:
June 2, 2015 at 1:17 PM
My spouse and I stumbled over here by a different page and thought I might check things
out. I like what I see so now im following you. Look forward to exploring your web
page yet again.|
Reply

cathy andresiak says:

June 23, 2015 at 12:09 PM

While some of this advice is helpful..I dont believe he knows much about
poverty. And this is NOT the reason there is the very rich and the very poor. I
think he needs to live in poverty for awhile before he makes this judgement.
WOW!
Reply

jnl says:

June 23, 2015 at 5:16 PM

Actually, if you read his bio at the end of the article, you would know that
he does know about living in poverty. Maybe its just an unfortunate
circumstance for some, but for most of the people I know who are poor
(including myself), it has a lot to do with not being careful with how much
we spend. In short, though this article doesnt account for everything, I
found it very enlightening.
Reply

Shoregal says:

July 7, 2015 at 11:08 PM

I disagree with a lot of this. He did not come from living in
poverty he was rich and then thrown into a life he was not
accustomed too. BIG difference. He started out with many of the
comforts the rich have that most underprivledged do not. How
many poor people have access to a computer especially when
funding for public libraries have been cut by ohmywho? the
GOP. Poor do not have a credit score because they dont have
credit? Many people in poverty do not own property, cannot get a
credit card so how can they even know what their credit score is?
As for diet? Its not too hard to figure out that cheap processed
food is way cheaper than healthy fruits and veggies. Alsodo you
think people living on a limited income buy an access to a gym
when they are trying to pay rent.
Come on people.this is a bull shit article.
Reply

2.

Marian says:
June 5, 2015 at 9:15 AM
Thank you for writing this article! So comprehensive and informative!:) and written so
simply that makes it actually do-able.
Reply

3.

Tom McKenzie says:

June 5, 2015 at 2:32 PM
Thanks for this great article. Its an eye opener.
Reply

4.

Mike Pua says:

June 5, 2015 at 9:16 PM
Hello There.
I think you need to update item 13 on the list:
79% of the wealthy network 5 hours or more per month vs. 16% of the wealthy
Thats all.

Nice article, by the way.

Reply