money

Are Your Daily Habits Preventing You From Getting “Rich”?

An actionable guide to train your mind to be rich and attract more $$$

Anangsha Alammyan

06 Dec 2023 • 7 min read

Image from the author’s Instagram.

An actionable guide to train your mind to be rich and attract more $$$

Coming from a family of salaried people, I always thought I’d grow up, get a job, work extremely hard, and be rich.

My expectations from this plan shattered early on in my career. I learned quickly that you can’t get rich by saving your salary.

Budgeting plans like 70/20/10 can only take you so far.

In my case, even when I was saving at max capacity, I understood quickly that this money would never let me get “rich.” I’d have an emergency fund, sure, but not enough to enjoy the vacations and luxurious experiences I wanted to try.

In short, saving my existing salary wasn’t cutting it.

Seeing my troubled equation with money, my mother said something that I now swear by. Money is like energy. It keeps ebbing and flowing, in and out of your life.

If you try to restrict money to one place, it’ll never grow. The cycle of ebb and flow would continue, draining all your resources. This is why you need to focus on having an abundance mindset that lets you explore multiple income streams. When you let abundance flow into your lifestyle, you’ll be more receptive to energy, i.e., money.

Now the major question is: how to build an abundance mindset? It’s not an overnight change but a habit you practice.

Letting go of some “bad” money habits helped me welcome a mindset of abundance and wealth. Even during financial crunches, I never resort to these habits.

Always keep in mind that these habits can make you feel rich temporarily, but they are mostly counterproductive in the long run. Here are 5 habits I consciously dodge to maintain my abundance mindset:

Bargaining for a few dollars

When I visited the Artisam Market in Bali earlier this year, shopkeepers laughed and told me, “You’re an Indian. Barganining is in your blood.”

They weren’t wrong.

As a middle-class Indian, I have an intrinsic love for bargaining and discounts. Whenever I shop for simple things like vegetables, flowers, or groceries, my instinct is to ask for a discount.

Now I put more thought into what happens when I ask for discounts:

The seller feels undervalued. As a writing service provider myself, I’d hate if my clients bargained on my already accommodating rates.
You can’t ask for other favors, as you’ve already pulled the seller’s confidence down.

So, do I keep paying anything the service provider asks for? The answer is both yes and no.

By principle, I never bargain even if I’m low on funds. With this habit, it’s easier for me to develop a bond with many local sellers and service providers. They’ve given me useful tips to explore a new city better. When you make them feel valued, the service providers add in a few complimentary services.

In short, the extra dose of happiness they receive through my non-bargaining attitude comes back to me in multiples.

Saying yes to easy money

“This work will only take an hour, and I can make $250 from it. That’s easy money, say yes!”

I can’t count the number of times my brain tries to sell low-paying gigs to me for the sake of easy money. Every time I accepted something for this reason, I’ve ended up regretting it.

Either the client’s expectations of me were too high, or they always managed to find faults and micromanage my work. I felt exhausted at the end of the day, but had nothing to show for it, because all the clients wanted were multiple rounds of revision.

Instead of thinking how quickly you’re making money with low efforts, think this:

By taking such gigs, you’re blocking your schedule, so high-paying gigs won’t come to you.
You’re exhausting your mental energy that could have been invested in brainstorming diverse money-making ideas.

I’ve taught myself it’s better to focus on the bigger picture and take baby steps towards achieving it. Keeping yourself occupied with tiny goals may end up like a scattered puzzle, too hard to put together.

Selling to a low-ticket clientele

If you’re a freelancer or a service provider, your existing clientele defines the course of your career. However, the general notion is that beginners don’t have enough choices.

I’m also guilty of settling for low-ticket clients at the start of my writing journey.

Now I know that if your potential clients are always bargaining on your price point, you’re selling to the wrong crowd.

Don’t hesitate to change your messaging and writing style to appeal only to high-ticket customers. If some low-paying gigs come along the way, be patient enough to decline and try harder.

Here’s how you can attract a high-paying clientele efficiently:

Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal clientele. Answer this: who is it that you want to work for? Who can pay the money you want?
Jot down all the problems they might be facing that your services can solve.
Make detailed road maps of how you can solve their problems. Note every step in detail. Include backup plans as well.
Use snippets from your solutions and backup plans as social media content. Provide testimonials from your past clients who benefitted from similar services.

This way, you establish yourself as an expert in your domain. The process is time-consuming, but the outcome is much better than jumping from one meaningless, low-paying gig to another.

Trading time for money

The first question you might ask is, “Don’t we all trade time for money? We work by putting in certain hours and get paid for them.”

I’m talking about trading time for non-work aspects, like:

Booking an auto or a bike instead of a cab/taxi.
Using the “free” version of a paid tool by using multiple email IDs
Not outsourcing work and doing all the heavy lifting myself

In all such cases, I was spending too much time thinking about how I could save a few quick bucks. I was okay with spending extra time traveling or accessing a service if it saved me money. In this process, my mental energy was focused on the scarcity mindset.

My subconscious mind was telling me, “You’re not rich. You need to save money whenever you get a chance.”

I had to unlearn this habit of trying to cut corners and trade my time for money. The rich value their time and pay for convenience. When I finally embraced this abundance mindset, the world opened more possibilities for me.

Now, I truly believe that when you constantly give yourself luxury and good experiences, it attracts more such opportunities. It signals to the universe that you’re destined for more than a mere middle-class existence.

Not calculating what your decisions will cost you in a few years

This last point is single-handedly trapping most of us in the web of bad money habits.

In the past, I’ve been guilty of bad life decisions like:

Skimping on healthy food to save money
Avoiding a gym membership, thinking I can do it all at home
Relying on DIY hacks more than investing in proper tools for any purpose

Your whim to save a few bucks now can translate into bigger hospital and care bills later in life.

Most people also don’t invest in upgrading their financial knowledge. Even if they’re saving a part of their income, they don’t factor in inflation and keep their money in the bank.

These decisions have a massive impact on your life and will cost you more in a few years.

Instead of being unnecessarily frugal, spend money on services and knowledge that’ll pay for itself in a few years.

To sum up

In the darkest phase of my life, I remember one day I was doing laundry in a tiny bathroom. I didn’t have money to afford power back-up or a washing machine. It was the peak of summer, and I had sweat running down my body in rivulets.

My hair was tangled, and I had tears in my eyes with the pain of constantly hunching over a small bucket to wash my clothes.

At that moment, I made a promise to myself, that once this dark phase is over, I’ll have enough money that I never have to be in the same position again.

This was eight years ago, and I’ve come a long way since then. But the promise to myself still holds intact: I deserve better than to wash clothes in a dark, tiny bathroom all by myself.

You can read several articles on habits to be rich, but that won’t make any difference until you abide by the takeaways.

Your money mindset can build or ruin your whole financial game. To play your cards right, think about WHY you want to be wealthy.

Take a sheet of paper and write down your WHY. This purpose will ensure that you never go a day without being laser-focused on your goal of accumulating wealth.

Change your money beliefs and unlearn the following habits:

Bargaining for a few dollars
Saying yes to easy money
Selling to a low-ticket clientele
Trading time for money
Not calculating what your decisions will cost you in a few years

Once you’re successful, you’ll see phenomenal growth in your personality and bank balance. I’m rooting for you to live your dream life.

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