What Do Gambling, Junk Food, Reality TV, Anger and Gossiping All Have in Common?

In my Rich Habits Study, I tracked over 300 activities/habits that separated the rich from the poor.

Individually, most Poor Habits do not have a significant impact on your financial circumstance.

However, some Poor Habits do have a more profound impact on your life.

Below are a few of the most destructive Poor Habits:

• Poor people like to gamble: 77% of the poor admitted to playing the lottery regularly vs. 6% of the rich. 57% of the poor admitted to betting on sports weekly vs. 16% for the rich. Gambling is a tax on the poor. There’s a reason the poor gamble – random luck. Gambling levels the playing field, in the mind of the poor. The odds of winning are the same, whether you are rich or poor.
• The rich do a better job keeping the pounds off: 21% of the wealthy admitted to being overweight by 30 pounds or more vs. 66% of the poor. But there’s more to this story… 97% of the poor ate more than 300 junk food calories a day while 70% of the rich ate less than 300 junk food calories a day. You can’t make money sitting in a hospital bed. If you neglect your health, eventually your rain barrel will overflow. That overflow results in cancer, heart disease, Type II Diabetes and other diseases.
• Poor people love watching T.V.: 77% admitted to watching more than 1 hour of TV a day vs. only 23% for the rich. And their favorite TV shows? Reality TV 78% of the poor who watch more than an hour of T.V. each day are watching reality TV. Watching TV is a time-wasting or Do-Nothing Poor Habit. If you were to just reduce your TV watching by 30 minutes a day and re-deploy that time by reading to learn, exercising, or pursuing some goal or a dream, the cumulative beneficial effect could be the thing that lifts you out of poverty or poor health.
• It seems the poor cannot control their negative emotions: 43% of the poor admitted to losing their temper at least once in the past month vs. 19% of the wealthy. Those who do not make a habit of controlling negative emotions are unable to build strong, powerful, life-long relationships with others. One outburst can destroy a long-term relationship in a matter of minutes.
• Poor people like to gossip: 79% of the poor admit to gossiping while only 6% of the rich have this Poverty Habit. Gossiping almost always involves negative criticism of others. Gossiping damages relationships because people will not trust you once they find out you are a gossiper. Those you gossip about eventually figure out who is doing the gossiping. Gossip destroys relationships.