Will Your Child be Rich or Poor? 15 Poverty Habits Parents Teach Their Children

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? 

What’s worse is what our children are being taught by their parents, the school system, politicians and the national 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 America’s future generation?

It is teaching them that seeking financial success is a bad and evil thing.

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. 74% of the poor spend more than an hour a day in the Internet.
7. 83% of the wealthy attend 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 less than 1 hour of TV per day vs 23% of the poor.
11. 9% of the wealthy watch reality TV 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 circumstances. 82% of the poor believe they are victims and not responsible for their poverty.

The fact is the poor are poor because they have too many Poverty Habits and too few Rich Habits.

The best parents teach their children good habits that lead to success and the worst parents teach their kids bad habits that lead to poverty.

We don’t have a wealth gap in this country we have a parent gap.

We don’t have income inequality, we have parent inequality.

Parents and our schools need to work together to instil good daily success habits.

They need to be teaching children specific Rich Habits that lead to success.

Here are some examples:

• Limit TV, social media, video games and cell phone use to no more than one hour a day. 
• Require that children read one non-fiction book a week and write a one page summary of what they learned for their parents to review.
• Require children to aerobically exercise 20 – 30 minutes a day.
• Limit junk food to no more than 300 calories a day.
• Teach children to dream and to pursue their dreams. Have them write a script of their ideal, future life.
• Require that children set monthly, annual and long-term 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 the monetary gifts they receive.
• Teach children the importance of calling family, friends, teachers, coaches, etc, on their birthday
• Teach children the importance of calling family, friends, teachers, coaches, etc. when anything good or bad happens in their lives. Examples include births, deaths, awards, illnesses, etc.
• Teach children to send thank you cards to individuals who helped them in any way. 
• Reassure children that mistakes are good and not bad. Children need to understand that the very foundation of success is built upon the lessons we learn from our mistakes.
• Discipline children when they lose their temper so they understand the consequence of not controlling this very costly emotion. Anger is the most costly emotion. It gets people fired, divorced and destroys relationships.
• Teach children that the pursuit of financial success is a good thing.
• 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. This teaches children that they are not entitled to anything. It teaches them that they have to work for the things they want in life, like cell phones, computers, fashionable clothes, video games, etc.
• Require children to participate in at least one non-sports-related extracurricular group 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, not on the cell phone, but face to face. The only quality time is quantity time.
• Teach children how to manage their time. Teach them how to create a daily “to do” list. They can put their “to-do” list on their bedroom door so parents can check it each day.

Obviously, it is not possible to follow every Rich Habit recommendation I listed above.

From my research, I learned that all it takes is one or two Rich Habits to completely transform a life.

The reading habit, on its own, can set your children up for career success. 

The savings habit, on its own, can set your children up to be financially independent.

The exercise habit, on its own, can set your children up for a long, healthy life.

The happy birthday or life event calls, on their own, can set your children up to forge strong relationships.

Pick just two habits to teach you kids and stay on top of them for six months.

After six months the habits should stick.