When people ask why am I not rich? The biggest reason is overspending on things we don’t need to impress people we don’t like. When we’re living in a developed world, there’s no excuse as to why we’re not wealthy because everyone has a chance to be rich.
I currently have a net worth of $400,000 at the age of 28. Not many people can get that net worth because people are too busy spending money on things they don’t need. There are many people who became multimillionaires on a $50k salary. Yes, it might’ve taken decades.
However, that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. Otherwise, stories like the millionaire janitor can’t exist. Income is not everything. It’s not about what you make, it’s about what you keep. Do you only have one source of income? Do you do side hustles to increase your income further?
What skills can you sell even more of? And the like. There are people who make $500,000 who are downright broke. Income isn’t wealth. I didn’t get to the top 5% of my age groups’ net worth by spending as much money as I could. Instead, I saved as much money as I could.
To set my future self up for success. Today is the result of the actions I put in six years ago. And it’s paying off quite nicely. If you’re asking why am I not rich and you live in a developed country, then it’s high time to take steps to figure out why.
Because you have the power to change your financial destiny.
Why am I Not Rich?
Below are the nine concrete reasons why you are not rich.
1) Overspending
In a consumeristic society such as the United States, people overspend. The pandemic convinced everyone the world was falling apart. Therefore, people spent as much money as they possibly could as a last resort. As of August 2022, people had a savings rate of 3.5%.
That is abysmally low. When I was pulling in a $52.5k income, I was saving 50% of my income. Year after year and without fail! Americans have a hugely consumeristic culture and it’s hard to break away from that culture but it is necessary. Consumerism is wasteful.
Why am I not rich? You might just be overspending and buying things that you’re not even going to use more than once anyway. These days, I spend approximately $25,000 per year. No more and oftentimes less than that. That’s how I know I’m going to protect myself in case of layoffs.
Because I’m so used to spending so little, I can easily change my budget depending on the changing times.
2) Not Investing Money
It’s one thing to save and have money but it’s another to not invest the money that you have. The rich didn’t get there by saving their way to wealth. The rich got there by investing their way to wealth. My favorite asset class that got me wealthy is the stock market.
I plan to use the stock market to my advantage until the cows come home. All day long. Why am I not rich? Take a look at your investments. If you’re putting everything on an NFT hoping everything is going to work out, that’s not investing.
Investing is buying companies at fair prices that are going to do well over the long term. If individual stock picking is too much, then there’s always the simple route of index fund investing. That’s what I personally do, but everyone’s situations are different and you will have to figure that out for yourself on what’s right.
Your investments are what’s going to set you financially free.
3) Not Learning New Skills
These days, knowledge is available on the Internet and books. It’s cheap information because all you have to do is either head down to your local library for free or just plain outright buy books. A $15 investment that pays $15,000 down the line is well worth it.
Your new skills are what boost your 9-5 income. People have the ability to change careers more so than ever before. It’s not uncommon for finance professionals to pivot to coding and technology down the road. It’s becoming more common these days, since information is more available.
Your new skills are what propels you further ahead in your career. The person who does the same thing over and over again for years on end without increasing their skillset is not the best marketable person. One of my former bosses went overseas for a work assignment.
She became a hot commodity to hire afterwards for multinational corporations. Comfort is the enemy.
4) Not Having a Side Hustle
These days side hustles are a necessity. With record high inflation, we need additional income coming in just to pay for our living expenses. Life is more expensive now than before. The median income in 2000 was $32,000 while the median income in 2022 was $36,000.
However, the median house in 2000 was $167k while the median house in 2022 was $437k. Highly un-proportional to the increase in income. We need a side hustle to boost our income just to keep up with the rising costs of living. Side hustles are on the rise and for good reason.
Side hustles will not only protect you from downturns by diversifying your marketability but they’ll earn you money during the good times.
Why am I not rich? Ask yourself if you’re doing a side hustle that you can profit from. I would not have known how to do SEO or social media marketing if I had just been fine coming home after work and watching TV. It’s time to be proactive with your life to get ahead.
5) Keeping Up with the Joneses
The Joneses are secretly broke for a reason. Every inch of their lives was financed with debt. That mansion, the fancy car, and the fancy furniture were all financed with debt. Sure, everything may fine today. But when the inevitable downturn happens, they will have to declare bankruptcy.
Keeping up with the Joneses is a losing game in which the only winners are the companies who sell the products. Why am I not rich? Evaluate your spending and see if you are truly spending on things that is necessary and adds value to your life.
Chances are, we are all living in excess and could live on a lot less than what we’re already living on. There’s not a lot of things you need to keep you alive. Buying things to fill a void is not healthy. Intrinsic happiness is worth a lot of money.
Many people go their entire lives without finding it. Once you are intrinsically happy, the world opens up to you.
6) Thinking You “Deserve” to Buy Something
You don’t “deserve” to buy anything. Either you want to buy something or you need to buy something, there’s no deserve. There’s nothing wrong with purchasing goods. However, there is everything wrong with rationalizing why you need something.
There’s nothing wrong with rewarding yourself with treats every now and then. However, there’s no need to rationalize the treat. If you truly deserve to buy something, you don’t need to rationalize the decision. Why am I not rich? Rationalizing expensive purchases is the reason why.
You already know deep down whether you deserve to make a purchase or not. For me, when I get a promotion at work or when I reach a milestone follower number on Twitter, I celebrate and treat myself to a little something something.
I don’t rationalize it but rather just go ahead and make the purchase. When you know, you just already know.
7) You Think You Have Time
There’s many people who put off investing because they think they have time. They say, “well, I’m young, I have my whole life ahead of me”. While that is true but that’s one of the reasons that’s keeping them poor. Time is the biggest asset we have in our life.
Once we realize that, we take advantage of the biggest asset that we have. Why am I not rich? You’re putting off starting because you think you’ll turn into a magical entity down the road who’s going to exhibit great financial habits.
You don’t magically build good financial habits one day. Habits are built and practiced, not suddenly given to you. The billionaires have their billionaire spending habits not because they suddenly knew how to exhibit them when they became a billionaire.
But because they’ve been employing them over decades and decades.
8) You Look to Get Rich Quickly
The hottest new investments will always pop up. There will always be the next cryptocurrency project, NFT, and the like to give you the opportunity to get rich quickly. Only 1% of the top 1% have gotten rich quickly. The rest of the people got rich very slowly.
And there’s nothing wrong with getting rich slowly. Many people who looked to get rich quickly lost their shirts just as quickly. Prices can rise quickly but prices can fall even quicker. Logan Paul invested $623k on an NFT and lost 90%+ of it by the end of the craze.
Then they lose all that money they worked so hard to earn then they lose time, which is even more expensive than anything else. Why am I not rich? It’s because of the allure of the get rich quick schemes.
The allure is very enticing because they know how to use your greed for their own benefit. It’s high time we resist these bad investments and stick to the good investments that are proven to build wealth.
9) You Gave Up
The road to riches is a very long road. I’m on the seventh year of the wealth building journey and I’m tired. However, I’m never going to give up until I reach that millionaire status. I know I can reach it and I will put in many hours and hard work to get there.
Why am I not rich? You gave up. There are so many people who try the financial independence journey and give up after six months. The reason? “They didn’t want to give up eating out on dinners”. Eating out was so valuable to them that they were willing to give up being a millionaire for it.
That doesn’t sound right to me. It’s impossible to beat the person who doesn’t give up. It’s also impossible for the person who refuses to avoid failure at all costs. Take it from me, the journey to building wealth is LONG. It’s VERY long.
It’s going to test your patience and the will to go on on many occasions. More occasions than you can count. The key is to stick to and trust the process.
Why am I Not Rich? Anyone Can Become Rich
In America, the great news is, the very vast majority of people can become rich. It just means are they willing to put in the work to get there? Can they discipline their saving enough? Most of the building wealth journey happens through random chances.
A job opening has to be open for you to apply for it.
However, you control the journey, to an extent, as well. The only thing that you can control is your effort. I’ve never seen anyone give good effort to it for 10+ years only to end up nowhere. Maybe they might’ve failed along the way but they figured out a way to pick themselves up.
Why am I not rich? There are many reasons but the good news is that you can become rich as long as you employ the right habits and get lucky along the way. With the invention of the internet and the knowledge economy, anybody has the power to pick themselves up.
They have the power to become rich themselves. It doesn’t require intelligence. It requires behavioral characteristics that no one else is willing to employ. Your life is completely within your control. Your choices dictate what the results of your life is going to be.
That’s the great part. Your choices will lead to a great life. As long as you try to make the right choices and stick with it over the long haul. you have a high chance of getting rich. Then you won’t be asking why am I not rich? You’ll be asking how you can get richer.
You are the main player in your life.
Why am I Not Rich? Shortlist:
- Overspending
- Not investing money
- Not learning new skills
- Not having a side hustle
- Keeping up with the Joneses
- Thinking you “deserve” to buy something
- You think you have time
- You look to get rich quickly
- You gave up
