Intelligence. Talent. Charm are the three best qualities everyone should have to become rich and financially successful.

But unfortunately, these skills are not easy to gain and requires both hard and smart work.

Listed below are the 16 ways to become financially successful and rich

1. Live within your means…

Wealthy people avoid spending too much money. It is their habit to pay themselves first. 20 percent of net income is saved. Of the remaining 80 percent is “lived”.

Most people today live beyond their means. They spend everything (and even more) they earn. The debts are getting out of hand. If you want to leave financial problems behind, however, you have to do two things:

1. Establish a habit of saving
2. Set a fixed budget for the rest

Here are the recommendations:

• Don’t spend more than 25% on housing, whether you own or rent.
• Do not spend more than 15% on food
• Bars, cinema less than 10%
• Holidays: Not more than 5%
• Stay away from credit card debt
• Separate saving and investing strictly from each other.

2. Never play

Most poor play the lottery. Virtually none of the rich do. The wealthy don’t rely on luck when it comes to money. This one they want to create for themselves. If you can’t stop playing, take the money out of your entertainment budget.

3. Read every day

Reading information that helps your business or career will increase your value to colleagues, clients and customers. Affluent people read for at least 30 minutes a day.

They also use their reading time very well.

• Listen to audio books while commuting
• Read education, career-related materials
• Read to develop themselves
• Read biographies of successful people
• Read about current events
• Read about historical events

The reason why successful people read is because they want to improve. This gives them an advantage over the competition. Those who know more also recognize more opportunities, which in turn leads to more money.

Negative side effect: The poor do not develop professionally and are often the first to lose their jobs.

4. Spend less time on the Internet

Let’s be honest: How much time do you spend in front of a screen? Wealthy people watch less than one hour of television a day. They spend less than one hour a day on the Internet when not at work.

They prefer to use the time they gain by doing so to develop personally, to network, to do voluntary work, to concentrate on a part-time job or a side business or simply to pursue a goal that will lead them onto the road to success.

5. Control your emotions

Not everything you think has to be said. Not every emotion needs to be expressed. If you always say what you think, you risk hurting others’ feelings. A “loose mouth” is a characteristic of the poor, while a significant percent of the rich have their emotions under control.

Rich understand that if you let your emotions take over, relationships at work and at home can break down. Better to wait until you calm down and have an objective view on things.

By the way, fear is the most important negative emotion that needs to be controlled. Every change, even positive ones like marriage or a promotion, can trigger feelings of fear. Rich people have conditioned themselves to cope with these thoughts. The poor, on the other hand, let themselves be guided and paralyzed by their fear.

The key to this ability lies in self-confidence. It is important to work hard on this.

6. Networking regularly

This can lead to valuable relationships, which in turn can lead to more customers or clients or better jobs. Getting involved in your community can be very beneficial. After all, nearly three-quarters of the wealthy volunteer at least five hours a month or are networking. Among the less financially successful, only one in ten are doing so.

Committees and boards of charities are often made up of very successful individuals. Getting to know these people can be worthwhile.

7. Go the extra mile in your job and business

Less successful people have the so-called “this is not in my job description syndrome”. Accordingly, they are never given more responsibility. Their salaries increase only slightly from year to year, if they keep their jobs at all.

Wealthy people make themselves indispensable to their employers and customers, write professional articles about their field, lecture at industry events and network eagerly. Successful people work hard to achieve the goals of their employers.

8. Set goals, not wishes

You cannot control the result of a wish. But it is different with a goal. All rich people set at least one big goal for themselves but unsuccessful people don’t.

9. Avoid procrastination

Putting things off is a thorn in the side of successful people. Procrastination leads to dissatisfied employees, customers and clients. Even non-business matters suffer from it.

Here are five tips to get a handle on this problem:

1. Daily to-do list: Everything that needs to be done in one day is on here. It must not be less than 70 percent.
2. The daily five: These activities are the absolute focus when it comes to achieving your goals.
3. Set artificial deadlines: Finishing too soon doesn’t hurt.
4. Let yourself be controlled: Team up with someone from your team to help you achieve your big goal. Talk to him at least once a week to keep the fire in you burning.
5. Do it now! Say these three words over and over again every day until you start a task on your list.

10. Less talking, more listening

Listen to the other five minutes, then you can talk for a minute. Wealthy people are good at communicating because they are good listeners. They understand that you can only learn when you hear what others have to say.

11. Avoid toxic people

You are only as successful as the people around you. Wealthy, successful people surround themselves with other successful people. Financially unsuccessful people, never do this.

If you really want to get your financial problems under control, you have to differentiate: Am I in a rich relationship (with someone who helps me) or in a poor relationship (someone who holds me back)?

Gradually spend more and more time in rich relationships and correspondingly less time in poor relationships. Rich relationships can help you find a better job, expand your business or open up other opportunities.

12. Do not give up

The successful ones have three things in common: focus, persistence and patience. They never give up when it comes to achieving their big goal. The less successful give up quickly.

13. Leave the self-limiting beliefs behind

If you are not financially successful, then you have probably told yourself some of the following untruths: Poor people can’t get rich. Rich people are lucky, poor people are unlucky. I am not smart. I can’t do anything right. I fail at everything I do.

All these self-limiting beliefs have a negative effect on your behavior. Wealthy people attribute their success to their beliefs. Change your negative beliefs into positive affirmations.

14. Find a mentor

Financially successful people hold a mentor responsible for this. Mentors regularly and actively participate in your growth by teaching you what you should and should not do. Finding such a teacher is one of the best and least painful ways to get rich.

If you know your goals, find someone who has already achieved them. You will be surprised how many people are willing to help you.

15. Delete the word “bad luck” from your vocabulary

The financially unsuccessful people manage to create bad luck in their lives. It is a waste product of their habits. Poverty habits are like snowflakes on a mountain. Over time, these snowflakes inevitably turn into an avalanche. An avoidable health problem, a lost job, a broken marriage, problems with the business partner and financial bankruptcy.

The situation is different for the financially successful. They create their own unique happiness. Their positive habits lead to opportunities such as promotions, bonuses, new business and good health.

16. Know your purpose in life

This last point is the most important, when it comes to getting rich. Those people who live their dream or have found their purpose in life are by far the richest and happiest among us. They love their work. They are even happy to invest more and more time in achieving their goal.

If you do not earn enough money in your job, it is probably because you do not really like it. On the other hand, if you have found something that makes you enough money and you enjoy it, then you have found your purpose in life.

Finding your purpose in life is not that difficult

• Make a list of all the things that make you happy
• Highlight those items for which a skill is needed and name that skill
• Now find the ten best highlighted points and arrange them according to the pleasure they bring you. Whatever makes you the happiest will then receive 10 points. (2nd place gets 9 points etc.)
• Now rank the ten points according to their income potential. The most lucrative gets 10 points.
• Now add up the points of the two lists. The result with the highest score potentially represents purpose in your life.

Author Bio:

Hi, I am Nikesh Mehta owner and writer of this site.

I’m an analytics professional and also love writing on finance and related industry. I’ve done online course in Financial Markets and Investment Strategy from Indian School of Business.

I can be reached at [email protected]. You may also visit my LinkedIn profile.