Poverty mindsets keep people poor. People are not able to think right or rich when they are locked inside these mindsets. The poor have both counterproductive and negative mindsets that stop them from getting rich. Until they are brainwashed from these mindsets, they remain poor. Let’s take a look at some of these mindsets (thirty of them).
1. You need money to make money: You don’t need money to money. You need knowledge. When you are starting out in your pursuit to make money, the first thing you go for is knowledge, because if you get money without knowledge, you will lose that money for sure. So, it is a poverty mindset to think that you need money to make money. That puts you in a state of lack and in need of people’s help, before you can make it. Go for knowledge first, and you will know how to make money and keep it.
2. Most rich people are fraudulent: The poor say this to envy the rich and justify their poverty. Being rich and fraudulent are two different things that shouldn’t be compared together. Fraudulence is a problem of character. Being rich is a matter of knowledge. Anybody can be fraudulent and anybody can be rich. So, if you can be rich without being fraudulent and you can be fraudulent without being rich. It is individual’s choice. And this doesn’t make all rich individual fraudulent.
3. Money cannot make you happy: This is another one from the poor. They always say money cannot make you happy. But, can poverty? One thing is certain, if you have money, you would be happier and more comfortable. You would enjoy a good life.
4. Money is scarce in the world, there’s no money: This is not true. Money is abundant in the world. So much that we cannot exhaust it. In fact, more are being printed everyday, so we will never run out of it. But because the poor is looking for ways to justify his poverty, he says that money is scarce in the world, whereas, he has taken his time to find where it is.
5. I don’t have option: The poor think they don’t have option- there’s nothing they can do, they just have to take the offer. Whereas, that’s not true. It’s because they’ve not explored all the opportunities that they have. They’ve not taken enough time to find what they want. They just want immediate blessing without efforts. That’s why they are still poor.
6. Money is not everything: This stems from a poverty mindset to demean the value of money, and say money is not everything. Of course, money is not everything, but can you live without money or a medium of exchange? No! Money is an essential tool and it must be taken as such.
7. We can die anytime, No need to prepare for tomorrow: If you see the poor taking life with levity, this is one of the mindsets. They simply believe death can come anytime, so there’s no need to prepare for tomorrow and do anything today. Just find what you can eat for today and hope death would come anytime. Why do you want to prepare for tomorrow that you are not sure if it would come. It’s better to stay hungry and clueless if that tomorrow still comes, than to plan ahead and take hold of your future- advice from a sincere poor.
8. I prefer to receive than to give: The poor, for sure, prefer to receive than to give. That’s why they feel entitled to receive help from the rich. They believe they are the ones who supposed to be helped. They are the ones who government supposed to give scholarships and free money. That’s the poor. They feel entitled for everything and that’s why they remain poor.
9. I have no plans. I trust God for everything: This is when you are talking to a poor that is religious and at the same time irresponsible. He simply believes that it is God that suppose to make plans for him or at least tell him what to do. Whereas, God has given everyone the mandate to be fruitful and multiply and dominate the earth. The poor is still asking what he should do, while the rich is busy doing it.
10. Money is more important than time: The poor prefers money to time. the reason is simple – he can’t see beyond now. All he knows is now, and so, anything that would satisfy his immediate gratification would go well with him. The poor values money more than time because he can easily take money to the market and buy all he wants and consume it, and come back being poor again. This is after he has wasted his time on those mundane things that would contribute no value to his future.
11. Governments cannot be trusted and politicians are thieves: The poor are among the most cynical and skeptical people in the world. They don’t believe their leaders and always think that those leaders are out there to swindle them and steal their money. So, it is difficult for them to believe their leaders and support them in their political duties and responsibilities.
12. It is better to save money in banks than to risk it in investments: The poor don’t like taking risks. They rather put their money in banks than to go and risk it in investments. They believe that investments are the easiest way to lose money and so, the best place to keep your money safe is in the bank. But in the bank, the money depreciates and the buying power plunges.
13. Collect all the money you can collect now from people: The poor believes in taking advantage of every moment in a negative way. They believe that they always have one chance with anyone, and so, they would try every means to collect money from that person or cheat on them. If the poor is in business, he would always make everyone that comes to him pay more than it’s required, so that in case the person doesn’t come again, he’s already collected all the money he wanted to collect. But what he doesn’t know is that he’s sending bad signal to everyone that comes to him, which would naturally make any of them not to come to him again and even tell their friends also not to patronize him. So, he eventually close down his business when he’s not making money because of his bad attitude. That is a poverty mindset.
14. Making money is about going to a rich country: For the poor, making money is about going to a rich country. It is about finding a greener pasture. Whereas, there are people in the same country that the poor are in that are rich. Though, location can make becoming rich faster and easier, it doesn’t mean it is automatic. The same principle to become rich is applicable anywhere in the world. There are people in rich countries who are poor and there are people in poor countries who are rich. So, it is not change of location that absolutely change one’s financial status but change of mindset.
15. I’ve tried my best. I cannot do more than this: The poor gives excuse about his capacity. He’s done his best, he cannot try anymore. But this is not true. Because no one has done their best yet. Everyone is putting in the hardwork everyday to get better and stronger, but not reached the pinnacle yet. For the poor, he’s so limited in his thinking and his capability. He thinks he has put in his best when he can do more, and even far more.
16. It’s a sin to be rich or If you are too rich, you may go to hell fire: This is from the poor religious bigots. They believe that being rich is a sin and it’s a ticket to going to hell fire. But there’s no connection between being rich and going to hell fire. The popular scripture that the love of money is the root of all evil, and that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God are the common scriptural references. But these scriptures are in no way contradicting becoming rich, as it is well written in the Bible and other holy books that prosperity is God’s desire for his children. And many prophets and God’s servants in the Bible are rich. Those scriptures quoted talks about mismanagement of money and riches and their consequence. Not that the art of getting rich is abhorrent to God or would make anyone go to hell fire.
17. I’m not lucky. I don’t have the opportunities that others have: Part of the excuses that the poor gives is the fact that he’s not lucky and so doesn’t have the opportunities that others have. He doesn’t have good family. He doesn’t have good friends. He doesn’t have good education. He’s living in a poor country. His government and every institution around him are bad and so on. He just believed he’s not privy to what others have. But all of these don’t matter. There are people who don’t have any of these and still became rich. There are people who don’t have opportunities and are not lucky and still make the best out of their situation and succeed. In as much as there are obstacles and challenges, it is not impossible to thrive and become rich in any setting if one is committed and ready to give it all it takes.
18. Life is short. Why struggle or work hard to make it? The poor says life is short. But he’s still alive and he’s not going to die very soon. But just to excuse his laziness and unwillingness to break free from poverty, he says life is short. If life is short, should it be lived in poverty and lack? Should it be lived in deep suffering and embarrassment? There’s no excuse for poverty. if you want to be rich, you must work hard and be committed. You must not be clogged with the poverty mindset of life is short. That’s not your business. All you want to do is to create a good life for yourself, your loved ones and the world. So, the number of years that you live here doesn’t matter, but the quality and value that those years brought to the world.
19. We are all pretenders and hypocrites. Everyone has something bad they are doing: This is another one from the poor. That is from the fact that they always pretend as who they are not, so that people will not know their true status. They pretend as though they are rich, flaunt the money that they don’t have, buy the car that they can’t maintain and do things that would put them in perpetual debt. That’s the poor for you. They simply hide their personality and take up the personality of those around them to feel among and appreciated. But this is an easy way to live a tragic and frustrated life. It is better to take off the cloak of hypocrisy and put on a new garment of humility and freedom, and walk their way to wealth.
20. What’s in it for me? The poor asks this every time- what’s in it for me? It is because the poor can’t think of any of other thing apart from himself. He can’t see any other person that should benefit from something except him. In fact, as far as he’s okay, every other person is okay. He’s money driven and materialistic. And of course, covetous and greedy. Always willing to take what belongs to others. Although, by human nature, it is normal to care about yourself. Know what would be your gain if you are involved in something, but the poor just takes his own to the extreme and always want to take advantage of every situation in a negative way. he doesn’t care what happens to other people as far as he’s satisfied. That’s not good enough and it’s a poverty mindset.
21. Nobody loves me or Everybody hates me: This is another poverty mindset. Why? Because the poor always feel that he’s lacking something. He feels that people should give him something rather than him giving people something. Instead of thinking nobody loves you or everybody hates you, why not think I want to love everybody or I don’t want to hate anybody. Poverty makes people to feel entitled and puts them at the receiving end, while rich mindset puts people at the giving end. When you are a giver, you are in control of situations. When you are a receiver, people or circumstances are in control of you. Again, being a receiver puts you at the mercy of life. Whereas, being a giver puts you at the mastery of life.
22. Your success is measured by how much money you have, not how much lives you’ve impacted: The poor is money-driven. And everything that he thinks and talks about is money. He doesn’t know any other thing apart from money. Even, when you talk about more important things in life that are not related to money, the poor uses money to judge. Because, for him, it’s all about how much money you have. It’s a distorted way of viewing money. When it comes to success in life, the poor measures everything by money, not by impact. So, a poor can have so much money in his bank account, and many people around him are still going hungry. People can be dying around him everyday because of sickness that money can solve. But the poor would not just care about people’s lives when it comes to his money. Because, for him, it’s all about how much money you have in your bank account, not how much impact you’ve made in people’s lives.
23. Money is everything. If you have money, you have everything: This is related to the mindset above. For the poor, money is everything. If you have money, you have everything. This is an imbalance way of viewing money. The poor is always on the extremes. He’s either thinking too much about money and making everything about his life money, or he’s not thinking about money at all and make nothing about his life money. He’s just not getting it right when it comes to money matters. While the rich sees money as an essential tool, that one must take charge of and use for their purpose, the poor sees money as everything that would take charge of one’s life and become drunk or intoxicated by it.
24. You don’t need to work if you have all the money that you need: The poor says that you don’t need to work if you have all the money that you need. Where is this mindset coming from? It’s coming from a lazy mind, a mind that doesn’t want to work, that all it cares about is pleasure without purpose. For the rich, it is work that gives money value, not money that gives work value. The rich stays rich and gets richer because he works and keeps working. The poor stays poor and poorer because he doesn’t want to work. He sees work as a burden or a struggle. But everything in nature works. From what we can see around us to what happen within us, everything is working, otherwise we would not be alive. If your heart is not working, you will not be alive. Likewise your lungs, liver, brain, kidneys and other vital organs in your body. Imagine the sun stops working, or the air stops moving, or the plants stop growing. You know humanity is close to death. We would not be alive because these elements are not working. Likewise us as human beings, we must work to maintain this earth and keep things working. Nature is against laziness and feebleness. We must work to live and manifest our purpose to the world. So, it’s not all about money. Money comes as a reward for our efforts. It doesn’t make it all what we need. We need work!
25. A secured job is better than a business: The poor is afraid of the future. He doesn’t want to take any risk and always look for security instead of freedom. He’s never free in his mind. He believes that once he gets a secured job, That’s all he needs to be happy in life. He doesn’t need to worry about freedom. He’s just satisfied with being secured with a job. But what he doesn’t understand is that there’s no secured job. And true financial security doesn’t come from a secured job, rather, it comes from financial freedom. When you are truly free in your mind on money matters, that’s when you are secured financially. Business makes you inculcate some skills that are essential for financial freedom. So, if you can succeed in business, you can succeed at life, and everything money matters. All these, job may not be able to afford you.
26. One day of favor is better than many years of labor: This is another crap from the poor. He waits for miracles, while he’s there doing nothing. He believes one financial breakthrough can solve all his money problems. He justifies laziness on religious superstitions. We know it is diligence and consistent hardwork that produce result, not just a mere wish of favor or blessing. God has already blessed everyone of us. so, it’s our duty now to work and take full responsibility over our life. Nothing works except we work and it’s totally wrong and against nature to always be looking for miracles. Because we are not created by miracles or for miracles. But we are created by principles and must follow principles to live a happy and successful life.
27. Miracles work better than principles: This is similar to the point above. The poor believes that miracles work better than principles. Why? Because he’s always looking for shortcuts. He always want to cut corners and do nothing, but wish everything could come to him. Whereas, the rich believes that nothing is free, and must be worked for, if it’s going to be earned and last. Principles make us live an organized and predictable life. We know how our future would be, thanks to principles. This makes the rich to always succeed and flourish everywhere he goes, because principles are universal and the same anywhere in the world.
28. Being rich is a fate or blessing from God: The poor subjects his responsibility to God. He thinks it’s God or fate that would make him rich. That’s a good excuse to be poor. At least, it’s beyond his control. But how about he knows that being rich has nothing to do with fate or God? How about he understands that God and the universe are in support of his financial success here on earth? All he’s got to do is to take responsibility and learn the principles of how to become rich and put them to work. The rich is not subjecting his responsibility to no other thing apart from himself and that’s why he’s rich because he’s in full control of his life and circumstances.
29. Everything is expensive. It is expensive to live a healthy life: For the poor, everything is expensive, even the things that are not. The problem with this is that he simply cuts all his spendings and become unnecessary frugal and stingy. He buys less quality things, including what he eats and drinks. He ended up shortchanging himself when he jeopardizes his health and has to spend a lot to treat himself and come back to live. the little money that he would have spent on buying quality food has been doubled or tripled on buying drugs and treatment bills. The poor doesn’t know that the money that he’s not willing to spend now, would be doubled later, and paid by force. So, he’s always whining and complaining that everything is expensive, while he has the choice to make his life better by earning more money and being free from money scarcity mindset.
30. I cannot afford it: After complaining about how expensive things are, he ended up saying “I cannot afford it.” Whereas, the rich says- “how can I afford it?” The difference is that the poor puts his brain to sleep and close the discussion on how he can get what he wants while the rich puts his brain to work and open the discussion on how he can get what he wants. No wonder the rich always gets what he wants, while the poor keeps complaining about the price, and he ended up in lack. There’s more than enough to go around. If and only if the poor would dare to change his mindset and see possibility in whatsoever he wants to achieve, he would be more than happy to live and enjoy a good life.
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