The reasons we are broke often feel beyond our control. And yes, there are some macro-level things that we can’t do much about — like the cost of living going up all around us while wages fail to catch up. But we must recognize that, in many cases, we’re not building wealth because of some poor habits we’ve developed.
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Codie Sanchez, the founder and CEO of ContrarianThinking and a financial influencer with 1.67 million subscribers on YouTube, posted a video in which she discusses nine middle-class habits that are keeping people broke.
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You’re Saying ‘Yes’ Too Much
We’ve heard plenty of business leaders talk about the importance of saying no — but in this case, Sanchez isn’t just talking about declining asks to stop people-pleasing behavior; she’s also talking about saying “no” to going out in the evenings. Instead, treat most nights like “school nights” — and focus.
“Sometimes it’s hard to say ‘no,’” Sanchez said. “And so, I don’t always say ‘no.’ Sometimes I say, ‘Sorry, not right now. I’m in build mode.’ Nobody can argue with that idea of build mode.”
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You’re Too Concerned With Being Liked
We (girls especially) learn at a young age that being bossy is terrible. But being assertive is a good thing in business, and if it means people are a little intimidated by you, so what?
“I don’t want to be liked,” Sanchez said. “I want to be respected and I want to win. And that is a methodology you have to take on if you want to win this game.”
Sanchez clarified that being bossy doesn’t mean being mean. It means holding the highest standard in all aspects of your life and work and giving people constructive feedback.
You’re Not Being Protective of Your Time
We’ve all heard the saying, “Time is money.” And it’s true. Take the power of compound interest if you need a concrete example. Not being protective of your time is a bad habit that keeps you broke.
“The average person gets 41 texts, 100 emails and five calls daily,” Sanchez said. “I’m like 3x that. The best time management advice I ever got was, ‘You have to be easy to find and hard to reach.’”
So, silence those phone notifications and hold off on dealing with nonurgent emails. Your time is precious and you need to delegate it wisely. Additionally, consider integrating the Pomodoro Technique into your work life. This time management method involves working in 20-minute intervals with brief breaks in between.
You’re Trying To Do Too Much by Yourself
Sanchez disagrees with solopreneurship, arguing that if you bring in millions of dollars a year, you must have people working for you.
“Let’s say you could build a business all by yourself,” Sanchez said. “It’s shallow and lonely.”
If you’re starting your own business, having other people around will help you thrive and stay motivated.
“Why do you think so many YouTubers quit?” Sanchez said. “I think so many of them quit because they don’t have a team to continue to push for. If I quit, 20, 30, 40 people would be unemployed.”
You’re Confusing Revenue With Profit
When you hear about someone running a multimillion-dollar business, you may see dollar signs surrounding them. Sanchez explains how things actually work.
“Walmart — you know what their profit margin is?” Sanchez said. “Three percent. What is the average small business profit margin? 6.5%. Here’s the kicker: Most people think the businesses make around 36%.”
The issue is that people confuse revenue with profit, which can lead them to set far too high-profit margins. “Important to note: Money in your pocket is not revenue,” Sanchez said.
You’re Not Detoxing Your Brain
Sanchez finds that when you win, you get more critical feedback than applause over time. This can be overwhelming and taxing on our brains.
“You’ve gotta find a way to treat your brain like a sauna,” Sanchez said. “If you’re trying to be successful and carrying all this negative feedback, do you have a way to cleanse it? You can do meditation, you can do workouts.”
You’re Letting Doubt Get to You
We live in a society where we’re constantly being marketed solutions. These solutions imply that we have problems that need to be solved. It all perpetuates self-doubt. And we don’t feel self-doubt as consumers; we think it or are prone to feel it in all aspects of our lives. If you want to be successful, you’ve got to let this self-doubt die. Just as importantly, you’ve got to let the external voices feeding into that self-doubt fade away.
“The only way to truly win, long-term and to make an unreasonable amount of money, is to have a vision so big it blocks out everybody else’s feedback,” Sanchez said. “You never know you’re going to win one way or the other, but that doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that you know what you want.”
You’re Not Cleaning Up Your Messes
Sanchez shared that in her work studio, everyone has to clean up after themselves. Nobody comes and tidies up after you. This may sound not meaningful, but cleaning up after yourself is integral to building wealth.
The idea here is that if you clean up literal messes in real life that you create, you’ll be conditioned to clean up far more complicated mistakes.
You’re Sleeping Too Late
Some people naturally wake up at 5:45 a.m., ready to start the day with gusto. That’s not your average Joe, though; most of us hit the snooze button until we feel rested or close to it. Sanchez swears by an early rise and shine if you want to make much money.
“It’s a lot easier to get it done if you do it early,” Sanchez said. “There’s something beautiful about before the rest of the world has risen; you are already working half a day.”
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 9 Middle-Class Habits That Keep You Broke, According to Codie Sanchez
