In “Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals,” author Thomas Corley details the findings of five years of researching the lives of rich people and poor people. Rich people were considered those who have an annual income of $160,000 or more and a net worth of $3.2 million or more, and poor people were considered those who have an annual income of $35,000 or less and a net worth of $5,000 or less. 

Corley found drastic differences in the ways the wealthy people spent their time and the ways the lower income and net worth people spent their time. One of the big differences was in the amount of time spent watching television. Sixty-Seven percent (67%) of the wealthier people reported watching one hour or less of television per day. Whereas, only twenty-three percent (23%) of the lower income people reported that they watch one hour or less of television per day.

The lower incidences of television viewing among the wealthier people corresponded to higher incidences of other activities that are commonly viewed as attributing to success and wealth. So, not only will cutting the cord allow you to save money on cable television fees and use the savings to increase your wealth, fewer television options (and watching) will leave more time to do other things that can lead to action that fattens your wallet and bank account. Here are a few of those things. 

Monitor Your Money. As we move closer and closer to a cashless society, whipping out a credit card to pay for things in store or online is the norm for most people. In doing so, we mistakenly sign up for subscription services that debit charges every month, or even worse, we turn our credit card or bank information over to thieves who make charges periodically to our accounts. Either way, we are unknowingly spending money. For the inattentive consumer, small unauthorized charges may go unnoticed for months.

Likewise, paying with a credit card does not seem like money out of our pockets, so carefully contemplating whether we can afford a particular purchase is less likely.

So, once you take the huge step of cutting the cord, the next big step is to allocate where the savings will go, and with the newly found free time that is not spent in front of the screen, you can monitor spending. 

Meticulously track all money coming in and all money going out for each bank account, investment, account, and credit card. In doing so, you will be surprised to find that many fees and expenses are either unnecessary or more than what you need to pay. By taking the time to monitor your money, you can cut expenses and reallocate the saved money to other investments or savings that will ultimately increase your net worth.  

Make a Plan and Track Your Progress. If you’ve ever had what seemed to be a fascinating and mind-blowing idea about what to do to better your financial situation, made a mental note of it, but never did it, then you are not alone. This is because thoughts disappear. 

According to a study lead by Psychology professor Dr.Gail Matthews, at the Dominican University in California, you are 42 percent more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down. That’s right, successful people think on paper. Writing down your goals in detail forces you to get clear on what it is you want, and it provides a reference that can be referred to along the way. 

Therefore, to increase your chances of achieving your financial goals, you should write them down in detail, refer back to them frequently, and use them as a roadmap to achievement. 

Create a Side Hustle. According to Thomas Corley’s “Rich Habits” study mentioned earlier, 65% of self-made millionaires had three streams of income, and a good amount of self-made millionaires had four and five streams of income. Having multiple streams of income not only allows you to have more money, it insulates you against total loss if one stream fails.

Therefore, with more time on your hands, it is a good idea to develop a second, third, or fourth stream of revenue. It can be something as in depth as investing in real estate or increasing your other investments (i.e., using money to create money), it can be something as small as driving for Uber before or after work or finding gems at thrift stores or estate sales and reselling them at a profit (i.e., using time to make money). You can also use your interests and hobbies to earn money.

The thing to remember is that you can start small and build (brick by brick; step by step), and with time, you multiple streams of income can earn you the title of millionaire. 

Read and Learn. In Thomas Corley’s “Rich People” study, he also found that nearly 9 out of 10 of the wealthy people in the study read 30 minutes or more every day to learn. According to Corley, the rich people read because they know that knowledge can be leveraged to gain wealth. For instance, the knowledge attained through reading can give put you ahead in your career, setting you up for promotion and a higher salary. Also, reading can also allow you to gain knowledge necessary to achieve a more lucrative side hustle or to make lucrative investments. Well known billionaire Warren Buffet purports to read 500 pages per day, and Bill Gates purports to read 50 books per year. 

You can obtain reading material online from the library, or you can use online services such as Kindle. You can even listen to electronic books using Audible. With so many options for having books and other reading materials in the palm of your hand on demand, we can all do the work (or reading) necessary to help us achieve our desired wealth.