Plentiful Poppies remind me of Planning and Living Life on Purpose
Thomas C. Corley, author of Will Your Child be Rich or Poor, studied the habits of the rich and poor over five years. He claims, poor parents teach their children the Poverty Habits and wealthy parents model to their children the Rich Habits. I think the following list, from http://richhabits.net, are worth considering for parents and adults in evaluating your life.
- Limit T.V., social media and cell phone use to no more than one hour a day.
- Require that children to read one to two educational books a month.
- Require children to aerobically exercise 20 – 30 minutes a day.
- Limit junk food to no more than 300 calories a day.
- Require that children set monthly, annual and 5-year goals.
- Require working age children to work or volunteer at least ten hours a week.
- Require that children save at least 25% of their earnings or gifts they receive.
- Teach children the importance of relationship building by requiring them to call friends, family, teachers, coaches etc. on their birthdays and to send thank you cards for gifts or help they received from anyone.
- Reassure children (and yourself) that mistakes are good not bad. Children need to understand that the very foundation of success in life is built on learning from our mistakes.
- Punish children when they lose their tempers so they understand the importance of controlling this very costly emotion.
- Teach children that seeking financial success in life is good and is a worthwhile goal. Children need to learn what the American Dream is and that it is something to be pursued in life.
- Children need to learn how to manage money. Open up a checking account or savings account for children and force them to use their savings to buy the things they want. They need to learn that they are not entitled to things like cell phones, computers, fashionable clothes, flat screen T.V.s etc.
- Require children to participate in at least two non-sports-related extracurricular activities at school or outside of school.
- Parents and children need to set aside at least an hour a day to talk to one another. Not on Facebook, or on the cell phone, but face to face. The only quality time is quantity time
- Teach children how to manage their time. They should be required to create daily “to do” lists and these lists need to be monitored by parents. The goal should be to accomplish at least 70% of their tasks on their daily “to do” list.
Thomas Corley’s research supports that “Wealthy” people do certain things every single day that sets them apart from everyone else in life. He states: “Wealthy people have good daily success habits that they learned from their parents”. Corley contends that “unless we teach our children good daily success habits, and level the playing field, the rich will continue to get richer and the poor will continue to get poorer.”
I contend his list is worth consideration to see if we are being good, wise stewards of our resources and our time.
What are your thoughts?
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