[Music] I saw an article online that had a list of 10 habits that scream, "I'm trying to look wealthy." So, I'm going to go through those today and give you my opinion. And also later, I'll share three proven steps that will actually help you become really wealthy, like in the real sense of the word, which is key. All right, drop your reactions in the comments as we go, and be sure to like, subscribe, and share this video with a friend. All right. Number one, the article says excessive displays of wealth. So, luxury cars, flashy logos, high-tech gadgets, and it is kind of this idea that like insecurity is loud and confidence is quiet.
And so, when you see people that are so big and so out there with their money, usually it is a sign of like, okay, what are they trying to prove maybe as a person and or are they just trying to prove that they are successful? And because of that, they may or may not even have the money, but they're trying to look successful. So, I I would agree with this one. Not obviously, not everyone that has a nice car or luxury stuff is not wealthy, right? Some of them are, but definitely more people look more wealthy than they are in today's world. Number two, constantly job hopping. So, I thought this was an interesting point. And so, what this article was implying is that, you know, when you go job to job, you'll probably get an increase of your salary. And so you're just doing that to continue to make more money because of your lifestyle creep versus just investing in like a stable job, you know, long-term, which in today's world is like five years.
You know, that again, it's like that stability aspect and growing as you're growing within your job versus going job to job to get that hike. So, um I wouldn't have thought about this one honestly, but I could see it because if you're needing more money like instantly because you are spending more than what you're making, this could be a short-term fix and then longterm it does not look great on your resume. Number three, dependent on credit cards.
So, when I read this, I was like, "Oh my gosh, I love when people, you know, talk about Ramsay in a sense in our content because this is what we talk about all the time." And when they agree on our stance when they're not Ramsay people, I'm like, "Even better." So, yes, we do see this that credit card debt is at an all-time high. I mean, it's officially reached over $1 trillion, which is crazy. Now, some people are charging the credit card to keep up with basic necessities. But we're also seeing again without lifestyle creep. What are those necessities? And we do find that you add in more to your life and you have to keep up with that and sometimes your income doesn't keep up.
So, you end up going to credit cards which is making the situation worse. So, here's one thing though I am going to add to the list. Not taking internet safety seriously, you guys. Trust me, that's going to cost you because we are on the internet all the time, right? We do so much shopping, so much work, so much booking, travel, like everything that's out there in the world is online. And so, we're putting our information out there all the time, which means it is out there for people to get, to steal, and to even trade or actually make money off of your info. Some of these companies do that. And with Delete Me, they go in and remove your online information. I just got my Delete Me report recently, one of my They come out like once a quarter, and they've saved me close to 65 hours of doing research of trying to remove my information online. You can save up to 20% on annual DeleteMe plans, which ends up being around $9 a month. So, you can click the link below to check them out or go to joindeleteme.com/rachel.
All right, back to the list. Number four is living in the moments. And I can see this because when you splurge just kind of on these quick hits, again, it may be at a small scale, but when you live on that impulse life, you are you may be looking great, but you're not doing things long term that are actually going to create wealth. Things like saving for the future and investing in retirement and all this stuff. And so, when you see people that are very impulsive, again, you may think like, "Oh my gosh, they just may have tons of money.
Like, look at them. can just, you know, book that trip or buy that thing and they don't have to save up. Well, sometimes they're charging it to debt. Like sometimes they're using debt to do that. And because of that, then they are again digging deeper in this hole financially speaking because in order to get out of that, they have to pay all that off before they start saving and investing. So, it's crazy as people that actually have more patience end up becoming wealthier because they look at the long term versus the short term. Number five, not budgeting. So, if you think that you're somebody that's like, "Oh, yeah. I'm comfortable. I don't need a budget. Like, no big deal." Let me just tell you, that's not the case.
So, if you hear people that are saying that, you know, again, they may try to look like, "Oh, yeah, no big deal. I don't have to budget because I have so much money and it's fine." But can I tell you, even wealthy people follow a budget. That's actually what keeps them wealthy is that they have intentionality around where their money's going. And so don't let this kind of free living feeling of like, oh yeah, it's just not a big deal or again under the assumption, oh, someone must just have tons of money that they don't have to budget. No, wealthy people have a plan for their money. And so if you need a monthly budget, make sure to check out Every Dollar. It is so easy. It is so effective for budgeting. Number six is obsessed with appearance. And so it can be expensive you guys like to get all the beauty treatments and all the bougie designer clothes and the shoes and the accessories and the vacations and like all the things like all of that is very very expensive.
And when you're obsessed with that and that's where you're putting all of your money andor all of your debt towards, it's getting you nothing because at the end of the day, not only does it not fulfill you emotionally when you're just buying stuff and crap that you don't need. Um, but it's also, you know, you're putting money into things that, again, I'm not against some of those things. Like if you want to do Botox or buy a nice bag, like again, I'm not I'm not against those, but it's the priority on which you are living your life. And for a lot of people that are just trying to keep up, they end up spending money.
And some money they don't have to keep up that appearance because they're so obsessed with it versus saying, "Oh, yeah. I'm so confident in who I am that like I don't need all that stuff. If I want it, it's fine, but it's not this need." And when it becomes a need, you become desperate and you end up spending so much money on it. All right, number seven is avoiding important financial discussions. People that just like don't want to talk about it, there may be this level of denial and they may not want to see it, right? So if someone does have the ability to say, "Oh yeah, you know, we have some margin and some peace in this area of our lives, you're more likely to talk about it." And so it can be very uncomfortable, very uncomfortable to talk about money, especially if you're not in a good spot financially.
So if someone is very reluctant either they've had like really big past hurts in their life or they get to this point where they're like, "Oh yeah, I I've made so many mistakes. I don't want people to like I don't want people to see it." All right. Number eight is lack of financial knowledge. So, this is interesting because I always say that personal finance is 80% behavior. It's only 20% head knowledge, but there is still that 20%.
Like, you still want to be able to understand what is going on with your money. And that's everything from like your mortgage rates to what a retirement match is in a 401k, what leasing a car is versus, you know, buying a car with cash or on payments. And so, understanding how money works is always very, very crucial. And if people don't know the basics of that, but yet they look like they're doing really well, I probably have some questions. Number nine is always needing to have the latest and the greatest. So people that are really secure, like they don't need to prove it, right? By being like on the forefront of every single trend, they're okay. They're confident in their own skin.
But again, back to that idea of just spending to show an appearance of something. If that is constant in someone's life, uh again, I would I would be curious about how they really are doing financially. And number 10, no long-term financial goals. So, this was a good one, and I agree, like if you are living in the moment day in and day out, like you're probably going to end up being broke. And I'm all about being present, enjoying your life, but you have to be looking out far enough of like two years, 5 years, 10 years.
That's everything from I want to, you know, save up for a down payment for a home. I want to help my kids with college in the next eight years. You know, retirement's coming. Like, when you look far out, there's wisdom in that. And so if you are not at all caring about that and you're just living in the moment, um I think that's a pretty dangerous place to be financially. So all of that list, again, some I agree with, a lot of them I do agree with, some of them I had never thought about, but I think it's a great list.
But I'll give you my list of three to actually really help you become wealthy. Number one is to get out of debt. If you are using your money, your income, and instead of investing it and your money making money for you, you are making money for the bank, you're going in the wrong direction. Number two, I would say to have an emergency fund.
So when you have cash in the bank, ideally three to six months of expenses and things come up, you fall back on your money versus falling back on the bank's money. So that puts you in a good spot financially. And then number three, start investing. When you invest 15% of your income into retirement, it is a beautiful thing what happens over the long term. Compound interest is wonderful. So again, living debtree, having savings and investing, like it sounds so simple and it's not flashy and exciting, but let me tell you, just put those rhythms in your life. Have fun on top of that, but it's amazing the peace and the stability that comes with that. Now, if the idea of budgeting specifically sounds nice, but maybe you're a little intimidated.
Learn how to create your first budget in five simple steps in my next episode. Click here for that. Or if you're listening on podcast, I'll put a link below. All right, you guys. Remember to take control of your money and create a life you love..
