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What I learned from studying people who make more in a year than most make in a lifetime
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Here's something that'll mess with your head: The average person checks their phone 96 times a day but their net worth maybe once a year.
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Meanwhile, there's a small group of humans walking among us who've cracked the code to stupid money.
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We're talking decamillionairesβpeople with $10 million or more. Not trust fund babies or lottery winners. People who built it from scratch.
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And here's the kicker: They're not necessarily smarter than you. They're just doing 10 things differently that most people will never figure out.
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I spent months studying these financial freaks of nature, and what I found will either inspire you or make you want to throw your phone across the room. Probably both.
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The Time Billionaires Who Happen to Have Money
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Habit #1: They Think Your 5-Year Plan is Adorable
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While you're stressing about quarterly earnings reports, decamillionaires are making decisions for 2054. They plant oak trees while everyone else is planting tomatoes.
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These people buy stocks when everyone else is panic-selling. They start businesses in recessions. They make investments that won't pay off until their kids are in college.
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It's like they're playing chess while the rest of us are playing checkers.
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Except the chess game lasts 30 years, and every move compounds.
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Habit #2: They Know Their Numbers Better Than You Know Your Netflix Password
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Ask the average person their net worth, and they'll give you a number that's usually wrong by about $50,000. Ask a decamillionaire, and they'll tell you their exact net worth, cash flow, and investment returns down to the decimal point.
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They track their money like NASA tracks rockets. Every dollar has a purpose, a destination, and a performance review.
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These people have spreadsheets that would make your accountant weep with joy. They know which investments are crushing it and which ones need to be fired.
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Habit #3: They Embrace Boring Like It's Their Religion
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Here's what will blow your mind: Most decamillionaires have portfolios that would put you to sleep.
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Index funds, boring real estate, and businesses that sell everyday stuff to everyday people.
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While everyone else is chasing the next Dogecoin, these people are getting rich off companies that make toilet paper and insurance policies.
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Complexity is the enemy of wealth. The more moving parts, the more things can break. They figured out that simple systems scale, complicated systems fail.
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Habit #4: They Treat Time Like Plutonium
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A decamillionaire will spend $200 to save 2 hours without blinking. They understand something most people never figure out: You can always make more money, but you can't make more time.
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They say "no" to everything that doesn't move the needle. Birthday parties for acquaintances? Nope. Three-hour meetings that could be emails? Hard pass. Anything that can be delegated gets delegated.
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They've weaponized the word "no" and turned it into their superpower.
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Habit #5: They Drive Hondas and Live in Normal Houses
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This one will mess with your head: Many decamillionaires live in houses that cost less than some people's cars.
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They wear clothes from Target and drive cars that are paid off.
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They figured out the secret that Madison Avenue doesn't want you to know: Lifestyle inflation is wealth cancer.
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Every dollar you spend impressing people you don't like is a dollar that can't compound into riches.
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They'd rather be rich than look rich. And that choice makes all the difference.
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Habit #6: They've Mastered the Art of Multiplication
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Decamillionaires don't just work harderβthey work smarter by using leverage.
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They use other people's time, other people's money, and other people's skills to amplify their results.
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They hire virtual assistants, use debt strategically, and build systems that work without them.
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While everyone else is trading time for money, they're trading systems for freedom.
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It's the difference between owning a job and owning a machine that prints money.
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Habit #7: They Collect Paychecks Like PokΓ©mon Cards
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One income stream is a job. Multiple income streams is a business strategy.
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Decamillionaires typically have 5-7 different ways money flows into their accounts.
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Real estate rentals, business profits, dividends, royalties, side hustlesβthey diversify income like they diversify investments. If one stream dries up, six others keep flowing.
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They understand that relying on one paycheck is like building a house with one pillar. Eventually, something's going to collapse.
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Habit #8: They Buy When Everyone Else is Crying
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March 2020. The market crashed. Normal people panicked and sold everything. Decamillionaires?
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They backed up the truck and bought everything on sale.
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They understand that wealth is built in the downturns, not the upturns. When everyone else is running for the exits, they're walking through the entrance with their checkbook out.
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Fear is their buying signal. Panic is their opportunity.
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Habit #9: They're Learning Machines Disguised as Humans
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The average American reads less than one book per year. The average decamillionaire reads 50-100 books per year.
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They're constantly feeding their brains with new information about investing, psychology, leadership, and human behavior.
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They understand that in a rapidly changing world, the person who learns fastest wins.
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They treat education like a competitive advantage, not a one-time event that ends with college.
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Habit #10: They Know Money is Just the Scorecard
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Here's the plot twist: Most decamillionaires aren't motivated by money.
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They're motivated by freedom, impact, legacy, or the game itself.
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Money is just how they keep score. The real prize is the ability to do what they want, when they want, with who they want, for as long as they want.
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They figured out that money is a tool for building the life they actually want, not for buying stuff they don't need to impress people they don't like.
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The Uncomfortable Truth About Extreme Wealth
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These habits aren't secrets. They're not complicated. Most people know them intellectually.
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But knowing and doing are separated by the Grand Canyon of human behavior.
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The difference between decamillionaires and everyone else isn't intelligence or luck or connections.
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It's the ability to do boring, simple things consistently for decades while everyone else is chasing shiny objects.
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They're playing a completely different game with completely different rules.
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While most people are optimizing for this quarter, they're optimizing for this century.
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So here's your choice: You can keep playing the short-term game that 99% of people play, or you can start thinking like someone who's already won the long-term game.
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You can keep checking your phone 96 times a day, or you can start checking your net worth 96 times a year.
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You can keep buying stuff you don't need, or you can start buying assets that buy you freedom.
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The decamillionaire playbook isn't rocket science. It's just boring, simple, and devastatingly effective.
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Most people will read this, nod along, and change nothing. They'll keep playing the same game and wondering why they keep getting the same results.
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But you? You're going to start thinking in decades. You're going to guard your time like a bouncer guards a VIP section. You're going to embrace boring investments and compound interest like they're your religion.
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And in 20 years, when everyone else is still wondering how to get rich, you'll be the one writing the checks.
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