• Six “wealth factors” can make a person more likely to become wealthy, according to a researcher who studied more than 600 millionaires in America.
  • She says millionaires take on the following characteristics: frugality, confidence, responsibility, planning, focus, and social indifference.
  • These qualities are predictive of your net worth, regardless of age or income.

Anyone can become rich if they know the right steps to take. But if you possess a certain set of characteristics, you may be more likely to become wealthy, according to Sarah Stanley Fallaw, director of research for the Affluent Market Institute.

She found that six behaviors, which she called “wealth factors,” are related to net worth potential, regardless of age or income:

  • Frugality, or a commitment to saving, spending less, and sticking to a budget
  • Confidence in financial management, investing, and household leadership
  • Responsibility, which involves accepting your role in financial outcomes and believing that luck plays little role
  • Planning, or setting goals for your financial future
  • Focus on seeing tasks through to their completion without being distracted
  • Social indifference, or not succumbing to social pressure to buy the latest thing.

Being frugal was one of three key ways they achieved financial independence. To properly build wealth, experts recommend saving 20% of your income and living off the remaining 80%. In a Gen Y Planning blog post, financial planner Sophia Bera wrote, it takes confidence to live within your means. Don’t count on anyone else to make them rich, and they don’t blame anyone else if they fall short. Hogan wrote.

They focus on things they can control and align their daily habits to the goals they’ve set for themselves». He also found that they’re goal-oriented and hard workers, which enable them to plan financially and focus on seeing those plans through. Ninety-two percent of the millionaires he surveyed develop a long-term plan for their money, and 97% almost always achieve the goals they set for themselves. These behaviors make it easy for them to be socially indifferent. They resist the lifestyle creep, the tendency to spend more whenever one earns more. Essentially, they don’t feel pressured to keep up with the Joneses.