Seven Differences between Wealth and Riches

Wealth and riches are not the same. Now let’s consider the differences.

• Riches are a function of the amount of money you make; wealth is of that which you retain. Riches are what pass through your hands; wealth is what stays in your life. For example, earning a million naira per month makes you rich but not necessarily wealthy. Mike Tyson is said to have made over four hundred million dollars in his boxing career but is now bankrupt, owing over twenty million dollars. He is a classic example of someone who was rich but not wealthy. Spending money shouldn’t be your focus. It should be making and retaining it.
• You can become rich overnight but not wealthy overnight. Winning the lottery or star prize in a reality TV show may make you an instant millionaire but not a wealthy person. It takes years to build wealth because wealth is a function of your financial intelligence as expressed in the kinds of decision you make over time. Check out the guy who wins an instant million today in two years time. That’s when you will know if he his wealthy or not. To build wealth you have to be more long term oriented in your thinking and actions.
• A rich man depends on his talents to make money. A wealthy man recruits the talents the talent of others to build wealth. How many people have you engaged to help you make money? If your answer is none then it will be difficult for you to build wealth.
• A rich man has to keep working to make money; a wealthy man keeps making money even if he stops working. Take a landlord as an example collecting rent as long as people keep using his facility. But even the man earning a million per month will lose his job if he fails to show up for work! That is why it is difficult to become wealthy if you are not making money passively.
• Rich people usually depend on a single source of income, especially salary. Wealthy people usually have multiple streams of income. How many streams of income do you have? If it is only salary I think you need to sit up!
• Riches can be lost overnight but it is difficult to lose wealth overnight because wealthy people keep their wealth in more than one reservoir and it is difficult for a single turn of events to affect all the reservoirs at the same time. It is unlikely that the stock market, real estate and the businesses will all crash at the same time.
• If a wealthy man loses the business, investment or property he almost always bounces back. All he does his to repeat the process of building those assets all over again. He may even build an entirely different business. But if a rich man loses his high paying job he most likely remains permanently broke unless he finds another high paying job. This is the reason many salary earners go broke if they lose their jobs. They don’t know how to build an asset.

A rich man is not so different from a poor man! You have to migrate from poor to rich to wealthy.

Multiple source of income

1 Engage in farming- people must eat

2 Start trading shares

3 Engage in real estate- people must live in houses

4 Start a transport services- people must move

5 Provide power supply. Kerosene, diesel, petrol. People use it daily

6 Open a canteen- people must eat

7 Open a dry cleaning service

8 Start an extra mural lesson. If you are a teacher organize private lessons.

9 Make you’re your hobby commercial. What you are doing for free, some people are making money by doing it.

The man who has done his best has done everything. The man who has done less than his best has done nothing.