| ost important attitude for financial success is | | | | have long-time perspective. The average |
| long-term thinking. Successful people think a long | | | | professional person has a time perspective of 10, |
| way into the future and they adjust their daily | | | | 15 and 20 years. Begin to see that everything |
| behaviors to assure they achieve their long-term | | | | that you are doing today is part of a long-time |
| goals. In a longitudinal study done at Harvard | | | | continuum, at the end of which you are going to |
| University in the 50s and 60s, they studied the | | | | be financially independent or financially unfortunate. |
| reasons for upward socio-economic mobility. They | | | | People with short-time perspective think only |
| were looking for factors that would predict | | | | about fun and pleasure in the short term. They |
| whether or not an individual or family was going | | | | have what economists call "The inability to delay |
| to move upward and be wealthier in the future | | | | gratification." They have an irresistible tendency to |
| than in the present. | | | | spend every single penny they earn and |
| They studied factors like education, intelligence, | | | | everything that they can borrow. |
| being born into the right family, or having the right | | | | When you develop long-time perspective, you |
| connections. In every case, they found individuals | | | | develop the discipline to delay gratification and to |
| who had been born with every blessing in life who | | | | save your money rather than spending it. The |
| did poorly. They also found individuals who had | | | | combination of long-time perspective and delayed |
| been born or come to this country with no | | | | gratification puts you onto the high road to |
| advantages at all who had been extremely | | | | financial independence. |
| successful. What was the distinguishing factor? | | | | Now, here are two things you can do to develop |
| They finally determined that there was only one | | | | the attitudes of financially successful people: |
| key attitude that mattered. They called it "Time | | | | First, think long-term about your financial life. |
| Perspective." Time perspective refers to the | | | | Decide exactly how much you want to be worth |
| amount of time that you take into consideration | | | | five years, ten years and twenty years from |
| when planning your day to day activities and | | | | today. Write it down. Make a plan. Take action on |
| when making important decisions in your life. | | | | your plan every single day. |
| People with long-time perspective invariably move | | | | Second, develop the ability to delay gratification. |
| up economically in the course of their lifetimes. | | | | Instead of buying something on impulse, put off |
| When you spend weeks, months and years | | | | buying decisions for a day, a week or even a |
| developing your skills and ability and expanding | | | | month. Decide in advance to "think it over" before |
| your experience in order to be successful, you | | | | you buy anything. |