5 out of 20

What do you think of Dave Ramsey’s “20 Things Rich People Do Every Day?”

I've written about Ramsey before. His advice on getting out of debt is good. His advice on insurance, investments, and other nuances can range from somewhat faulty to outright fallacy. This blog post he put up originates from Tom Corley's website about rich habits. I must admit that I am not thoroughly familiar with Corley's work, but I can analyze the 20 points and give you my $0.02 (which is what this blog is all about).


1. 70% of wealthy eat less than 300 junk food calories per day. 97% of poor people eat more than 300 junk food calories per day. 23% of wealthy gamble. 52% of poor people gamble.
In the US, this is almost unavoidable. Prepackaged food is far less expensive than fresh whole foods.
The statement on gambling is accurate, but understand that most self-made millionaires do not gamble with "Powerball," they gamble with borrowed money on an idea of their own.


2. 80% of wealthy are focused on accomplishing some single goal. Only 12% of the poor do this.
The error in this statement is the assumption of the cause-effect correlation to the behavior. Most wealthy are above average intelligence, and can easily prioritize.

3. 76% of wealthy exercise aerobically four days a week. 23% of poor do this.
Again, it is not the exercise that makes one wealthy (though it might be the same discipline that encourages one to exercise). The poor (especially in the US) fall into one of two broad categories: A) the working poor, and B) the "FSA" (welfare recipients). The working poor are hardworking people indeed, and have little leftover time for exercise. The FSA do not exercise by definition. Skewed data is skewed.

4. 63% of wealthy listen to audio books during commute to work vs. 5% of poor people.
The free ones are not worth listening to, the others are not affordable to the poor. Furthermore, Most of the poor are subsidized, and do not work. Again, assumption of data that is quite skewed in reality.

5. 81% of wealthy maintain a to-do list vs. 19% of poor.
I'll let this one pass. Smacks a bit of #2.

6. 63% of wealthy parents make their children read two or more non-fiction books a month vs. 3% of poor.
Have you seen the stats on 2nd-generation self-made "wealthy?" Irrelevant statement here.

7. 70% of wealthy parents make their children volunteer 10 hours or more a month vs. 3% of poor.
Again, we are comparing those who do and earn to those who take and consume.

8. 80% of wealthy make Happy Birthday calls vs. 11% of poor.
Truly - what does this have to do with anything? The closest thing I can conjecture is that the poor are mostly subsidized people. These people, by definition, are very selfish. Hence the statistic.

9. 67% of wealthy write down their goals vs. 17% of poor.
Like #5, I'll give you this one, but again, it smacks of the underlying misconstruction.

10. 88% of wealthy read 30 minutes or more each day for education or career reasons vs. 2% of poor.
Ahhhh... The first real stat not inherently dependent on faulty assumptions. Most of the wealthy are self-made. You do not become a self-made man (or woman) without doing what you do better than most. To do that, you must educate yourself.

11. 6% of wealthy say what’s on their mind vs. 69% of poor.
Misconstruction: "most" of what are called "wealthy" for this poll were actually the upper 50% of the income bracket. The vast majority of those people (45 out of every 50) are employed by someone else, and must hold their tongue for company policy reasons. Those wealthy who are self employed, might hold their tongue in certain situations, but generally say what they think. 

12. 79% of wealthy network five hours or more each month vs. 16% of poor.
Because their job depends on it. The subsidized have no need of networking.

13. 67% of wealthy watch one hour or less of TV every day vs. 23% of poor.
Because they are busy working 55 hour jobs. Subsidized people get money and benefits without the inconvenience of work.

14. 6% of wealthy watch reality TV vs. 78% of poor.
Same as #13 and #12.

15. 44% of wealthy wake up three hours before work starts vs. 3% of poor.
Same as #12, #13, #14. People who do not work cannot awaken 3 hours before work.

16. 74% of wealthy teach good daily success habits to their children vs. 1% of poor.
The key word here is "good." Most of the poor are subsidized, and teach their children the same. This is not "good." Most of the working poor haven't figured out yet how to make money, and therefore cannot teach their children "good" habits. (Even Dave says "not to take financial advice from broke people.")Still, I'll give it a pass on technicality.

17. 84% of wealthy believe good habits create opportunity luck vs. 4% of poor.
Ahhh... true point #2 out of 20 (not bad for 17 entries in).


18. 76% of wealthy believe bad habits create detrimental luck vs. 9% of poor.
Winner because it is the inverse of #17.

19. 86% of wealthy believe in lifelong educational self-improvement vs. 5% of poor.
See #10. Also, why would a subsidized person want to self-improve when they have everything they want with no effort?

20. 86% of wealthy love to read vs. 26% of poor.
#10, #13, #14 demonstrate my point again. This point is redundant.


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