Habits of the Wealthiest People

As of June 2022, the world’s wealthiest man, Elon Musk, has a net worth of around $209 billion. This level of wealth inevitably has a certain enigma about it. People want to know just how someone can amass that amount of money – how did the world’s wealthiest people earn that title? Do they all share the same qualities?

MoneyTransfers.com has shared some of the most commonly-shared traits of the world’s wealthiest people below, as well as an overview of just how many people can call themselves a billionaire in 2022.

Billionaire stats

In 2022, the Bloomberg Billionaire Index recorded 2,668 billionaires around the globe, collectively worth $12.7 trillion. Out of these billionaires, 735 are based in the US.

In addition to this, the number of millionaires around the world is growing. There were an estimated 56.1 million millionaires in 2021 – a dramatic increase from the 50.8 million recorded in 2020.

Gender divides

Of the almost 2,700 billionaires recorded in 2022, just 327 of them are women. Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers is the 12th most wealthy person in the world and the world’s richest woman. Her grandfather founded L’Oreal, and Bettencourt-Meyers now controls 33% of the cosmetics maker, which had a reported revenue of $38.2 billion in 2021 alone.

Habits of Wealthiest People

Of course, there’s going to be no single set of rules to follow if you, too, want to be amongst the wealthiest people in the world. Some people inherit their millions, some are extremely savvy about their investments, and others might build their wealth from the ground-up by coming up with a business that solves a need not previously met.

However, we can see similar traits in the vast majority of wealthy, successful people – traits that you could easily start to incorporate into your own life. Tom Corley, author of Rich Habits – The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals, observed 233 rich people and 128 people living in poverty to research any shared habits and traits among the two groups.

He found that 88% of wealthy people surveyed make time to read for at least 30 minutes every day to increase their knowledge, while 67% are careful about how they spend their time, often watching TV for less than one hour a day. 

Meanwhile, unsurprisingly, wealthy people check in with their spending habits. 94% balance their bank account each month – you could even go so far as to suggest that the wealthiest of people are amongst the most frugal.

Who controls your destiny?

A study from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) at the German Institute for Economic Research found that 97% of millionaires surveyed felt that they were in control of their own destiny. In contrast, just 55% of the general population surveyed felt the same.

The wealthiest people in the world find their path to riches in many different ways – so there’s no rulebook to repeat their success. However, one thing is clear – successful people tend to share the same determined, dedicated, meticulous habits. Habits that help them organise their lives, focus on personal development, and ultimately stay one step ahead.

If you’re reading this looking for an insight into how to make your first million, or even billion, too, the best step you could take is to first look at what habits you’re cultivating and go from there.