What it takes to have a financially stable frame of mind

By Dian Vujovich

If there is one sure-fire way to insure that me, you and everyone else on the planet can acquire wealth, I haven’t run across it. And I’ve read tons of techniques for achieving wealth from visualizing your financial success to thinking positively and wearing a smile for prosperity.

Another biggie is being grateful for what you have. That is, grateful whether you’ve got riches-a-plenty or are suffering through financial difficulties and challenges. I like the grateful notion. It’s an attitude that I think serves people well in all walks of life and under any given circumstances—financial or otherwise.

But gratefulness isn’t necessarily one of the first steps that I’ve seen people take if their goal is acquiring wealth. Rather I see being grateful as how someone feels (or ought to feel) after they’ve awakened to all the riches and the richness in their life.

Behaviorally, Francis Bacon’s quote, “Anger makes dull men witty, but keeps them poor” says a whole lot more to anyone seeking words of wisdom that might help them to gain some financial security.

Earlier this year I asked Charles Richards, Ph.D., author of the recently published book titled “The Psychology of Wealth” (McGraw-Hill, January 2012) four questions about how wealth and our minds. What follows is his answer to the fourth and last question:

Q: Explain why brains and financial riches don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand.

A: “A high IQ is not required to come up with a great idea; nor is it a requirement for becoming wealthy. In studying and interviewing many successful people in the course of writing my book, I observed that while some of these folks have great smarts, more striking are the other traits they shared.

These include conscious goal setting, an awareness of and commitment to their personal values, a deep-seated belief that they have significant control over their circumstances, and a solid sense of self-esteem.

They are also persistent; if one thing doesn’t work, they try another and keep moving ahead, like a stream around rocks. They are willing—even eager—to take action and to take some calculated risks. They are highly motivated to succeed and understand that each small step brings them closer to their goals.

But perhaps most striking, they all express a sense of gratitude for what they’ve achieved.”

(This is the last of a four-part series of questions to Dr. Richards.)