Jaspreet Singh: 3 Money Habits That Keep Most People Poor
Written by
Cynthia Measom
Edited by
Gary Dudak
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Jaspreet Singh is a popular financial influencer who was named one of our Top 100 Money Experts. In a recent video on his Minority Mindset YouTube channel, he talked about financial habits that can keep people from getting rich.
“The majority of people are struggling with money,” Singh said. “The majority of people are broke, unhappy and unfulfilled. And a lot of people want to know how they can make money. You have to know how to use your money as a tool. That way, you can use your money to make you wealthy instead of making everybody else rich.”
Here are three money habits that keep most people poor, according to Singh, and what he recommends doing instead.
Not Controlling Your Spending
Singh said it’s vital to control your cash outflow and stop the financial bleeding. He said to think of your bank account like a bucket of water.
“Think of the money as water and your bank account is the bucket,” said Singh. “When the money is leaving your bank account, it’s like a hole just hit the bucket. And so what happens for most people is they have these big holes in their bucket — that anytime money enters the bucket, money immediately leaves.”
Singh said before you focus on trying to get more money, you need to seal the bucket.
“That means you can’t keep spending all of your money, and this is one of the most difficult things … because you have to go through this mental aspect of your friends criticizing you for not going on that vacation, or your friends looking at you sideways for downgrading your car or your parents wondering if you’re having financial problems because you got a smaller apartment,” he said. “Because it’s very easy to look rich, but it’s a lot more difficult to actually become rich. And ironically, in order to become rich, you’ve got to stop looking rich first.”
Singh stressed that while earning more money can solve the problem temporarily, you should fix the holes in your bucket first or you’ll likely end up with bigger financial problems.
“As Americans make more money, they end up in a bigger financial hole,” Singh shared. “Because you make more money, you can qualify for more debt. You qualify for bigger credit cards. You can qualify for more spending. So people make an extra $1,000 a month, and then they go out and spend an extra $1,200 a month.”
Not Increasing Your Income
Once you have the holes in your bucket sealed, it’s time to focus on making more money. Singh said there are countless ways you can increase your income, including changing careers, working a side gig or starting your own business.
“Start watching YouTube videos on ‘How can I earn more money?'” Singh suggested. “Start reading books on how you can start a business. Start listening to podcasts about how to manage and scale your income.”
Singh said maybe you won’t achieve the income you want tomorrow or even next year, but in the next few years — if you apply yourself — you should start to see how it is possible to scale your income.
Not Investing the Difference
Singh said that it’s important to take the extra money you earned and invest it.
“That means now you’re going to go out and you’re going to buy the asset,” Singh said. “Maybe you go out and you buy a rental property. Maybe you go out and you buy shares of a company — you buy stocks in a company. Maybe you go out and invest in your own business. Maybe you invest in somebody else’s business idea.”
Singh said the idea is to invest your money, not to make someone else rich, but to make yourself rich.
“That’s now where the real wealth is built,” shared Singh. “We assume that wealth is built through our salary; that’s not how it works. You will never become rich from your salary. You’ll become rich from the assets that you own, and your salary can help you buy more assets. But your assets are what make you rich. Your investments are what will make you rich.”
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