1: Be Fit
There is a strong negative correlation between wealth and obesity in wealthy countries. Why?
Contrary to popular belief, the rich are not slimmer because a healthy diet is more expensive they can afford personal trainers. They are slimmer because they invest more thought into what they eat. This is because the wealthy have a lower time preference: they are willing to forgo the short-term pleasure of a sugar rush for the long-term reward of truly delicious food, good health, and good looks.
In developed countries (where calories are cheap), food choice is determined by three factors: stress, culture, and availability.
Stress is the main determinant of time preference in regard to food. Chronic stress makes us unable to make intelligent decisions about diet, and dietary sugar is the main pharmacological compound we used to deal with stress. Sugar and other processed carbohydrates are the main cause of obesity. For non-athletes, exercise has little to do with it.
There is much more to say on this topic, but to sum up: if you can learn to manage your stress, you will learn to manage your cravings. You can choose to develop a culture of cooking real food, and even though good food will not be as available to you, you can learn to go out of your way for it.
2: Wear Well-Fitting Clothes
You don’t need to go to a bespoke haute couture tailor to dress well: you can find something that fits you at Goodwill. You just need to do free online research and make a conscious effort to design your wardrobe. Men, check out Art Of Manliness, women, check out Magazine. If you do one thing, don’t wear baggy clothing – it makes you look adolescent and sloppy. Get close-fitting tailored clothing that shows off your form. It only costs a few dollars to get your pants fitted at a tailor.
3: Show Up on Time and Be Fully Present
The rich are not always punctual and the poor are not always late, but: the wealthy can afford to be physically and mentally present for occasions that they deem worth their time, something many humans struggle to do.
In a 2019 experiment involving 2,250 adults, Harvard psychologists Matthew and Daniel Gilbert found that the human brain is wired for continuous distraction, concluding that a typical person spends 47 percent of every waking hour "mind wandering"—an experience so ordinary we rarely notice it.
As with diet, the root cause of our mental disengagement is often stress: it’s easier to be present when you have self-discipline and can spend money to make your distractions go away. But if you’re poor, there is something else you can throw away to make your stressors go away: attachments. All relationships and possessions cost time and money. Some relationships and possessions are worthwhile and produce a positive return, while others are a net drag. When you are poor, it’s much easier for minor things to drag you down, so you must keep your load to a minimum. Partying is expensive. Owning a car is expensive. Owning the latest iPhone is expensive. Letting go of attachments that are not vital to your long-term success can be liberating and a path to prosperity.
I didn’t own a car until I got my Master’s Degree at 23. It’s not that I couldn’t afford or didn’t want a car. I knew that it would be an ongoing cost and a distraction from my main goal of completing my education.
4: Take Care in Your Appearance
No amount of wealth will give you a younger body, and plastic surgery can only do so much. Yet there are free or low-cost ways to dramatically slow down aging and look younger. Here are some suggestions for both women and men:
Use sun protection: sun exposure is the main cause of—what dermatologists call skin permanently damaged by sun exposure. Wearing covering clothing and sunscreen is much cheaper than the very expensive treatments to repair the damage.
Keep a grooming routine: well-cared-for hair makes a huge difference in appearance for both men and women.
Take care of your face: I don't want to sound like your mom, but things like brushing your teeth, washing your face, and using a daily moisturizer really do make you look a lot younger and prevent damage that comes from aging.
5: Raise a Big Family
While there is a relationship between poverty and more children, the cost of raising kids is one of the main reasons parents don’t have more children. While estimates vary, the average cost of raising a child to the age of 18 was more than $270,000 in 2022.
Children are expensive at all income levels because the expectations of parents grow proportionately with income. But parenting doesn’t have to consume your entire salary. The mistake made by many is to think that being a good parent means spending money on superficial signs of a good parent, rather than spending time being a parent.
For example: we took our daughter out of an expensive private school because she was struggling to read. My wife found a homeschooling curriculum that worked well for my daughter and worked with her until she was able to read at her grade level. No school teacher, no matter how elite the private school, could have invested so much time and energy into experimenting with English learning programs over a period of years.
We don’t shuttle our kids from one expensive activity to another, but go hiking, play chess, and cook together. Being a parent is cheaper and more rewarding than hiring someone else to parent your child
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