The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 personality traits of self-made millionaires. These five traits when combined together can help predict those of us who will have a higher net worth, according to a recent German study. 

Today’s self-made millionaire trait is: Emotional stability

Emotional stability (the opposite of neuroticism) is a fundamental personality trait that has to do with being even-tempered, particularly in the face of challenges and threats.

People who score high in emotional stability (low in neuroticism) react less emotionally and are less easily upset. They tend to be emotionally stable, calm, and do not constantly experience negative feelings. 

When you connect the dots between millionaires and emotional stability, you can easily see why this trait is such an important predictor of wealth accumulation. 

When you are less reactive to negative events, you’ll be able to make better decisions and less susceptible to making knee-jerk reactions based on fear or panic. 

The good news is that emotional stability is not a trait that’s set in stone and can change over time, especially if you work at it. The goal is not keep your cool and not allow your emotions to take over. 

There are plenty of ways you can work at increasing your emotional stability, and it’s important to note that this doesn’t mean suppressing your emotions. You can and should still feel all the emotions, but there is a lag between the event and your reaction, and that’s where emotional stability comes into play. 

Aside from the obvious suggestions of talking to a therapist if you’re especially high in neuroticism, getting better sleep, and exercising more, some other interesting suggestions for increasing your emotional stability include:

• Set boundaries with people and your schedule 
• Recognizing and feeling your emotions. Sounds counter-intuitive here, but paying attention to the negative and painful events, and especially the wounds it creates is the pathway to healing. I actually read an entire book on this topic last year, and it was crucial for helping me understand how wounds that we carry with us can harm us if we don’t deal with them properly. 
• Better understanding the things that stress you out so you can better prepare yourself for stressful situations. There is a person in my life that I’ll just say is triggering to be around. Thankfully, I don’t have to spend a lot of time with this person, but I always dread seeing and interacting with this person because they push all of my buttons. Even though I can’t avoid this person entirely, but understanding that this person causes me stress allows me to minimize my interactions with them, and I’ve been better able to ignore and not react to the things they say and do that really irk me. 

That’s not an exhaustive list of course, but it’s a start, and helpful to recognize that this is something that we can work on and improve to be happier and wealthier at the same time. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.  

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