Human beings are often awed by dramatic and immediate transformations. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing: the seemingly miraculous turns in someone else often reveal to us possibilities for ourselves that we thought impossible. But, for most things in life (natural and supernatural), a gradual change is often preferable to a drastic one.
Those who go from poverty to riches often very quickly end up back in poverty. One 2011 study of Florida lottery winners showed that for winners who had distressed finances but won between 50 thousand and 150 thousand dollars, bankruptcy was only delayed and not averted in most cases. Craig Brown, who leads a team of business professionals helping more than a hundred professional athletes manage their money, claimed in 2022 that nearly four of five professional athletes go broke within three years of retirement. Neither of these findings are particularly surprising since, in many though not all cases, the determining factor in financial success is the collection of habits developed over time related to work, spending, and saving.
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