This is not true for every person who is poor. It is true for a subset of people who are poor.

We're (first world) poor atm and it's not due to choosing not to take on opportunities. I have a home business and it isn't generating a full income yet. I took the opportunity of starting my own business. I feel confident eventually it will do quite well. But atm we're poor (by the standards of our country). I haven't invested but I intend to once we get more money coming in but the fact is we can't yet. "I don't have any money" is not always an excuse - sometimes it is an honest reason. If I chose to invest I'd not be paying rent, eating or paying bills. There's NO spare atm. There are people who won't invest who should, because they think job loss etc won't happen to them so they don't vary their income sources in order to prevent the worst, but that's not the situation in all cases. Sometimes "I don't have the money" literally means "I don't have the money". It's a horrible horrible horrible horrible situation to be stuck in but sometimes it is the truth. Sometimes also the person cannot control what opportunites they have. I took the opportunity to start my own business, and I've taken opportunities to improve skills in some areas and improve other things that may have been holding me back and making me achieve less, but I've also been jobsearching and I can't force an employer to give me the opportunity of a job instead of someone else, and neither can all the other people who are also struggling in the jobsearch just like me. You can't blame poor people for their situation and say it comes from their way of thinking as that likely is true for some, but for many it is not. You can't pass over opportunities you don't have. I'm trying really hard to get out of the situation I'm in and it has involved job searching, working on my business, learning stuff to do with time management and getting stuff done and learning that works for the way my brain works, tertiary study and more and I am not passing over opportunities that come my way and I intend to do stuff like investing once I have enough money to do so (and also buy a house). I've had times I might not have been as productive as I'd like but I'm working on that and I'm learning about myself and how to do things in a way that works for me and there certainly has been an improvement but never was I just being "comfortable" or within my "comfort zone". Being in this situation with money is far from comfortable. I actually try different things, probably a tad too much.