Immigrants save more money than you!
Usually, immigrants are portrayed by the media as struggling households, working low-paying jobs and barely getting by. Well, here's some rather shocking statistics for you:
- According to BMO Harris Private Banking, roughly half of all wealthy people in Canada are immigrants or 1st generation Canadians. This means they either immigrated to Canada or were born here to immigrant parents and thus inherited some of their habits. At the same time, 7 out of 10 of them built their wealth from the ground up. They started at zero, and reached the millionaire status with their hard work.
- According to study done by Purvi Sevak and Lucie Schmidt, immigrant households are ahead of native households in terms of wealth accumulation.
1. Immigrants hate debt and have very little of it
People who grow up in Canada and USA are surrounded by debt. Let's be honest, debt became a part of life here. People borrow money to buy houses, they borrow money for school, they borrow money to buy cars they drive to school, and they buy groceries on credit cards, and even buy dogs using in-store credit with 168 easy payments spread over 24 years. Immigrants on the other hand don't borrow money. It's cash all the way, baby!
If you have no debt, you have more money to save and invest. If you don't waste money on interest payments just so you can have the latest gadget sooner, you end up with more money in your pocket. So, having very limited debt lets immigrants save more money.
2. Immigrants spend less money
Immigrants in most cases come to Canada/US from poorer countries and modest means (otherwise, why would you move here?). They're used to having less and not enjoying finer things in life. What would be considered "poverty" by most people here passes for normal living in our countries of origin.
3. Immigrants work their butts off
While immigrants don't get the highly paid jobs, they compensate for it by working an extra job (or two!) on a side. They'll come on weekends for some extra work, they'll volunteer for working on stat holidays, and they'll work side gigs in spare time - whatever it takes to bring more income.
It doesn't mean they work like this all their lives! They might work like this for the first 5, 10, or even 15 years after coming here. But at some point their savings and assets grow to the point where wise investing takes over, and working for money becomes less of a priority. At this point, a lot of them ease off gas, and let money they've saved produce more money so they don't have to. Makes sense?
Want to save more money? Manage your money like an immigrant.
Work hard, spend less, and have no debt. Say no to unnecessary spending, and try to increase your income. This is how immigrants save more money. Any financial advisor will tell you these three things will put you on a road to wealth.
I hope you enjoy my column. Please leave a comment on this (even just to tell me how wrong I am), by visiting the full version of this story at http://moneyramblings.com/immigrants-save-more-money/
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Read more Money Ramblings of a Financial Underdog articles
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- Immigrants save more money than you! Jun 10
- Dear Debt May 27
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