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7 Reasons Why Migrants Prosper

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When I was a financial advisor, I often asked people how much they think they had earned in their lifetime. Then I would ask how much they had left in their bank account. They would usually squirm uncomfortably in their seats or shrug their shoulders.

It reminds me of an old joke:

Unfortunately, my peak earning years coincided with my peak spending years!

Wouldn’t it be better if your peak earning years coincided with your peak saving years! 

I know it’s hard if you are struggling to bring up a family and provide a roof of your head. I’ve been there. All I can say is that you can take two families on similar incomes and one will manage to save and the other won’t. I’ve seen this so many times in my financial services and banking career. I’ve seen people on low incomes acuminate far more money than people on much higher incomes.

Here’s the golden rule; Pay yourself first.

People who have accumulated money save a set percentage of their income before spending the remainder. They pay themselves first. People who are broke invariably do the opposite. They pay everybody else first, spend on consumer goods, eating out, drinking, partying, coffees, evermore new clothes to fill their bursting closets, club memberships, toys, new phones, gigantic TV’s, cigarettes, pets, huge pedigree dogs…and then save what’s left over, if anything at all.

Why do you migrants do so well?

One of the main reasons migrants get on so fast in this country, as well as in America, Canada, Australia and so on is that they have completely different spending habits. In my experience, they usually live frugally within their means. They save a substantial portion of their incomes or send money back home to support their families and buy property. They don’t spend their evenings drinking in the pub.

How do I know this? Because I ran a business for 15 years recruiting overseas nurses and care workers to the UK. I also co-wrote a book on immigration, How to Come to the UK to Live Work Study or Visit, and was featured on numerous TV and radio news programmes. I can tell you countless stories of migrant workers who came here with “nothing to declare”, often thousands of pounds in debt and went on to become established within a few short years often buying their own homes and more.

I know one particular client of ours who came over to the UK on a job paying less than £17,000 a year. A single mum with 3 kids, she worked hard and saved and was even teased by her co-workers as being stingy. But while they were going out spending money, she was quietly tucking it away and sending some to her family back home in the Philippines. She also spent many thousands of pounds on obtaining her permanent residency and citizenship and getting her children over to the UK to join her and live with her.

After a few years, she met her future husband, also a migrant from the EU. She got him on the savings track and together they managed to buy a new 2 bedroomed house a couple of years later using savings of £50,000. Most of her co-worker's friends are still renting and paying a lot more out to their landlord than she pays on her mortgage.

She has also set up a home-based business in her new house. She now works part-time and rest the time running her own very profitable little side-line. She told me that all her friends ask her questions like, “how did you manage to do it?”. She is still careful with her money and knows where every penny is going on exactly how much money is coming in and out of the household. She is also studying in her “spare” time to become a mortgage advisor and wants to the next property she buys to be a buy to let investment property.

Fortunately, both she and her husband have the same money philosophy and money mindset. They are prepared to practice delayed gratification - save now enjoy later, not spend now, pay later - for a better future for them and their family.

Is she worried about what’s going on the news, the global trade war, Brexit possible recession, NO! She’s getting on with her life and her business and hasn’t got time to spend hours watching the TV or read in the newspapers.

7 reasons why migrants prosper

  1. Migrants save Migrants live frugally within their means
  2. Migrants work hard
  3. Migrants are ambitious and frequently start their own businesses
  4. Migrants pay little attention to the news
  5. Migrants see opportunities where the natives say problems
  6. Migrants value education

You don’t have to be a migrant to follow these simple rules, do you? You can follow the 7 rules right where you are and start to prosper like a migrant.

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